In Which I Look Over Last Year's Goals

So, like I do every year, I make goals and then when a new year comes around, I look back and see how well I did.

There's no weight or anything behind them. I'm not sad if I didn't meet a few goals, and I'm not, like, ridiculously happy if I do meet them. I just like keeping track of things. It's fun.

So here are my 2015 goals and the results:

1. Write not one, but TWO novels! *GASP*. Yes, this is a pretty big goal to reach for. BUT, I think it's doable. One, because I have to write book 2 for HarperTeen in the next few months here. And 2, because I'm going to be working on a MG fantasy for school. The kicker is whether I'll be able to actually write all of that MG fantasy, but I guess that's what we'll find out.

Failed. I mean, don't get me wrong. It was close. I wrote all of book 2 and I wrote half of the MG fantasy. But then things got in the way. Mostly the ASSASSIN'S HEART launch and all that jazz. But, I will be working on the MG fantasy now, and hope to have it done by the end of spring.

2. Read 100 books. Yes I read 140 books last year, but I also had my MFA reading list I was completing and a lot of those books were picture books and graphic novels or shorter kidlit. Now that I'm done with the reading list, will I be able to still hit 100? (I can tell you that the year has started out slowly, anyway)

Failed. I gave it a good shot, but, like with the novels above, things got in the way. I did read a fair few books, though. 71 to be specific. And that's not too shabby.

3. Buy a standing desk. You know, the kind that you can transform into standing or sitting. I've been thinking about one for awhile, and then a few months ago I was like "what am I waiting for?" I sit too much during the day, so hopefully this will help. Also I can take my current desk, which is very nice and sturdy, and give it to twin so we can throw out her computer desk (which is the old rickety desk that also used to be mine) But the standing desks are not cheap. And it's not easy to switch out furniture in our office

Met! Of course, it's not like it's really hard to, you know, buy something. But there you go. I bought it. I put it together. Moved some things around and I love it. I stand at least 2 hours a day.

4. At least partially re-do the upstairs bathroom. Our medicine cabinet has the lights for the bathroom and room for four bulbs. But it's old, and every time a bulb burns out, we're either unable to get the bulb out, get a new bulb in, or if we do, it no longer works. Of the 4 original lights that work, we are done to one. As soon as that bulb burns out, well, it's time to get a new medicine cabinet and light fixture. And if we're going to do that we might as well get a new vanity to match, etc. We should also reeeeeally do a new, updated floor, but that's a bigger commitment that involves tile and I dunno if it's something we really want to commit to at this point.

Met! This one was a huge met, too. Because we didn't just partially re-do it. We redid the whole thing. The only part that is still the same is the shower/bathtub. Everything else is new. And we tiled for the first time.

5. Try really hard to teach a query writing workshop for my MFA. This is a bit of a cheap goal because it's kind of out of my hands since I'm not in charge of scheduling. All I can do is keep expressing my interest to the powers that be and hope they put me on. (On the plus side, it seems likely it'll happen at some point, but we'll see. You never know how scheduling can go)

Failed. This really was out of my hands. I put in a request for two residencies to teach a workshop but it didn't happen. And I put in a pitch to do a workshop at a small local conference and that didn't happen either. *sad trombone* But I am going to put in another request to teach it at Alumni Weekend this summer, so we'll see how that goes.

So there you go! How was your year?