Skip to main content

New Year’s Resolutions

Captain's Log, Stardate 01.06.2009

I don’t know why people don’t like making New Year’s Resolutions. I love it! I don’t always keep them, but I like making them.

Camy’s Resolutions for 2009:

1. Lose weight. I say this every year, but somehow this year it’s been sticking more. I want to lose 15 pounds by May 1st.

I started exercising 30 minutes everyday starting December 5th and only skipped 3 days so far (for Christmas). It’s mostly been walking the dog, but I’m pretty happy I’ve kept it up. I think this is the longest I’ve consistently exercised.

This month, I started tracking what I ate and I’m appalled at the calorie count each day. The sad thing is, when I try to eat less, I’m still hungry, so I guess I need to reduce my portions more slowly so I don’t feel so deprived. Eventually I’ll get used to the portions and not feel hungry.

I also want to exercise 30 minutes a day at least 5 days a week, even if it’s only walking the dog.

2. Read more. I’m woefully behind on reading my Love Inspired Suspense novels (I get them as ebooks on Fictionwise.com) and there are tons of books I want to read but haven’t made time to do it. So I want to try to read a book every week.

3. Stick to some solid writing goals. Pam Hillman did some great, specific goals separated by quarter, so I’m going to do the same:

1st Quarter:
1. Finish line edits for Deadly Intent, due January 7th (yes, that’s tomorrow).
2. Write proposal for next romantic suspense novel.
3. Complete Marketing Info Sheet for The Year of the Dog by March 1st.
4. Coordinate the American Christian Fiction Writers 2009 Genesis contest for unpublished writers.
5. Prepare for my HeadStart mentoring group for Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. (If you’re a beginning writer, and if you can swing the cost of the conference, the HeadStart program is a great way for new writers to get all the information they need to jump start their writing career. Learn from my mistakes!)

2nd Quarter:
1. Finish writing The Year of the Dog by May 1st.
2. Write my next romantic suspense novel (assuming the proposal is contracted—crossing my fingers).
3. Work on “The Lone Rice Ball,” the fourth book (novella) in my Sushi series (it’ll be available as a free ebook download to members of my newsletter YahooGroup).

3rd Quarter:
1. Launch a website contest to celebrate the release of Deadly Intent.
2. Work on a third novel for the year, whether the next book in my Zondervan contract or a newly contracted novel (again, fingers crossed).
3. Work on a third romantic suspense proposal.
4. Prepare for the 2009 ACFW conference in Dallas, TX (I don't know what I was thinking. It's in Denver, CO this year).

4th Quarter:
1. Write a third romantic suspense novel, assuming the proposal is accepted (see 3rd Quarter).
2. Continue working on third novel (see 3rd Quarter).
3. Brainstorm a new story or novella to offer free to my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers.

Whew! Just looking at that makes me tired.

How about you? What are your goals/resolutions for 2009?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great goals, Camy. I have a list of 12 so I'll just share a few. It's funny, I actually broke someout into quarters as well. I didn't know others did that too. LOL

God willing, a few of mine are:
1. Do a daily devotional DAILY **smile**
2. Buy website domains and then launch the website (by the 2nd quarter).
3. Obtain representation for my novels (any time in 2009)
4. Run a ten mile race (by 4th quarter.)
5. Attend ACFW conference in Denver.
6. Go on a short term mission trip (by 3rd quarter)

Well, that's enough space hogging in your comments section. I'll be praying you meet your goals.
Reihaisha said…
Mine are pretty simple-

1. Lose 20 lbs(I lost 17 last year) by August 1st for my family reunion.

2. No dishes in the sink when I go to bed.

3. Scrub my kitchen and bathroom floors once a week.

4. Be gracious to the people who work for me.

5. Read the Bible through at least once.

6. Finish a book on chaos theory by November 10th(my birthday).

7. Start ballroom dancing by Easter.
Anonymous said…
Wow! I have to admit I've never seen resolutions broken down by quarter before. I have several (and getting to all of them would be impossible) but the big one is MAKE PROGRESS on the next book. Real, real progress. I have to turn 2009 into a persona, gigantic NaNoWriMo. (I guess that would be PerNoWriYear?)
Amy said…
Can't wait for all those books, Camy! ;)

Popular Posts

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

Excerpt - A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS by Nicole Seitz

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.05.2009 Update: Sorry, this giveaway is closed. A Hundred Years of Happiness by Nicole Seitz A beautiful young woman. An American soldier. A war-torn country. Nearly forty years of silence. Now, two daughters search for the truth they hope will set them free and the elusive peace their parents have never found. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, a young mother named Katherine Ann is struggling to help her tempestuous father, by plunging into a world of secrets he never talks about. A fry cook named Lisa is trying desperately to reach her grieving Vietnamese mother, who has never fully adjusted to life in the States. And somewhere far away, a lost soul named Ernest is drifting, treading water, searching for what he lost on a long-ago mountain. They're all longing for connection. For the war that touched them to finally end. For their hundred years of happiness at long last to begin. From the beloved author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass...

I got my cover!

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Blog book giveaway: To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there. Eyes of Elisha by Brandilyn Collins Tangerine by Marilynn Griffith I GOT MY COVER!!!! What do you guys think?

Cover Reveal + New Logo for Year of the Dog, a Mahina Security Novel

A New Look for Year of the Dog (and a Behind-the-Scenes Oops!) What do a dog trainer, a security expert, and a nearly-naked book cover have in common? Let me explain. 😅 Year of the Dog is the first book in my Christian romantic suspense series, Mahina Security, set in beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) Hawaii. It features quirky humor, family tensions, sweet romance, and a mystery involving a missing person—and it’s now available to read in the Christian suspense anthology, Danger in the Shadows , on Kindle Unlimited ! But before that happened, I had a bit of a cover mishap… While creating the ebook cover, I realized that the original stock photo made my heroine look, well, completely nekkid. 😳 She’s actually wearing a tube top in the image, but when I cropped it for the ebook, the top disappeared—leaving her looking very PG-13. To fix it, I did some Canva magic on a strappy top from another image and stuck it onto the model (so she’s decent now). But when I resize...