New Year's Goals: 2016

It's that time of year again! GOALS TIME! I actually really look forward to this every year. I love setting goals. It gives me direction and keeps me accountable. I'm declaring 2016 the year of finishing unfinished projects. And I don't necessarily mean writing subsequent books to complete a series, but rather finishing books that are only half-finished. Trust me, I have a LOT of them!

So, without further ado, here are my 2016 goals...

WRITE, WRITE, and WRITE SOME MORE!

1.  Finish writing book 2 of The Hayden Falls Saga (the sequel to Death of a Waterfall) -- I'm currently 30k into this, and I'm aiming for a word count of 75 or 80k. Then I'm going to send it to my publisher and hopefully release it sometime in 2016.

2.  Finish writing book 3 of The Hayden Falls Saga -- I have a very rough draft of this that's about 20k. It needs a lot of work, but I'm confident once I get book 2 finished, book 3 will come easily. Then I'll send it to my publisher and hopefully release it sometime in 2016.

3. Finish Tainted: The Georgia Corbins, Book 3 -- At this point, my plan is to self-publish this series, but as with even the best laid plans, things happen. However, I'm intent on finishing this series and getting it back out into the world. 

4. Finish Savage Passion and get it sent to my agent -- This is the first in a new planned series. It's an intense, highly erotic romantic suspense that's my personal nod to a couple of my favorite authors: Lora Leigh and Julie Ann Walker. I should add that I have a complete 60k draft of this book. So I only need to smooth out the edges and write the ending. 

5. Finish Warped Remains -- a YA thriller that I'm co-writing with David Jemal. We have less than 10k to finish this up, and then we plan to begin querying agents with it. 

6. Finish Hallowed Ground (Graves Barren, Book 1) -- This is a paranormal YA that currently has 35k words. Once finished, I *think* I'm going to try querying agents with it. My lovely agent, sadly, doesn't sell much YA. I would love to place it with her as I trust her, but I'm grateful she was honest with me about her abilities to sell or not sell certain genres. 

7. Finish Eternally Bound (The Restani Clan, Book 1) -- This is an adult paranormal (vampires) that has 29k words. 

8. Finish The First Snowfall -- This is an erotic thriller / horror novella that currently has 19k words.

9. Finish Resistance (the sequel to Inferno) -- Considering Inferno and its prequel, Dominick, are due out later in 2016, David and I really need to get crackin' on finishing book 2. Thankfully, we've already got a good start on it. 

**SIDE NOTE** You're probably wondering why I've got so many unfinished projects. I often wonder the same thing myself. Here's the reason: I come up with an idea and I get really excited and immediately start writing it. I get anywhere between 25 - 35K written, and then I'm hit with a new idea that won't get out of my head. So, I put one project aside and start in on the new one. And then the process repeats itself. It's a viscous cycle. lol. 

You're also probably wondering how on earth I'm going to finish all of these in a mere 12 months. Honestly, I'm wondering the same thing! Just seeing this list is daunting, but if I can even accomplish half this list, I'll be more than happy. 

GET CREATIVE!

I want to come up with some new book ideas. (I know, like I need anymore. lol) Lately, a majority of my ideas seem to be within the YA category, which is great. I love writing YA. Unfortunately, my agent signed me for ADULT books, and therefore I'd like to brainstorm some ideas for a few new adult romances that I can write for her eventually. 

BEG PEOPLE TO LIKE ME!

Okay, so I'm not going to actually beg people to like me or be my friend, but I do need to work on my self promotion....

1. Do one (or more) things every single day to promote myself and my books, both in person and online. 

2.  Find and join a local writers group. I have a fantastic online support group, but there's nothing like being able to meet real people in real life and talk writing with them, to exchange work and ideas. 

KEEP ON BLOGGIN'

I swear, this is on my goals list every year. This year, my goal is one quality blog post a month, probably on Mondays so I can utilize the #MondayBlogs hashtag on Twitter. (That's a great tag. You should really check it out!) I would also like to do a #TeaserTuesday every week. With all those half finished books I'll be working on, I'll certainly have enough material to share!

What are your goals for 2016? Share in the comments or link to your own blog post about it! I love to see what everyone is aiming to accomplish :)