Thank you for a wonderful year!

An entire year has come and gone and we are on the brink of a new decade.

It seems like an especially shiny new start with 2020. We not only get to plan out 2020, but we can start anew and plan out our next ten years.

With a decade before us, I have been thinking about where I want to be in ten years. The last decade has gone from me recently moved to Washington State, choosing in 2009-2010 to focus on my writing, followed by my first publication in 2014, the same month I had my first child, and back to Alaska later that year, followed by pursuit of self-publishing in late 2017 and a shift from women’s fiction to fantasy fairy tale in 2018/2019.

A lot has happened in this last decade, not just for me, but in the world in general.

But I’m pleased to say that I feel I’m ending 2019 on a high note.

I JUST received news today that I got an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest self-published ebook awards. I’m so pleased. I mean, it’s Writer’s Digest. So even though I received my first public, 1-star review of a book I wrote this past week, I also received an honorable mention from Writer’s Digest for that very same book.

It feels authentic to receive those mixed signals, a true tribute to the past year and decade and start of my writer’s journey.

And a reminder of what will inevitably come. Some people will not connect with my words. Others will. All I can do is control what I put out there and offer the highest quality work I can. So although this year has been up and down, and the decade has had its highs and lows, I feel like I’m ending in an authentic manner.

In light of the new decade though, I’ve been trying to plan my next year (and decade). So I’ve been Googling how to make goals and whatnot, and I was reminded about the SMART acronym.

Make a SMART goal: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

There’s more information on the web if you’re interested, as I’m not going to go into those aspects here. But I personally focus on making goals hard but attainable. That means I have some pretty big goals on my list for the next decade, but they should be attainable if I work wisely.

Of course, I have to keep some record of the goals. (No writing them down on the brink of 2020 and having them disappear into the ether.) I think the best thing is to have them in several spots. Put them in my Mac’s calendar, but also in my blog and my bullet journal. Make sure I don’t lose sight of the things I want to achieve.

But achieving goals goes beyond just keeping record of them. You have to make them attainable as well. And for that, you need to look at each goal individually.

Step number one: break a big goal into many smaller goals.

If I do that, my big goals like publishing a series or becoming a bestselling author are something that I can actually accomplish. They become a series of small steps that are easier to accomplish and less overwhelming.

Here's my list of 2020 goals:

- publish 2 novels

- publish 4 short stories

- pick up running longer distances again

- promote my books (including backlist) with paid promotions 4-5 times

- finish writing a co-authored book

But in the next decade, some of the major things I want to do are:

- publish 10 novels (Some include books 3 & 4 of the Canens Chronicles, as well as a women’s fiction standalone, Broken Time)

- publish 20-30 short stories

- write a bestselling book/story

- figure out marketing myself as an author

- run a half marathon

- run the Gold Discovery run (16.5 mi)

- build or buy our forever home

- finally build my own office

- travel to Europe as a family 1-2 times

- travel to Europe alone 2-3 times

Some things I want to accomplish in the next few years are going to be hard. Running another half marathon (post two kids this time). Publishing additional novels. Becoming a bestselling author. Those are things that require time and effort spent before you get there. None of those things happen overnight, even though it sometimes seems like it to the rest of us.

But I’m working on it. And I’m always a work in progress, just like my writing projects.

I’ve got a lot on my plate for 2020 and the years that come. But I’m going to focus on getting these things done and being the best wife, mother, and author that I can be.

God bless your 2020.