Happy New Year! I feel like it has been forever since I last posted anything on my website. I can only blame the chaos of Christmas that has kept me away from the blogosphere. I was sitting here and thinking about the new year and the whole idea of resolutions. Honestly, I don’t believe in making promises about things that I will probably forget a week later. Instead my mind kept wandering not to resolutions but accomplishments and goals.

Here is what I have learned so far in the past month:

1) Microsoft Word is a truly remarkable creation. I turned my nose up and tried to stick with Google Docs when writing my first book, ‘ Isle of Skye’. My brother actually offered it to me for free and instead of stalking him until he mailed it out, I said to him “Oh whenever.”

I think we all know now, after my horrific start, that was a huge mistake.

2) Do not attempt to write during the Holidays or when your children have a vacation. Every five minutes it was, “Mom, my TV’s not working”, “Mom, what’s for lunch?”, and my favorite at nine o’clock in the morning, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” I literally had to stop myself from flipping my fourteen year old son off. I could feel the finger coming up and I had to force myself to repeat, “You don’t want to be a trashy, scum mom” several times.

3)Stop, take a breath and rewind.

I found myself floundering a bit over the last few weeks. I had totally bypassed my chapter outlines and by the time I got to chapter ten of book two, ‘The Isle of Night’, I was lost. Instead of just charging forward, I stopped myself and sat down to read what I had written so far. I then forced myself to revise my outlines and now I feel so much better.

I also realized something pretty monumental along the way. Not only did I love what I had done up to this point but I also could see a huge difference in my writing. Maybe it’s because I feel more confident or maybe it’s just all in my sick head but there seems to be a better flow to my writing. I’m certainly not going to win a Pulitzer…like ever, but I do feel pretty darn happy about how things are progressing.

4) Stop kicking yourself!

If you knew how many times I had said to myself over the last few months, “Why didn’t I finish what I started twenty years ago? Why didn’t I just go for it? Why didn’t I believe in myself more?” Those phrases kept replaying over and over in my brain. Then I realized something. I wasn’t ready then. Although I don’t think you can ever be prepared enough to write a book I do believe you have to have the right mind set before you start.

This journey for me began because I felt that I was at a stagnant place in my life. All three kids were in school. How much cooking and cleaning could I really do every day? I wanted to finally, after almost fifteen years of being a mother,to do something for me. I wanted to try to achieve my ultimate goal of writing a book.

Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, is done. In fact I’m declaring those words so 2013.

The new words for 2014 are: Strive, achieve,and determination.