Day 19 – Advent Calendar and Kindle Giveaway

NOTE: 9 AM PST ON DECEMBER 21ST IS THE CUT-OFF TIME FOR ENTERING THE KINDLE CONTEST.

Happy December 19th! The Kindle contest only has a couple of days left. Here's how it works: you nominate a friend/family member/coworker/etc. who you think needs a Kindle (tell us why they need/deserve one!) I'll be collecting entries until 9 am PST on December 21st and then a winner will be chosen and the person nominated and the one who nominated them will both receive a Kindle! You only have to nominate a person once but you can nominate different people on different days if you want to. All you have to do to enter is comment on one of the Advent Calendar posts between now and then. But there are also daily giveaways of cool stuff too! Daily winners will be selected from that day's comments.

Yesterday's winner of an Ebay gift card is Emma. Congratulations! To enter today's giveaway, just comment below. Today I'm talking about my New Year's Resolutions. Today's winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to another of my favorites: iTunes.

2011 is fading and 2012 is nearly upon us. I can't quite believe it. I've been working on my list of resolutions for 2012. Some of them are professional and some are personal. I thought it would be fun to let everyone in on what they are. Let's face it, the more people who know, the more likely I am to stick by them. So, here goes.

1. Write 1,000,000 words in 2012. That's a little less than double what I wrote this year. Just for some perspective, my fairy tales run around 45,000 words, Psalm 23 Mysteries run around 75,000 words, and Crusade books run around 105,000 words.

2. Update my website with new blog posts at least three times a week. Easier said than done. To help me I'm going to try to instigate three new topics that I address weekly. I call them Movie Monday, Writing Wednesday, and Fun Friday.

3. Write a series of essays about the writing process. (These will appear as Writing Wednesday blog entries.)

4. Create a short film and take it to a film festival. I already know what I want to do, I just have to make it happen. (I'll talk about this process on Movie Mondays.)

5. Try something new and/or fun once a week. I don't take enough downtime and it can make me a bit crazy. (Fun Fridays…I'm sensing a trend.)

6. Host a Book of the Month Club. This will be a virtual club hosted on my website where we can discuss individual books that I (or other authors) have written. Include fun giveaways as part of this.

7. Spend more time on social networking sites. I want to increase my presence on Facebook and Twitter and hopefully triple my friends and followers along the way.

8. Send out a newsletter each month. (Don't forget to sign up on the homepage if you haven't already.)

9. Host a party at a convention I attend. (I could use some suggestions in this area.)

10. And finally, the practically obligatory "lose 20 pounds".

What do you think? Can I succeed in these goals? What are your New Year's Resolutions?