CLAIMING 2011 as YOUR Year

Well, I'm cutting it down to the wire. Between our chapter contest, traveling, and being ill, I don't have my promised post about how to claim 2011 as YOUR year. Maybe I'll type it on the long drive to my In-Laws Thursday evening. Trying. But if you're reading this...well, let's just say that organization and prioritizing everything I do is on the top of my New Year's resolutions. I wanted this column to be about three major things you can do to achieve a goal. 

Three things that worked for me: Positive thoughts --surround yourself with positive thoughts and people Focusing on one goal--means having to think of it to begin with The creative process --works on more than just writing My friends and the writing community have heard me claim that 2009 was 'My Year.' I sold my first manuscript in November of that year. And since I haven't had time to write the post I really want to...I'm going to let you read the article that changed my life. It may not sound like much. But writing this simple President's column, helped me take the first step toward achieving a 10-year goal: publication. I'll be back throughout the day & weekend. AND I'm going to give away a copy of my upcoming release: .38 Caliber Cover-Up to someone who posts all three days. 

  ~ ~ HAPPY NEW YEAR ~ ~ 

January 2009 The President’s Corner (NTRWA Heart to Heart) Hello fellow chapter mates and welcome to 2009. For six months, I’ve been wondering what I’d write in this column that you couldn’t find in the rest of the newsletter or by reading the website. Six long months and I still feel at a loss. Then I realized it’s 2009. Good grief...2009. I’ve been in RWA without publishing more years than I want to admit. I’ve been writing longer, even though I didn’t know anything about submitting back then. I’ve made life-long friends through this organization and hate that some have set aside their writing for other pursuits. They were good storytellers. I’ve struggled over the last two or three years, being on the cusp of selling. (Or at least that’s how an agent and many friends described it.) I’ve had rejection letters from editors who apologized for not having a place for the book. (Now that will really depress you.) I wondered if I should join the many storytellers who spend their time NOT torturing themselves over every word. NOT worrying if their character is growing. NOT worrying if they’re persecuting two heroic fictional characters enough. I wondered if I should give up. I wondered...about two minutes. Even though the writing hasn’t flowed... Even though I allow volunteer work and family to detour my daily objective of five pages... Even though I fight for every word on the page... I’m a writer. Not just a storyteller, but a writer. The stories have to be on the page for me. I MUST get them on the page eventually. I just have to. And I will sell them one day. So 2009 is my year. It’s my time to get that story on the page and finish projects that deserve to be finished. It can be your year too. Let’s grab it together and do all we can to help ourselves further along the road to publication. And then my last article as President of NTRWA. 

  December 2009 The President’s Corner “So 2009 is my year. It’s my time to get that story on the page and finish projects that deserve to be finished. It can be your year too. Let’s grab it together and do all we can to help ourselves further along the road to publication.” January President’s Corner Goals. Encouragement. Take Action. Keep Writing. Distractions. Recognition. Write some more. Submitting. Waiting. Writing Again. It’s out of your hands. And the next step – SOLD!!! I honestly can’t believe that I can finish my president columns with that elusive word ... sold. Although I’ve been writing a long time (with a few breaks now and then), the journey to SOLD this year was rather fast. Or it seems fast this time. Remember way back to my first January column? I set my goal to concentrate on my story SEE JANE RUN. I analyzed it, made the revisions, and entered the best contest for my story: The Daphne du Maurier (a contest that had been elusive to me for 9 years). I finaled in the Daphne in May. Found out I won the Daphne in July, receiving requests from an agent and editor. I made the last revisions and cut 23,000 words of the story in August. Mailed the requests at the beginning of September. Signed with an agent on October 1st. Sold SEE JANE RUN on November 12th. Have a delivery date of January 15th and a release date for Harlequin Intrigue of September 2010. Whew... It’s incredible... I want it for all of you... Kinda feels like a dream right now. And it was incredible to have an editor say, “We recognized your name, Angi. We know you’re in it for a career.” I’ve wondered how rejections or contest finals that threw my name onto loops or in front of editors would affect my career long-term. Yes, the volunteering came up. Yes, I said I was concentrating on me, now. So as January rolls around again... Set your goals. Remember to write. Seek encouragement and good critiques. Apply what you learn and hone your writing craft. Don’t get distracted. Write some more. Wait for it and remember that selling is out of your hands, but you can do everything possible to put it into the right hands for your story. I hope to see your name in the first-sale column soon!  Angi Platt writing as Angi Morgan HILL COUNTRY HOLDUP, Harlequin Intrigue September 2010 

 Setting your goal for anything in your life is important, but only the first step. You have to believe, take the next step, and achieve. 

 "No. There is no try. Only DO or DO NOT." ~~Yoda