writing plans for 2020

I've seen this on Facebook a couple times now, and it's true -- so many things women weren't allowed to do in the not-so-distant past, and writing and publishing whatever the hell they wanted is included in that. 

And this dovetails with what I've been working on... not just pushing my way through NaNoWriMo ("National Novel Writing Month" -- you can find out more about this HERE), but thinking about how much writing I want to do, and what exactly that will be... so here is the sneak peek:

For NaNoWriMo, I am focusing on finishing the fourth book in my Elliot Lake series.  I'm also renaming this series on last time -- the covers will stay the same, but the titles will be Stolen, Broken, Rattled, Frozen. This is my first series, and I love it. I love Elliot and the world I've built for him and Sky and everyone in Alder Bay and the Cove. But this is not the series that will catch fire -- yet. I have planned another: my Chronicles of Cordelia small town romantic series -- twelve books in all, and this, I believe, will be my breakout series. 

But I need to finish Elliot's story. I am nearly at 40,000 words, and by the time the final draft is done, it will be around 50,000, and so my plan is to get as much of that done by the end of November (YES, I KNOW THANKSGIVING IS COMING), but finalizing it and preparing it for publishing will happen in between everything else I'm working on for 2020, because my deadlines are penciled in and I'm ready to start living in the tiny town of Cordelia, on the northern coast of Oregon. 

And if that sounds familiar, it's because Cordelia is based on the real town of Astoria, Oregon, a place we've lived in a total of eight years, two different times. (I know, we've moved a LOT!)

I began planning the Cordelia series while still in Astoria, and now, here we are, living in our new house in SW Oregon, nowhere near Astoria, BUT that's okay. I remember what Astoria looks like. And I'm sure while I'm writing the Cordelia series, I'll come up with a ton of ideas for a series set here in Roseburg -- Sassy's stories will probably be based here.  (I better have a series bible ready for her! *need another notebook* LOL) 

In addition to novels, I'll be starting a Friday nonfiction series -- in weekly installments, I'll be publishing essays about various stories in my life focusing on my five main phases -- growing up in Illinois, my year as an exchange student in the Philippines, my time in Washington when I went to college in Seattle and eventually married and moved to the Olympic Peninsula, my years in Oregon when I became a mother, and then our time now at our home, Rosemary Hill. 

I'm calling these my "Free Reads" -- every Friday will be a new Free Read, stories about Illinois in January, stories about my time in the Philippines in February, etc. The essays will remain available for the month following their publication on my Treetangle Publishing website, but then I will pull them and bundle them to publish on Amazon. I've wanted to add a nonfiction element to my writing, and so here it is. 

The third focus of my writing will be to produce a newsletter. I know everyone is bogged down with email. I am bogged down with email, BUT -- soon it will be the best way to hear from someone you really want to hear from, and hopefully those who want to really hear from me will sign up. 

Social media is changing -- I don't like what Mark Zuckerberg is doing with Facebook, and I have plans to make my newsletter not boring. LOL I also want to just have one per month, so that doesn't sound too overwhelming. I think my readers will survive. 

the big plan to kick ass

My overall plan is to only have my books available on Amazon at first because this is just me working here, and one thing I've learned from the high-producing authors I follow, we can only do what we can do. I cannot wrap my head around going wide at this point, so I just won't. I will deal with that down the road. Kindle apps are available on nearly every other device at this point, and if someone hates Amazon, then they can wait for me to release my work on their favorite retailer.

Another thing I have to work on is the fact that my 13yo Photoshop program doesn't work with my Windows 10 laptop, and I refuse to pay for an Adobe subscription, SO I am now learning Affinity Photo and Affinity Design in between everything else. So I added that to the To Do List. 

The other thing I have added to the routine is that Sunday is No Write, All Art Day -- I will not even open my laptop on Sunday, trading my keyboard for paint and canvas and paper. I have a ton of people who helped us out tremendously in October when one of ours cats needed emergency, life-saving surgery and I am making something amazing for every one of them, and so this is my dedicated day to work on those, as well as every other creative thing I want to be doing.

Sunday Art Day. That's in the calendar now, y'all, so it's REAL.

Peace!! 

P. S. So, as a treat for reading to the end of this, here is a mock-up of my Cordelia series covers -- I like to make the covers first, even if they don't end up being the final, because it gives me an image in my mind to shoot for and sets the tone for the series. ​