Happy 2007!

This is a little late, but like everyone else, I have New Year resolutions. Of course, I've already broken the first one, which was to post to my blog every Tuesday. Here it is Wednesday and I'm just now posting. Sigh. Where does the time go?

This blog may be going through a bit of a metamorphosis over the next few months. Now that I'm being published, I'm thinking my blog readership may change over time. Right now, it's weighted more toward things that interest writers, since most of the folks who read my blog are writers. But now that I may be getting some actual readers, it may begin to tilt in that direction. We shall see if I find a change in what folks are interested in. A lot of people are interested in writing even if they never become a professional writer, so I plan to continue including various articles and "A-Ha!" moments, anyway.

So, what are my resolutions for this year?
You already know the one that lays broken, face-down in the dust: to post a blog every Tuesday. What remains?

1. To continue writing like a mad-woman. I spoke to my agent to set our goals for the new year and I was pleased when she said, basically, to just keep doing what I'm going. Continue to write my Regency mysteries. As we build that up, the big guys in NY are sure to take notice... (This is actually very easy for me since I already have a fabulous inventory of Regency stories I just need to do final edits on, so--piece of cake.)
2. Learn to be a better writer. Take classes. Continue to read really first class authors and see how they do it. I'm particularly enamored of the Hard Case Crime books at the moment--so I'll probably get a few more of those and read them--for the purposes of research, of course!
3. Learn how to promote. I'm taking an online class right now on promoting your books, and I need to really get into this, big time. I want my books to sell! Because they do not contain explicit love scenes, I'm trying to figure out how to woo the librarians and get them to carry my books because they are more "family friendly" than other historicals at the moment. For some reason, historicals have become very risque as a genre, but the ones for the line I write for are still what is considered "sweet". There has to be a market for them...somewhere. We just need to tap into it and make sure they know about the Cotillion line. Unfortunately, this is one disadvantage to being published by a small press--you pretty much have to stir your stumps and do your own promotion. The big guys do some promotion for their folks (they also sell upwards of 40,000 copies versus the average 100-300 copies for small press, so the big guys can afford to promote) and they are carried in all the bookstores--so readers browsing the shelves can find them. Not so easy for us smaller guys who won't be sitting on the shelf in Wal-Mart to attract the impulse buyer.
4. Exercise. I mean it. I'm going to start exercising. Really.
5. Get the garden under control. It went wild last year. I'm going to try to regain control of at least 3 acres of it. We'll see who wins, me or Mother Nature. At least I've got Round-Up on my side. :-)
6. Learn everything there is to know about Microsoft Vista. Okay, that's for my day job, but I've got to do it so I'm making it a resolution.
7. Do housework. Yeah. Right.
8. Don't forget to keep in contact with your friends and enjoy yourself once in a while. This sounds like a no-brainer, but it's not as easy as you might think when you live miles away from anyone...but there *is* the Internet and failing that, the post office, so...no excuses.
9. Be Happy.

I'm going to stop at 9. I refuse to go to 10.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful New Year and are starting off 2007 with good cheer and a ton of extravagent resolutions they have every intention of breaking.

Cheers!