Amey Zeigler's Blog - Posts Tagged "goals"

I like to write out goals every January, but by February, I've already forgotten them. Not this year. My family has a giant white board upstairs and we've written goals for our family as well as individuals. Know what I've got planned for 2020?

We made goals in four areas: physical, intellectual, social and spiritual (recognizing that we are dual beings).

For my writing goals, I couldn't decide where to put them and decided on intellectual since I learn so much while I write.

My 2020 goal is to submit three manuscripts to publication.

Why did I chose this?

Well, goals need to be independent of other's choices. Notice I didn't say three pieces accepted, hahah! Because really, that's out of my control. What I can work on is getting them ready to the best of my abilities and send them off to the world.

I'm turning in my first one this week. It's based on an idea from my publisher to write short "beach read" love stories having something to do with ice cream.

Well, when my daughter was almost twelve, we went to Alaska to visit my parents who were visiting some old friends there. (I used to live in AK when I was younger). While we were there, my dad wanted to go fishing in Seward, a small town at the mouth of Resurrection Bay. The scenery was classic Alaska--glacier blue water, stunning mountains jutting from the water, black pebble beaches, frolicking sea otters, majestic eagles, and lazy sea lions. One night, we went to the ice cream shop there and had ice cream. When my publisher issued a call for ice cream stories, I was like, I know exactly where I'm going to set this story. And I've loved it. So be on the lookout for #1 MS for this year Summer of Sundaes.

PS I also submitted some last year. August Blues finished the first round of edits this month. Should be out this year!

A new year is a good time to take a look back at the last year and make new goals for the coming. Here's a list of my author recap for 2021:

Published three books—two traditional published one (my first) self-published: August Blues, The Casserole Dish and Swiss Mistletoe and Macarons.
-was invited on two podcasts and one radio show
-Sewed eight quilt tops for charity
-went to my first Storymakers Conference
-was communication specialist for ^ conference
-won two Crowned Hearts of Excellence reviews for August Blues and The Casserole Dish
-earned one 5-star review for Swiss Mistletoe and Macarons from Long and Short Reviews.
-presented my first class at a conference for SMIAH
-went to my first Las Vegas 20booksto50k conference. Met some great writing friends
-won second place for Novella in BBB contest (Summer of Sundaes)
-took 318R from Dave Farland
-took a much needed vacation to Hawaii with the fam
-hit 4,446 on Amazon’s Kindle store with my self-published book The Casserole Dish

Things I'm looking forward to for 2022:
-presenting two classes at Storymakers Conference in May
-presenting two classes at Nebraska Writers Guild conference In April
-Wylder Bride release
-self-publishing a clean Biotech Billionaire trio
-self-publishing Late Bloomer
-Certainly Will Die (Bakers Dozen 2 mystery) publication
-writers retreat in February
(yes that's SIX new books new books for this year!)

Also, two awesome things that happened THIS WEEK:
Drum roll please....
The Swiss Mishap will be translated into Portuguese
AND...
I signed a contract for Wylder Bride to be an audiobook, narrated by Dawson McBride.

What were you proud of for 2021? What are you looking forward to in 2022?