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Happy New Year 2015

It has been way too long since my last post. That’s something I’ll have to correct in 2015.

Well 2014 has come to a close and we’re all looking forward to the new year. It is a good time to look back and ahead to see where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Resolutions for 2015 seems the next step but I don’t generally do well with resolutions. Its semantics but I’ll continue to call them goals and mine are not that different this year from last. I wanted to increase my time spent writing and growing in my craft. That I did, having attended two conferences in 2014.

Southampton Children’s Literature Conference 2014 (Picture Book )

Both the Southampton Picture Book Conference and the Highlights Foundation Conference were paramount in helping me continue towards my writing goals. I’ll continue this goal maybe stretching it a bit to include devoting more time to submissions. After all, my long-term goal is to be a published picture book author.

I have gone out on a limb of sorts in that I’m working on producing a picture book app. In the new Digital Age, I searched my manuscripts for a story that I thought could work as a children’s interactive app. I then found a fantastic illustrator who created beautiful drafts to my text. The drafts were wonderful and helped put wind in my sail and get me moving on the project. So much to learn, but oh the fun of learning…

Back to 2015 goals. Usually, if I write them out then I’m bound to them and have a better chance of getting close to competing them so here goes.

2015 Goals:

Update this blog on a more regular basis
I will work more on making time for my writing
I will work toward submitting to publishers
I will complete work on the book app
I will attend more writing events

Of course these are only my writing goals and that’s all I’m going to share. If I am able to work successfully on these – any other goal I may have should also be withing my reach.

Creativity

I’m not at all used to this blogging thing. I like being able to share what I’m doing and keep myself, if no one else is reading these, on track and motivated.

I’ve moved myself forward and decided to publish one of my picture book manuscripts as a book app. Yea, an app from someone who is just getting into blogging. Why not? I’ve never been one to pass up a good challenge. Especially one where I’ll be learning – and believe me, I am.

The manuscript went through several rounds of revisions, six I think. I completed my book dummy and all of this was with the intention of a traditional book venture. Then it hit me, why not try this as a book app? With all the new technology for iPads, E-readers, and Androids moving so fast this seems like a good time to jump in.

Next steps.

Not sure what the traditional next steps are, but as it happens I know a fantastic illustrator and when I asked him if he would be interested in working on my project he agreed. Done. Just that fast. He completed several pencil sketches last week and I could not have been more excited. To see the illustration to my words on paper was nothing short of thrilling. I was inspired to get back to my desk. I’ve got a lot of learning to do to get the app completed. Once I get those points covered, I’ll set myself a timeline and post the milestones. Keep reading!

Procrastination

I know I need to sit down and write. I just don’t have the ideas, the mental thoughts or passion to do so today. What did I do instead? I canned a batch of Carrot Cake Jam, from scratch. Local carrots were huge! Local pears were so sweet, I doubled up on them and reduced the sugar. Looking on the bright side, I have several Christmas presents all done and ready to wrap. On he negative side, i lost a day at my desk. At the very least, I jotted down a couple of ideas and sent email replies. Not a total waste of a day, but not my best writing session by any means,

I’ll begin again tomorrow and aim for a better result.