Homework Lesson One Assignment: Please Post Here

[caren gallimore]

At the start of 2015 we left our cozy home in Ohio and traveled to sunny and warm--we thought--St. Helena Island, SC where we rented a remote, very old caretaker's house located on the edge of an old plantation. Disastrous would be a little strong to describe the house, after all we did have our own private beach, but the house, furniture and appliances were ancient. There was also a robust family of chameleons living in the house which our two Labs enjoyed chasing and thankfully never caught. However, we'd paid our money and had to make the best of our two months.

Writing
I came prepared to work and brought my laptop, an almost finished manuscript and all the necessary files and data. I set up shop in the dining room and took over the table--we are casual and dine in front of the TV. I had gotten back my digital rights back to my first book, Maybe Too Good to Be True, and had released it in digital format and print and was comfortable with the process. Now I was in the final stages of working with my editor to get my second book, The Truth About Lilly, polished and released on Valentine's Day. My blog appearances were set and review tour was in place. Sales began slowly and stayed flat. I needed help but floundered beneath the weight of my insecurity. I built a new web site and took some marketing workshops and still felt overwhelmed and inefficient. Giving up never enters my mind. I began my third book that winter and made some good progress. When we returned home I fell off the "writing" wagon and still haven't finished the book. My goal was to release it this summer but I didn't stick to it.

Family and Relationships
Spending the winter in South Carolina had an added bonus of being a destination our friends and family could share with us. For two months we had a fairly steady stream of visitors which my husband and I really enjoyed. Our daughter and her husband were married last year before in Charleston and they spent a night there before coming to the beach house to see us.

Travel
Travel is one of my favorite things to do. My husband, daughter and I have gone to Chicago before Christmas for 20 years. We do Michigan Avenue and enjoy the sights and eat at our favorite restaurants. We also go to Green Bay, Wisconsin for several Packer football games. My husband really enjoys seeing all of his old school friends. In May we took our daughter on a cruise to Alaska (her husband is still in school or he would have gone too) and it was one of the best family trips we have ever taken.


Audience
My target demographic was women 40 to 60.

Health
I will just say that in 2015 I didn't get serious about losing weight and becoming more active. Now I have to do it to be around for my family.

2016

This is going to be a year of commitment and change. Last year I identified problems, this year I am finding solutions.

Writing
This year I am going to work hard to be more targeted and efficient. Currently I have one stand alone book, "Maybe Too Good To Be True" and "The Truth About Lilly" which is the first book in my Shores of Lake Champlain series. I plan to do a light rewrite of "Maybe" and make it book I of the series and change "Lilly" to book 2 in the series. When "Shadow" is completed it will come out as book 3. I plan to release my Christmas novella in November as a free prequel to the Shores of Lake Champlain series. My writing blocks of time are sacrosanct. I know the writing has to come first and the marketing second. I tend to over commit on workshops then stress about getting everything done. I have three going on now. After I finish two of them, I will be down to Irene's mentoring class.

Audience
I realize that my demo of women 40 to 60 is too broad. I will move towards two niche markets--small town living and dog lovers. I am going to make those two niches the focus of my blogs and become a frequent visitor and comment on Facebook pages about Labradors, pet rescues and small town festivals, events and small town life in general.

Family and Relationships
I am going to be a grandmother late this summer and am filled with pure joy. What better reason to get healthy so I can keep up with an active child. My best friend in NOrth Carolina has just become a grandmother and is bringing me up to speed on what her life is like now. Our extended family is spread all over the country from Seattle to Chicago to Jacksonville, Florida. I want to get around to seeing all of them this year. Two of them have health conditions which prevent them from traveling, so it's up to me to make the trip. We live 100 miles from our children and I would like to be closer. Not sure if I can inspire my husband to make that decision.

More inspiration!

 

[AnneP]

I apologize for the lateness of my assignment. I'm recovering from whatever my grandkids brought to me at Christmas, but it was worth it to have them with us for a week.

Looking back on 2015, I realized how far I've come. I began last year believing I would never finish the remodeling project and get the Wisconsin house on the market, but we did in July and sold it in three days. That left us with the conundrum of preparing for the move to Tennessee and finalizing our building plans. We had purchased six wooded acres in the rolling hills of south central Tennessee in January of 2013, but we decided to wait until the market recovered somewhat before selling our house in Wisconsin. By 2015, we were beginning to believe it wasn't going to happen. But it did. We ended 2015 living in our camper on our property in Tennessee, and watching the slow building of our new home. We had a lot of delays from the construction loan to the rainy season setting in. However, by the end of the year, we have the basement poured and the blocks going up for the wall. Our dream home is on its way.

I took several online classes, but had difficulty with staying power in them. I let my writing aspirations fall between the cracks and then I took Irene's course, 7 Habits for Committed Writers, and had my aha moment. Without goals and direction my writing was only dreams. So, I decided to take the plunge and join this group to commit 2016 to setting goals and making my dreams come true.

For 2016, I have set the following goals:

Family and Relationships -
Stay in touch with my children through our group texting my husband set up;
Write my six grandchildren, ages almost 8 to 15 months, and send them little things that say I remember you regularly. I want to send out something to each of them at least once a month;
Email my friends, especially my writing friends, regularly and call them often;
Visit my best friend, who lives an hour away, each week (Being close to her is one of the reasons we moved here.);
Most importantly, begin my day with my husband. Having coffee, watching the birds outside our window at our bird feeder, and talking about what we want to do each day.

Financial -
Set a budget with my husband, Ray, and stick to it (definitely something I will have to work hard at)

Reputation and Audience -
Blog weekly on topics related to writing and all things Southern (I'm originally from South Carolina and I'm enjoying being home again.);
Something something of interest on Facebook daily relating to the South or my writing.

Volunteer work -
I'm on a bit of a hiatus from volunteerism, having spent a large portion of the past ten years in leadership roles with WisRWA from president to secretary to conference chair to category coordinator of our FabFive contests. So, I'm limiting my volunteer roles this year to working as a category coordinator for FabFive only. I want to focus on my writing career this year without too many distractions.

Writing vision -
I will set goals and follow through this year;
Assess where I am now, where I see myself in a month, six months, a year, etc.
Evaluate my goals weekly and monthly to see what is working and where I need to make changes.

Spirituality -
I've drifted away from the church over the past ten years. Since it was an important part of my life for a long time, I want to reconnect with a church in the area.

I look forward to this year and working with each of you.

 

[Kathleen McRae]

These are EXCELLENT posts! You are a wonderful group, with whom I feel very fortunate to write.

For 2015, I didn’t reach many writing goals. Personal Goal of Survival with a year of increasing family needs—made it! Also DID survive the near-daily Voice that demanded I focus on nonfiction if I’m going to write at all and forget the fiction. When that Voice segued into, Well, at least forget fiction for now… you can always return to it… I listened and modified my approach. Took the hint, returned to writing nonfiction BUT...er, AND... continued with fiction by modifying my teaching schedule. This also puts me in a nice spot to return to writing a monthly picture book, another thing I abandoned in the middle of 2015.

For 2016, I will put my writing first, respecting fiction writing as much as my nonfiction assignments, behaving as a professional writer. Along with Production (focusing on how much I can create), I will pay attention to the aspects that strengthen and increase my productivity, i.e. Sharpen the Saw actions of Write-Away weekends, mentoring opportunities with romance editors, beta reading, deconstructions, and continued membership in RWA and local chapters.

Outside of writing, my STS (Sharpen the Saw) activities: quilting, increase the number of themed t-shirt quilts for charity auctions, try line illustration again with goal of incorporating it into fabric craft illustration. Continue with November 2015's Bootcamp 5x/week, and complete the 26 week Mary-thon for weight loss & health & friends time.

So, meet my goals, but still... around family, and family needs. Because, to be honest, it wouldn’t matter if I made the NYT Bestseller list if my family was hurting or in trouble health or finance-wise. Writing is a priority for my time, but not for my Life, if that makes sense. I want to write, so very much so, but the people in my life—all of whom greatly respect my writing time and cheer my efforts—are still my Priority.

I have learned so much from others in this group about how to "do it" and "do it easier" regardless of what's on the list.

Not fancy but done!