As a writer, setting goals each year gives us a path to follow. Each item we cross off our list provides a sense of accomplishment.

Last year, I felt I hadn’t done much since my last novel release, Star Tangled Murder, came out in March 2023. While there were reasons for this lag, I accomplished more than I had thought. Let’s take a look at what happened.

I revised Books 1-3 with new covers for Hair Raiser and Murder by Manicure and some minor changes in the text. This necessitated making the same changes in Box Set One, the free Book Sampler I offer to newsletter subscribers, and the audiobook covers for those two titles. All of these had to be reuploaded to the various distributor sites.

The Bad Hair Day Mysteries Box Set Six was published in January. This set includes books 16-18 in the series. A new release is always accompanied by posts and other hoopla online and this was no exception.

In February, I set the price on Permed to Death to Free. To promote this new pricing, I scheduled social media ads and posts.

Also in February, my husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This stole my creative energy and time through May when he passed away.

I was lucky to snag a couple of BookBub international deals along the way. That brought me to the summer, when my daughter and her family moved in while an a/c leak was being repaired in their home. This stay stretched to four months wherein my daily routine was shattered with a four-year-old in the house. It was great to have them with me, but I also began to yearn for peace and quiet.

Fortunately, I got in a couple of Caribbean cruises in the late summer and fall amidst this turmoil. I also finished my Work in Progress and hired a new editor. Brainstorming sessions with my critique partners led me to plot my next mystery, a Bad Hair Day holiday novella.

And then December arrived along with a baby watch for my soon-to-be granddaughter. She was born mid-month just before Hanukkah and Christmas.

It had been an emotional rollercoaster of a year. And while I may not have published another full-length novel, at least I published another box set, finished a book, and plotted the next story.

So what’s up for 2025? I’ll need to do the editorial revisions on my new mystery novel. Write the holiday novella. Explore doing more audiobooks. And get back into the swing of marketing, which took a low priority last year.

What were some of your accomplishments in 2024? Do you keep a tally? It helps to see where you’ve been so you can set new goals going forward.

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