2022 Highlights and 2023 Goals

Image by Speedy McVroom from Pixabay

A few days after Christmas I was bundled up in the family room on a quiet, cloudy morning, listening to the rain. I’d been working through some plot issues in my latest murder mystery and there was a scattering of Post-it notes on my lap. After an hour or so of scribbling plot points and sticking them onto a tri-fold poster board in an effort to see the bigger picture, I brushed them aside to work on a blog post. It’s my favorite time of the year to do so, the time I get to look back, and then look ahead. 

2022 was a long period of adjustment for me. I began my career as a classroom teacher and learned new ways to write, in necessarily smaller slices of time. Like every year, I felt I didn’t do enough, until I paged through my journals and wrote down my accomplishments on one single sheet of paper. The bigger picture, once you can see it clearly, always tells a different story. Here are some highlights of my year and a few goals for 2023:

2022 Highlights

I published the book of my heart, fulfilling a promise I’d made in January to release The House on Linden Way in print and ebook by July. Later in the summer I took Linden Way on a virtual tour that included several interviews, articles, and this essay, which I’m quite proud of. 

I had two micro pieces, “Windows” and “Then,” published in Fractured Lit and Five Minute Lit, respectively. “Windows” would go on to earn a nomination for Best Microfiction award, while one of my 2021 publications, “Transient,” was nominated by Reservoir Road for a Best American Essay.

My beloved fall writing workshop, Mothers Who Write, returned in person for the first time since 2019. I wrote six new pieces, all part of a larger project I’ll talk more about soon.

When yet another online lit mag shut down, taking several of my pieces with it, I followed through with a goal to record readings of my orphaned essays and post them to YouTube. 

I celebrated ten consecutive years as a published writer and finally (finally!) updated my website with new author photos.  

I (barely!) completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge and read 52 books. More on that below.

2023 Goals

I don’t often publicly declare writing goals, as I’ve found that keeping my projects to myself helps me to finish drafting them. Other goals for 2023 include: 

Self-publishing my short story collection, What Was Never There. I’m so excited for this! What Was Never There is my second book, which I began in 2015. It includes several previously published stories as well as unpublished stories, and just WAIT until you see the gorgeous cover!

Publishing at least one piece in a literary mag. Traditional book publishing is no longer a goal of mine, but traditionally publishing my short work is still important to me; the online lit mag community remains interesting, supportive, joyful, and creative, and I hope to stay part of it. 

Reading 30 books. For the first time since joining the Goodreads Reading Challenge in 2014, I am adjusting my goal. I’ve always set it at 52, and that was fine for all the years I worked part-time, but now that I’m a teacher I find myself avoiding books longer than 300 pages just to keep up. That’s silly, of course, so for 2023 I’ll shoot for an average of two books per month rather than four. 

Speaking of which, it is now New Year’s Day, and once again I find myself bundled up on a rainy day—perfect for reading. Time to get started on that Goodreads challenge! Happy 2023, everyone.