2017 Year in Review

First of all, I’d like to know where the heck this year went.

Second of all, it’s time for my annual look back at my year in writing. I love doing this, because it helps me consolidate goals and reflections, and helps me put my thoughts in order for the new year of writing and publishing. I feel like I learned a lot this year – and even if it wasn’t all pleasant, most of it was useful. I accomplished a lifelong goal, and I feel positive and ready to attack 2018.

Books Published

Last December I came down with a cold that I couldn’t shake and which then turned into pneumonia. I was sick for six months, and for three of those I was more or less bedridden. Okay, immune system, let’s please not do that again! It put me so, so far behind in my writing, and rather than the five books I put out in 2016, I only had two full-length novel releases this year.

American Hellhound came out at the end of May, book six in the Dartmoor Series. I was sick the entire time I worked on this book, and that may be part of the reason why it instantly became my least favorite project ever. Some days I wrote five pages, some days I wrote five sentences, and I’ve never been so glad to type THE END in my life. (Actually, I hand-wrote it, because my eyes hurt so badly that looking at my computer screen for any length of time reduced me to tears.) Needless to say, I was thrilled Dartmoor readers seemed to enjoy it so much.

When I turned White Wolf loose at the end of October, I expected to sell three copies, and I didn’t even care. I was overjoyed. For a little girl fascinated by Lon Chaney Jr.’s tragic Wolfman, a pre-teen obsessed with all things Buffy, a high-schooler who was told to “keep it down” when my friends and I got too worked up about Underworld, writing a semi-realistic action/adventure book about all my favorite monsters was a dream I didn’t think I’d ever have the writing chops to complete. White Wolf is the project I’m most proud of, and the one I’m the most excited about continuing. Prior to release, I got to a point where I was receiving regular emails and messages from readers telling me they weren’t interested in this book, weren’t going to read it, or were sure it wouldn’t be as good as Dartmoor. I honestly can’t imagine ever sending that kind of email to an author, but I know that in this social media age of instant gratification, there’s a big attempt to control what, when, and how creators produce content. Those messages saddened me, but never once discouraged me. I kept going because I loved the project, not expecting it to sell well. But guess what: in its first month-and-half, it’s outsold the first month-and-a-half of every Dartmoor book I’ve ever released. So let the nay-sayers neigh – we’ve got epic adventures to go on.

Shaman was a late addition to the lineup. Ian’s story felt like the “newest” story in the possible Dartmoor follow-ups: something we hadn’t seen yet, whereas anything else would have felt like retreading old ground. While he’s one of my favorites, I don’t truly think anyone could have read a 400-page full-length book about him and enjoyed it – also, I didn’t want to invest that kind of time in a drawn-out, convoluted gangster plotline. The result is what I think is a short, sweet, punchy little story that finds some resolution for him and gets to showcase some of the other characters in a fun way.

Lessons Learned

This year reinforced some things I already knew. Things like: the book you’re excited about writing is the book you should be writing. Quality is always more important than quantity – White Wolf was a time-consuming effort, but a very worthwhile one.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Most of the time noise is just that – noise, and isn’t necessarily indicative of performance.

2018 Goals

Though the first half of my year was sluggish, I knuckled down the second half and put myself in a position where I’m feeling really confident about what lies in store for next year.

On the publishing front, I’m hoping to put out three full-length novels in 2018: Sons of Rome book two, Red Rooster, which I’ve been teasing on social media; Lean Dogs Legacy book three, Prodigal Son; and a third, as-of-yet untitled Sons of Rome book. If I can stay focused, stay healthy, and avoid distraction, I should be able to get those three manuscripts finished, and still leave room for surprise stories along the way.

As far as social media goes, I’m looking to increase my presence in my “Writers Gonna Write” FB group and plan to launch a free college-course style writing seminar series that will take us from 1000 to 4000 level writing lessons. Rather than the scattered posts of this year, this seminar will offer a more comprehensive look at writing in smaller, more manageable chunks that will hopefully have something to offer writers of all experience levels. That starts next week, so be on the lookout! As far as my other social media, I’ve learned this year that it’s important for me to use the web in the way that best suits my personality and creative process. Constantly scrolling and checking is a tempting distraction – but is also just that: a distraction, one that pulls focus from my work and makes me overall less productive. While I’ll still be answering questions and emails, one of my goals is to better utilize the FB scheduling function to manage posts, and to rely more heavily on the image-heavy, and user-friendly platforms of Instagram and Blogger, while dialing back on other platforms. In 2018, the best way to keep up with me on a daily, more personal basis will be via my @hppress Instagram account, but I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated across the board.

My other main goal for next year is to be more active: stepping up my workouts and dedicating more hours to spending time at the barn with the horses. I haven’t done much riding at all since I hurt my back, and I’m dying to get back in the saddle. All my best ideas are generated at the barn, and that’s going to be a big part of staying fresh and bright mentally this next year.

Thank You

I want to say “thanks,” as always, to my readers who’ve helped make this a very worthwhile year. I appreciate y’all’s reviews and kind comments more than I can say. And I want to say a special thanks to all my silent readers, all of you who keep me in notebooks and research material, who say so much by simply supporting an indie author like me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And thanks so much to everyone who gave White Wolf a chance. I’m thrilled to share this new adventure with you all.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy New Year! I can’t wait to see you all in 2018.