Happy new year, everybody!

2017 was an interesting year, to be sure. It marks my first full year as a dad, as well as my first full year with the serious intention of writing a publishable work of fiction. Hopefully I succeeded in the first charge better than in the second.

(The cat’s tolerance of this show of affection expired about 4 seconds after the photo)

The demands of work surged rather unforgivingly in 2017, and several of my goals in the writing space were sidetracked. While I don’t expect that to change much in 2018, I do plan to compensate for it.

As the year closes, my NiP weighs in around 70K words, out of an estimated 300k (in this draft). While this is a great milestone in progress, it is also, relatively speaking, a long way from the finish line.

As I look ahead to 2018, there are a few things I’m eager to accomplish. What better way to commit than a new year’s resolution? I resolve to the following goals in 2018:

• In April, my wife is expecting our second son. I hope to make sense of life with two kids running around.
• I’d like to get back to the gym, or at least, feel guilty about not getting back to the gym.
• I’d like to finish the current draft of my NiP by mid summer, and send it for beta feedback to my inner circle of critters.
• I’d like to complete any rewrites, as well as a polish pass before year’s end, allowing me to begin either 1) submitting to traditional houses, or 2) sourcing covers and editors for self-publication.

My current draft began in early October, so I’ve managed 70K words in 3 months. To accomplish these goals, I’ll need to hit about 45K words/month through to July. This is aggressive — it will require about double the output, monthly, that I managed in December. While difficult, I do not think it is unreasonable.

With that, I am off! My posts have been (and will continue to be) rather intermittent, as I dedicate my writing time towards my novel, rather than my blog. Stay tuned for progress reports!

And happy new year, my friends!