Meredith Mansfield, Author

Well, technically, it’s still 2018. But it’s that time of the year to look back and see how I did against the goals I set up for this year.

First Goal: Publish BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING.

Achieved.

Second Goal: Finish and publish BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM.

Even though this technically releases on January 2nd, that was a choice I made based on other factors. It could just as easily have been published this week and it is available for pre-order. Therefore, I’m counting this one as achieved, too.

Third Goal: Start the rewrite of MAGE STORM.

Since the goal was only to start, I get to count this one as achieved, too.

Fourth Goal: All the annoying housekeeping-type things:

• Complete the migration off of Pronoun and either back to Kindle Select (the four or five books mentioned in my last post) or onto Draft 2 Digital for wide distribution. Achieved.
• Finish setting up the x-ray option for selected books. Not Achieved.
• Some semi-regular promotions. Achieved, but still needs improvement.
• And whatever else comes up of this general type. Too vague to rate.

Fifth Goal: Keep on Learning

• Figure out how to do a better job of marketing. Including how to market audiobooks.
• Keep growing as a writer. Try things that scare me or are difficult (like BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING.)

Achieved, but this will always be an ongoing process. It’s a journey, not a destination.

Back-burner: The things I wasn’t likely to get to this year, but still needed to remember that they’re out there, waiting their turn:

• Another story in the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.
• A couple of fairy-tale retellings.
• My weird Oz story.
• The prequels to the DUAL MAGICS series.
• The third book in the CHIMERIA series.

• A secret-history-type story based, in part, on the Arthurian legend.
• There are several others that are, so far, just a line or two–the beginnings of an idea, but not there yet.

Not surprisingly, all of those are still on the back-burner. However, one of the fairytale retellings, working title MEADOWSWEET, did take major steps towards being ready to actually write. It came so close, it nearly knocked MAGE STORM back a rung on the list. It’s still going to hang there as a fall back in case I get stuck on MAGE STORM. (Sometimes, it’s good to be able to make progress on something.

All in all, I’d call it a successful year. Next yea’s goals in my next post.