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2018 is going to be the year of “measurable progress.”  What does that mean?  Do I even know?  Keep reading.

Assigning an intention for the new year is a trend I’ve watched my friends and acquaintances participate in over the past couple of years.  Like the yoga practice this trend emulates, these intentions usually center around a word, like “2018 is going to be the year of less” (less stress, less stuff, less … whatever).  Or “in 2018, I’m going to spend more time reading actual books and less time on my cell phone.”  (<– That may be a thought that I’ve kicked around from time to time.)

I’d like to denounce this as a bunch of new age hooey, but I’ve been writing down my yearly intentions since 2015.

2015 was the year of networking.  And it was – at the tail end of 2014, I won the Hugh Holton Award for promising new writers from Mystery Writers of America – Midwest Chapter.  I decided to take that shiny designation and travel to Printers Row Literary Festival in Chicago that summer.  That’s where I met folks like Lori Rader-Day, Julia Lightbody, Clare O’Donohue, and Susanna Calkins. These writers have been incredibly generous with their time and their expertise over the past few years.  It was a weekend well spent.

2016 was the year of actual.  I actually finished a draft of Dragonfly.  I found out that a short story of mine was accepted for publication.  (It was also the year we lost Carrie Fisher and there was some election that occurred.  I’ve banished a lot of those memories to the darkest recesses of my mind, so … yeah.  That’s about all I have to say about that.)

It’s kind of tongue-in-cheek (but not really), but despite the aforementioned governmental tides of 2016, personally and professionally – 2017 was my year of awesome.  The recap is here.  Briefly, the runner-up for the Claymore award at Killer Nashville; my first publication; the connections I was able to foster over the year.  Incredible and invaluable.

What will 2018 bring?  I’ve started referring to 2018 as the year of measurable progress. Oh. God.  What the hell does that even mean?  This is what I’ve jotted down; in 2018, I want to:

• Create a sustainable / measurable writing routine.
• Finish edits to Dragonfly so I can start querying in earnest.

So, gut check:  I’m embarrassed when I think that I’ve been writing Dragonfly for an untold number of years.  (A quick check of my computer tells me that a first draft dates back to 2012-13.  I think it goes back even further than that …)  And I’m also embarrassed that I’ve been editing the damn thing for over a year now and that I’m not finished yet.  Now, keep in mind – editing isn’t an everyday occurrence and that’s probably my Waterloo.  But life gets in the way.  I’m a mom and I’m a worker bee in the everyday world.  I also happen to like my husband and do things like visit my family and read books.

I can understand when writing gets derailed by a puking kid that needs my attention or when work is crushing me with the deadlines that result in a paycheck.  But the tail end of that last paragraph?  All of those things are true – but they are also excuses that don’t take into account the fact I have more arcane knowledge stuffed in my head about the UK’s Royal family than is probably healthy.  (But may secure me a spot on “Jeopardy” someday.)  I can also tell you the unusual moniker belonging to Kim Kardashian-West’s youngest daughter.  Folks – I don’t even watch the Kardashians.  WHY DO I KNOW THAT KIMYE’S CHILD IS NAMED CHICAGO??

So 2018 is the year of measurable progress.  And yes, that means more books and less time scrolling on my phone.  It means using word trackers to try to gauge how many words I’m averaging a day and how I can increase my word count over the course of the year.  (J.T. Ellison is the author who turned me onto word trackers.  She also does an amazing job of doing an “annual review” that discusses the same things that I’m talking about here … a recap of the year before and action plans for the next.)

In terms of Dragonfly, it means that I’m aiming for the current round of edits to be done by April.  Then it goes to beta readers.  (And then I have to figure out what comes next … baby steps, people!)

I’ve also sketched out some goals and identified some potential opportunities I may want to pursue to help me achieve my publication goals for Dragonfly.  One of them is trying to consider whether I want to participate in Pitch Wars.  (Read more about PW here.)  Another is leveraging my existing writers group to polish some existing short stories that I have with the goal of finding homes for these stories – an ongoing attempt to make myself more marketable and attractive to future agents.

Measurable progress.  Not perfection, friends … because at the end of the day, we’re all only human.  But one foot in front of the other in achieving our goals and dreams.

Thanks for being part of my journey!

I’ve had a lot to be grateful for this year. And I’m especially grateful for my blog readers.  For my American readers, I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Oh my friends … yes, the official advent of fall is still a couple weeks away, but the weather has a delicious chill in it that makes me a proud owner of a down comforter.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks.  And my penchant for eating soup at any possible opportunity doesn’t seem so odd when a person needs something to warm their hands with.

Anyway – welcome to September.  Good stuff is abounding on the Interwebs, shall we?

If you’re an aspiring writer and want to know some of the ins and outs of landing an agent and the publishing industry in general, Janet Reid’s blog is one that you should bookmark.  Ms. Reid is an agent with New Leaf Literary & Media and frequently answers reader industry questions.  This blog is a freaking goldmine.  And this week, Reid had back-to-back posts that felt timely in my life.

First – how not to be a bonehead when promoting your book.  For a humble Midwesterner such as myself, most of what Ms. Reid made sense to me.  Unpersonalized email blasts are ineffective and somewhat rude.  But the idea I really liked was the idea of building a spreadsheet of people who have cheered you on during your publication journey and sending out a PERSONALIZED email to them upon your book’s publication?  As Reid writes: “… even if you spend 100 minutes doing 10 personalized emails you’ll reap more reward than if you spend 10 minutes doing a 100-person impersonal email blast.”

The second post regarding writers and business cards was even more timely coming off of my time at Killer Nashville. Do I have a business card?  You bet your boot heels I do.  And I distributed those babies around to EVERYONE I met.  But Reid has a brilliant nugget in her post, citing the writer who made business cards containing her contact information on the front.  And three lines describing the manuscript she was shopping around on the back.

Brilliant.

Reviews about the scariest clown to ever come out of someone’s imagination are abundant in the media right now, as “IT” comes to theaters. (And it features one of the Skargard brothers.  Swoon.)  Among all of that was a sweet blog post that one man wrote talking about the piece of writing advice that Stephen King gave him when the writer was a 10-year-old kid.

One final article I’ll leave you with today was this piece about Kyle MacLachlan in Esquire.  I was 12 or 13 when Twin Peaks originally came out on ABC and that show seared my mind with possibility.  I’m now 39 and watching “The Return” on Showtime reminded me a lot of the geek I once was and probably what a debt I owe to David Lynch for showing me that there are stories in the things happening under the surface of a small town. (And PS – Kyle MacLachlan has only aged like a fine wine.)

Alrighty, friends – that is all I have this week.  I hope that this finds you well wherever you are.

Things I learned this weekend:  Driving through the state of Illinois is a long, long, LOOOOOONG process.  Mystery author J.A. Jance is one of the most gracious human beings on the planet.  There are a lot of wonderful, gracious people on this planet.  I am a dork when it comes to public speaking situations where I’ve been caught off-guard.

I discovered the final lesson on Saturday, August 26th at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner when my unpublished novel was honored with first runner-up for the 2017 Killer Nashville Claymore Award.  The image on the left is the hardware, the image on the right is moi – I think this is the part of my speech where I declared my love for every Minnesotan in the room at the banquet.  (Surprisingly, there were several Minnesotans there.)

To say I was gobsmacked is a total understatement.  And while I wasn’t totally unprepared (I’m glad that I got to give some shout outs to the Sisters in Crime and to Mystery Writers of America), my time at the podium was a bit of an out-of-body experience.

The official list of 2017 award winners can be found here.  I am grateful to Clay Stafford and his team of staffers who put on the Killer Nashville conference.  It was an incredible experience and is a huge milestone in my writing career.

HA! I am so sorry that I’ve been MIA on my blog lately.  Maybe I need to know and plan on a summer hiatus in future years.  Maybe I need to be less lazy at curating my “Friday Fares.”  Or maybe I just need to leave you with a big pile of kittens:

Stay tuned … next week, I’m going to post about a recent accolade received for my unpublished manuscript.  And hopefully I’ll be organized enough to give you an update about all things fiction and otherwise.

Best,

Shelley

Man … it’s been awhile since I’ve written a post for Monday Mayhem.  Which basically translates to “I didn’t have time to write a post for Friday Fare, so I’ll play some catch up.”

A couple things I read this past week that I really enjoyed:

• Nick Cave.  His music is haunting.  His presence … I’d say it was indescribable, but I have a picture of him in my Pinterest, so it’s safe to say that Nick Cave will eventually inspire a character in my fictional world.
• This one comes from my dear friend and mentor, Jerry.
• Old Crow Medicine Show is re-imagining Bob Dylan’s iconic “Blonde On Blonde?”  I’m not throwing my money at them, but I am intrigued.  (For the record, I think that the OCMS concert I attended in 2015 is my favorite live music experience.)
• I’ve made these cookies three times.  They are that good.

Writing Life: I’m actually writing this blog post from my local library.  My husband had Saturday to get together with some of his friends and play board games (featuring a double batch of the above-mentioned cookies.)

So, I’m stealing today to try and make some progress on “Dragonfly” and catch up on some writerly things.  I’ve set some goals for how many chapters I want to work through per week.  Need to do some noodling on a couple characters.  All good things.

Wishing you a good week!

A dear friend of mine posted this on her Facebook page today.  Thought I’d share it here in lieu of a Book Dump:

Make it so, friends!