Are You One of the 22 Percent?

 

On December 31, 2011 I decided I would make a New Year's resolution to write a book and publish it. Why I did this, I don't know. I suck at resolutions. In the past if I vowed I was going to lose 10 pounds I'd gain 10. A study I found stated 78% of people fail at accomplishing their New Year's resolutions. It's nice to know when the going gets tough, we all abandon ship like a herd of rats. But human nature wants us to be the rats on the good ship, the ones partying and eating the really good cheese while the rest of us float away on driftwood and plot out how long it will take to eat each other alive. We all want to be one of the 22% who succeed, dammit. 

Making resolutions isn't a new thing. The ancient Babylonians would vow to their gods that they would pay debts, and the ancient Romans would make promises to the god Janus. Even the knights of olden days would renew their commitment to chivalry every year after Christmas. I hope the knights were part of the 22% or there would be a whole bunch of disheartened princesses. 

I never intended to be one of the 22% when I woke up on January 1, 2012. I just said I would try. So I opened the laptop, found a story I had started working on, and began to write.  I wrote 10,000 words that day (in writer talk, that's 10k.) I was happy with that. I hadn't written anything new in eons so the world could have ended and I would have died happy. The next day I think I did 5K more. I didn't tell anyone, because if I was setting myself up to fail, I didn't want people making popcorn to eat while they enjoyed the train wreck. I would suffer in private. 

I don't quite remember when I finished the book, then called Phases of Seduction (you all know it as Exceeding Boundaries) but it was probably ten days later. I promptly sent it off, and suddenly, my resolution was complete. I had written a book and submitted it! So I did what any writer would do--I started the next one. And then another, and then another...

I wrote and submitted seven books in 2012. One is still in edits, the other six are published. I  wrote and published a short novella under my real name. I also started another book, which was 62K the last I checked. So in total, that's almost 500K words. WOW. 

I have a bunch of people to thank for helping me to become one of the 22% who succeeded for a change. First, thanks to my family, who went nearly naked, played with dust elephants and saw the back of my head more than the front (the back is more attractive.) You are not getting thanked for pegging my ass with rubber bands while I sat and wrote. You get to pet a dust elephant for that. 

Thanks to my friends for listening to me whine, for cheering with me, handing me tissues at the appropriate intervals. The coffee and IV tequila were also appreciated. 

Thanks to my editor, Diana Carlile, for either being smart (or silly) enough to buy my books and thanks to The Wild Rose Press for getting them out there. Diana gets extra thanks for all of the other things she does for me, such as the awesome cover art, the excellent editing, and the hand-holding. 

Thanks to my girls in The Hive, The Chick-lits, The Writer's Playground, and Series Romance. You know who you are and I love each and every one of you. 

Thanks to my groups, friends and fans at GoodReads. I wouldn't be here with out them. 

Finally, thanks to the average but cherished reader who decided to take a chance and pick up one of my books. Thank you so, so much. I hope you enjoyed them. 

Resolutions for 2013... Because it worked so well last year...

I'm going to write a book and submit it. :)

What's your New Year's Resolution? Are you going to be one of the 22% for a change? I hope so.