Hello 2021!

Can you believe it? We made it. We survived 2020!

It was so long ago, and yet it feels like it all happened just last week.

Oh, wait. 2020 was last week.

I’d love to have a motivating, elegant, erudite quote to describe 2020. I don’t.

I do have one, though. It comes from “Deep Blue Sea” and was uttered by LL Cool J.

*clears throat* “Get a hold of a hot pan and a second can feel like an hour. Get a hold of a hot woman and an hour can feel like a second.”

And, to be clear, in that clunky, inelegant, politically incorrect quote, 2020 is not the “hot woman”. It is, however, a quote that I believe very much describes the year.

I felt like it lasted forever. I had many of my plans put on hold. Some postponed for a year. Some postponed until further notice. Some postponed indefinitely.

I lost my father to COVID.

I found out that doing the right thing is hard for most people. I found out a lot of people prefer to believe than to think.

It was one tough year.

I have a lot of hope for 2021.

I intend to publish my first novel this year. I don’t know exactly when, because it does not depend on me.

I intend to write at least two books, novels. I’m shooting for three, but now that I have experience in writing and editing, I know that is, let’s say, a little too optimistic. Doable, don’t get me wrong, it can be done. But it is too optimistic to put it as a firm goal. Two books? No problem. Three? We’ll have to see how it goes.

Let me be clear. I can write a lot more than the content for two books in twelve months. That’s only between sixty to one hundred and twenty thousand words per book. When I say write a book in this context, however, I mean complete it from the words Chapter One all the way to The End. Then self-editing it, submitting it to beta readers, edit again, submit to an editor, edit again, send to proofreading, edit again (begin to see a pattern here, do you?). Have the cover concept tested, refine the cover concept, send it to an artist, or (*gulp!*) make it myself if I’m short on money or time. Come up with a viable title. Write a “blurb”, test it, edit it, test it again, edit again (repeat as needed). Obtain the ISBN. Format the book in all the presentations it’ll go public in. Write the dedication page, Copywrite page, load onto the publishing platforms, and plan, structure, and execute a book launch.

So, I believe I can do two books, as defined in the previous paragraph, a year. Maybe three, but that’d be pushing it. Again, not because of me, but rather because of the other people involved.

I’ve discovered editors are in great demand. The better the editor, the higher the demands on their time.

I’ve discovered beta readers may take longer than they promise with their comments on the book.

I’ve discovered that, although the idea for the cover might look fantastic in your head, it may not be so hot when exposed to the opinion of an audience. Any audience.

Of course, I also intend to post here every week on Fridays. There’ll be exceptions, I’m sure, but that’s the plan right now. In 2020 I did not post the last two weeks of the year, Christmas and New Year fell right on the last two weekends. Same here in 2021. Dec 24th and 31st are Fridays, so I’ll skip them. Yes, writing a blog takes that kind of planning and is that kind of commitment.

I am familiar with this because a long, long time ago, in a country far, far away, I had a wine blog. It was in Spanish, and it was rather crude, but it was a blog none the less. I learned a lot from doing it. Not only about blogging, but also about wine.

But, I digress.

I will mostly post about writing and my writing journey because my short stories have been less than successful. I’ll still post the occasional one, but I won’t commit to a number of them.

So, Happy New Year everyone!

I hope this year you complete all your goals, I wish for you to be successful, and I wish you join me every week and let me know with your comments what you enjoy and if there is anything you’d like me to cover or comment on.

2021, we all expect a lot from you. Don’t mess it up.

Hope to see you next week.

Have a great day.