Can’t see the end from here

Nearly half the month of January has passed, but for me it’s mostly done so in a dull blur. On New Year’s Eve, I started getting sick, but we still had a houseful of visiting family and our biggest dinner of the year ahead of me, so taking to bed was not an option. I muddled through. Two of my sons were sick too. One was leaving on vacation the next day, the other flying home in a few days. Fun times in the Lewis household. Now, tons of medication and boxes of tissues later, it’s time for me to get back to work.

Traditionally, in the beginning of a new year, we assess the past year. So how well did I reach last year’s writing goals? Well, I declared 2014 to be a year of writing, not publishing, and so it was. Yet I didn’t end up exactly where I hoped I would.

This time last year, in the midst of working on my third women’s fiction novel and revising a paranormal, I started a writing experiment. I decided to write a romantic comedy—a novella, I thought. So I set aside the revision and alternated work on the novel and novella.

But then I got so invested in the romantic comedy, that I set aside the novel and replaced it with revising the paranormal. Luckily, my deadlines are my own making.

As usual, after getting a little feedback on the first draft of the romantic comedy, I realized it was far from done. In revision, it grew and grew to novel length. And after getting a little feedback on the paranormal, I realized it had a few glitches to work out. Work on my poor women’s fiction novel had completely stalled.

I’d hoped to have at least one novel ready to publish this month. I have none. If I’d focused on one of the three projects exclusively, most likely I’d be gearing up for a new release right now. But my jumping-bean brain didn’t cooperate.

Still, I do expect to see both the romantic comedy and the paranormal published in the next few months. I also expect to finish the first draft of the women’s fiction and take it through editing, feedback, and revision this year. Can I have it ready to publish by the end of 2015? I hope so, but who can say?

I’m looking forward, but I can’t see the end of the road I’m on for 2015. All I know is that it’s going to be an adventure. Here we go …