Happy New Year from Ruth and Anne!
It’s been a great year here at the blog. We’ve had wonderful guests who’ve written posts on everything from the nuts and bolts of Becca Puglisi’s how to write a “redeemable” villain to Jim Denney’s inspirational piece on why AI is not going to replace human creativity. Ruth hit it out of the park with her piece on Radical Revision, and lots of you weighed in on my post on Amazon’s removal of the “Look Inside” feature.
We have some exciting plans for the new year. In January, literary agent Laurie McLean, founder of Fuse Literary and director of the San Francisco Writers’ Conference is going to take her annual look into her crystal ball to give us publishing predictions for the new year.
And in February, we’ll have a visit from author and retired FBI agent Ken Strange, who will set us straight on some of the things writers get wrong about law enforcement.
Anne is planning to finish her latest Camilla mystery, The Hour of the Moth, and finally get started on her book on Stupid Writing Rules.
Ruth has some great plans too, but at the moment, she is down with the flu. She’s hoping Christmas cookies will be the miracle cure science has been searching for.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
Women’s fiction meets cozy mystery in the Big Apple.
WHEN BILLIONAIRES BREAK BAD.
When the oh-so-dead body of a celebrity Mad Man washes up on East Hampton’s Billionaires’ Beach, PR whiz Blake Weston and her handsome, sexy, ex-cop husband must spend the summer in the fancy-pants resort to find out what — or who — killed Jay Caruso.
Was it his wife?
Which one?
“Ruth Harris’s light, breezy style perfectly captures the characters who frequent this up-scale summer resort. She’s also brilliant at poking fun at their high-end toys like a huge hi-tech stove that neither Blake nor Ralph can figure how to work without the help of the housekeeper; and a “silent” dishwasher that blows up.”...Joanna Elm
Happy new year 2024 to my favorite blog and wishing you more success and grow.
Ingmar–Many thanks!
I’m in the middle of a draft (really the last 1/4) I hope to finish in January. Then while it rests, I hope to draft a different story, and then revise my current draft. I haven’t decided on my next story idea, though.
Tonya–Sounds like a good plan. That new story will pop into your head when you’re not thinking about it and your attention is on something else. At least that’s what happens with me.
Happy New Year to you both, Anne and Ruth. I hope Ruth is very soon up and energized — cookies are certainly the answer!
Y’all make my Sundays shine — no matter the time of year. Hope winter is gentle but not too dry and 2024 brings everyone new positive challenges and triumphs!
Maria–Ruth is still working on those cookies. 🙂 Many thanks!
Hi Anne & Ruth,
About a month ago I took a writing calendar workshop with Christine Carron of GoodJelly.com. She’s a project manager & writer who appeared here on your blog a couple years ago. My hopes are to use the tools she taught in the workshop to apply my annual goals to each month & week through the year. I’m confident her take on calendaring will help me be more focused & productive this year.
Thanks for asking!
CS–Christine wrote us a great post about how to deal with negative critiques. She certainly provides a positive outlook. I’m sure she helps writers be more focused and productive.
Happy 2024, Anne and Ruth! I’m publishing 2 books in my sweet beachy romance series and writing a connected short story as a reader magnet for my newsletter. Kinda excited-:D
Cat–Ooooh. Big plans. They sound like good ones. A connected short story works great as a reader magnet.
Happy New Year to you both and thank you for the many insightful and clever posts last year. You’re everyone’s #1 source for moral support and useful advice. May 2024 be your best year yet.
Carmen–Best of luck in the new year to you too! Thanks for the kind words.
I hope both of you have a fabulous 2024. And I thank both of you for your very, very helpful posts throughout the years. My 10th book is in the editing process then I am going to look for an agent. Good luck with that!!
Patricia–With 10 books under your belt, you ought to be able to find an agent. Best of luck!
Dear Ruth, Christmas cookies may not be the miracle cure, but if you feel better BECAUSE you are eating them, then they are likely an important part of the prescription.
Anne, stay well. Ruth needs the support right now. (I know you will!)
My writing goals for 2024 aren’t specific. I will keep plugging away at my historical novel about Nicodemus, one of the Jewish council that tried Jesus of Nazareth. I’m having a blast with that, and new tidbits of information that add depth to the story come across my desk at least once a week, usually more often.
And I am determined to wake up a non-fiction work that I began in 2019, about police families surviving line-of-duty deaths. It went into hibernation when the rest of the world did, too. With everything closed up, I couldn’t do interviews or in-house research (much of the material is on microfilm), so now I must pull the starter cord and get that going again.
I do need to get focused on the billable aspect of my time, so I’ve been cleaning up the desk these past couple of weeks and have found that there is one under the piles of books, yellow stickies, notepads, client files, and so forth. Sometimes progress is incremental, but that beats the alternative.
I suppose all this means that I won’t be twiddling my thumbs anytime soon. And that’s the way I like it! Cheers!
Sally–No thumb-twiddling for you! Those are some big ambitions. Your historical novel sounds fascinating. And the police families book is probably much needed. Best of luck with both of them. (And the desk cleaning. I must do that. But it’s so daunting…)
A healthy and prosperous 2024, ladies (and to your followers). Sure, I’ll share what I’m up to over the next year, or probably two plus. I’m working on a 26-episode series titled City Of Danger. If anyone would like a peek, it’s here: https://dyingwords.net/city-of-danger/
Now after that shameless bit of self-promotion, I have a few comments on AI. I’m all for it being used as a tool, especially research. Creativity… meh. That’s a long way off, IMHO. I’ve regularly used ChatGPT 3.5 as a research aid for the past year, and I find it most useful once you get used to how it operates.
Here’s a use tip. Get it going in a thread discussion say about black holes or something simple like that. Keep asking it questions and get it to drill deep. Once you sense it’s run out of information on that topic, ask it to sum up the thread in one paragraph. Then ask it to sum up in one sentence. Finally, ask it to sum up the whole conversation in one word. You might find what it says quite amazing.
Garry–Your City of Danger series looks fascinating. AI as the villain is something I think we can all relate to. We’re all pretty scared of it. Thanks for the tips on how to use it. I haven’t ventured there yet. My friends keep telling me I’m being an old fogey.
Since 2024 will probably be my final year of writing, I’ve asked my readers to vote as to which series they want me to write.
DB–Your last year of writing! I hope that doesn’t mean anything awful about your health. Very clever to ask your readers which series they want more of.
A very happy New Year’s to you and Ruth.
My writing goals are rather modest for next year.
I want to finish my now four volume fantasy series, apply one massive round of edits before shelving it for the rest of the year.
I also two novellas I want to publish this year, with one that I would like to get out in the early Spring.
I’m sure I have a few others in the pipeline, but this what my planned schedule is.
GB–I’d say those are some formidable goals! One novel and two novellas. Best of luck with them all!
Happy New Year to you both.plan onn
Your writing goals sound good.
I hope to publish the second part of my one poem a day book, July to December in January. I also plan on releasing the fourth novella on the prequel to my Wolves of Vimar series as well as book 4 in that series.
I have started book 3 in my historical novels series, and hope to finish that, at least in the draft phase before the end of the year.
Vivienne–I didn’t know you were a poet! The 2-part poetry book sounds awesome. And you’re going to write two novellas and finish a historical novel! Those are going to keep you pretty busy!
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to reading more of what you share in 2024. In 2024, I will be working on my many writing projects while I review books and share some of the stories I write on my blog. Let’s make 2024 a productive and happy year.
Leanna–Reviewing books as well as writing them–and keeping up your blog. It will be a busy year! Happy 2024!
Thank you Leanne for your list of book review bloggers. Nice blog too!
Happy new year (from the future)! And a get well soon for Ruth.
My writing goals are:
Radically changing my process to finally include what I‘ve learned about how I work. For example, I love extensive outlining but hate big-chunk-editing, so I will outline the heck out my new books before I write. I also have trouble changing gears, so I will experiment with outlining several books in a new series at once, then write them, then edit. I also hope to better handle my crippling case of precrastination with these.
Continue working with new like-minded friends for accountability, support and creativity. So far, it‘s working better than expected.
Read a writing guide a month.
The year is long, so we‘ll see 🙂
Tina–Outlining several books before you write them! That’s what James Patterson does, apparently. I hope it works as well for you. Keeping at one thing when you’re on a roll is probably an excellent plan. Getting support from writing friends is crucial. Only other writers understand. Best of luck!
Thank you Anne. I’m excited about writing again, so it’s already working better than before.
Edit to my above comment: I meant prOcrastination. The opposite would be great…
Tina–I figured out that was a typo. But I did take a moment thinking about what prEcrastination would be. 🙂
Happy New Year!!
Thank you for more useful and reader-friendly content. Yours is my always-read blog. My goal for 2024 is to finally finish (and trim) my Vietnam Era love story. Funny, when I first started writing it, it wouldn’t have been considered Historical Fiction but now it is. That’s how old I am.
My debut novel is due out on April 2nd so when I’m not working on the prior I will be pursuing the marketing end of publishing, which isn’t nearly as much fun. I have to remind myself that I’m not hawking snake oil.
Finally, I use the sample feature all the time on Amazon but I pledge to use independent bookstores more in 2024 and have happily discovered a few within driving radius.
Thanks again for this forum.
Yvonne–I try to use independent bookstores when I can. But I mostly read books on my Kindle, so I give Bezos money. Sigh. But for gift books, I always use our local indie stores. A Vietnam Era love story will appeal to a lot of Boomers, as well as people who like historical romances. Sounds like a good project. And congrats on your novel’s debut on April 2nd!
And a very happy new year and best of luck, health and success to you, Anne and Ruth! I am particularly looking forward to the publishing predictions on your blog. Let’s see what the crystal balls have in store for us authors in 2024!
As for myself, I will be publishing my first full-length novel in English this year, plus my fourth novel and my first audiobook for the German-speaking market. I am not sure I can still squeeze in a few short stories that I had already planned to start on in 2023, but maybe I can carve out a few minutes while the long texts are with the editors. All systems go!
Thanks a lot for your neverending supply of advice and help!
Birgit
Birgit–I am so much in awe of people who can write in more than one language! Your plans sound pretty ambitious. I hope you can squeeze those stories in.
Thank you for your kind words, Yvonne.
Anne, Ruth, may 2024 heap upon you blessings unnumbered (and a quick cold cure). I finished the first novel in a fantasy trilogy in 2021 and began the second in 2022. Then, in about October of 2022 I lost faith in the book and the part of the story I was working on. I stopped writing that, my blog, everything. I like to write erotic short stories just for fun, and I stopped that, too. But in mid-December I began to get my mojo back, and I plan now to finish that book in 2024, and maybe event start volume three. We haven’t had even a very minor writing conference around here lately, but I’m planning to visit one of the many writing conferences in Minnesota in the spring. And, of course, read every edition of your blog.
Fred–I’m glad to hear you got your mojo back! I hope you push through that block in book #2 and get going on #3! And yes, a writing conference is one of the best ways to energize your muse! I hope you find a good one.
Happy New Year. I look forward to more great posts to read right here. Hope Ruth feels better.
Susan–Many thanks! All the best to you in 2024!
Lovely to read all these comment! I signed a two book plus option on another deal for The Merry Widow Murders series, and am facing deadlines!! Publisher edits on The Silent Film Star Murders coming shortly to me, and am counting months until The Pharaoh’s Curse Murders manuscript is due. Have to finish the darn thing because I’ve already received half the advance for the deal. These are books 18,19 and 20, so you think I’d be calm about it all. I’m not. Nothing is guaranteed in this business, and it’s almost like you’re only as good as your last book. So you can never relax. Still, I love writing, so that makes it worthwhile. Doesn’t it? (Ruth, hope you feel better asap!)
Melodie–Congrats on the two book deal and best of luck with the edits and writing the Pharaoh’s Curse. You are going to be busy! They all sound like such fun. Lots of work for you, but lots of fun reading for me. 🙂
Admittedly, I haven’t set any goals yet – living on the fly, lol. Wishing you both a wonderful new and creative year! 🙂 <3
Debby–Sometimes pantsing it is the path to creativity. I hope the muse visits you often this year.
Happy New Year, and here’s hoping Ruth feels better soon.
As for my goals I’ve been head-hopping, no not in my writing but between 3 different WIPs and not being able to settle on one. I’m a little over 20K words in my space opera, about 17K into a PNR, and 9K into a follow up novella for my 4 book series. Decisions. Decisions.
I’ve even thrown around the idea of giving up writing altogether, but then a character thumps me on the head, rather rudely I might add, and refuses to leave me alone.
In any case, one day at a time. Go with the flow, whatever that happens to be. It’s the best I can do, and that’s okay.
Brenda–Good luck making those decisions. Isn’t it silly when people say they’re afraid you’ll steal their ideas when you’ve got so many ideas you can’t keep up with them? And yes, sometimes characters will stalk you. They won’t let you shove them in a drawer. It sounds like you have a creative year ahead!
Many thanks for another year of stellar posts, Anne and Ruth!
Feel better soon, Ruth. I’d be glad to Fedex you my special Chinese chicken soup. A good doctor friend swears it cured her breast cancer and Covid. 😉
Wishing you both a healthy productive new year!
Debbie–Oooh–that chicken soup sounds awesome! I do think chicken soup makes everything better. Happy 2024 to you!
Happy New Year, ladies!
Ruth — Hope you feel better soon. My husband and I just recovered from Covid, and some symptoms are lingering (sinus stuff).
Anne — Good luck with your goals!
I just listed mine on TKZ, so please excuse the repetition if you read my comment there.
I have more than one goal (hate the word resolution), but they are all achievable because I know how to get from point A to B without killing myself. Work hard, yes, but I can realistically complete each goal.
1. Hold audio auditions on ACX by the end of February (I already have two narrators interested, and haven’t formally announced it yet).
2. Re-format the entire Mayhem Series in Atticus and publish in large print & hardcover through Ingram (I’ve allowed all year to complete the backlist, picking away at one book at a time in the afternoons after I write). This will work two-fold, as it allows me to add details to the series bible.
3: Write & publish books 9, 10, and 11. Three novels may sound like a lot, but I wrote three last year, so it’s achievable for 2024. Plus, I’m already past the halfway mark for book 9, so it’s really 2 1/2. If I break it down farther, it’s only one novel every 4-5 months. Totally doable.
4. Learn to say “No” more. I’m maxed out on permanent blogging commitments (just joined another group writing blog, which makes three plus my site). The one exception is guest blogging opportunities.
Sue–I like “goals” as well. Goals are positive, while resolutions are often about negative stuff you want to eliminate. Wow. Those are some ambitious goals. Auditions and formatting are doable, but three books? Well, if anybody can do it, you can. Learning to say “No” is hard. I had to do that when I went into the hospital 3 years ago. Now I think people are reluctant to ask me for interviews and guest posts. I had to drop my second blog and never got it going again. Maybe I can do that this year.
You’re welcome on my blog or TKZ anytime, Anne. Consider this an open invitation.
Sue–Thanks for the invite. I’ll want to take you up on it when my book launches. 🙂
You are so right! Panster it is! 🙂
I’m a total newbie author. Just finished the first draft of my first novel over Christmas so this year I hope to:
– Get the first novel polished as much as I can, then cajole some beta readers into reading it. I’ve got a few people lined up – but it does tend to be friends volunteering their partners without asking them.
– Once beta-ed then polish more and call it done. Not sure what I’ll do with it then. Perhaps put it in for a few competitons. Not sure I’m up for querying yet.
– I’d like to get a second novel underway towards the backend of the year.
– Develop my blog more – just enjoying writing about writing at the moment..
– I should try to network with other authors, but that may involve communication with human beings which isn’t a strength. In my day job I’m a software dev and we are actively encouraged to stay quiet and are hidden from public view. We prefer it like that.
Other than that – bring up a daughter, mow the lawn, chit chat with my wife and exchange labour for money. I think that’s about it.
Great blog btw – really into in. Thanks for doing it.
Happy New Year! My plans are to write my horror novel and publish by the end of the year (I’m self-publishing). Tell Ruth I hope she is well soon. <3
Michelle–You have great plans that are also doable. Best of luck! I know you’ll do well with that platform!