Apologies, Apologies.

2015

It wasn't the best year, writing-wise. I suppose everyone means for “next year” to be the year they actually succeed in whatever it is they meant to succeed in. But I do mean for 2016 to be a better year for my writing, whatever that means. If I didn't have a high word-count in 2015, if I did lose my spot in the mystery I was supposed to be writing, if I did leave you poor blog-followers hanging and my reading public wondering if I'd been raptured or something; if I did all these things and in every other way make myself and others wonder if I was really serious about this writing thing, there were some triumphs.

I wrote The Fox Went Out

I wrote the first draft of The Spindle & The Queen

I wrote numerous quite-good flash fiction pieces, among which “Swing It” is my personal favorite

I was published (and paid for my work) in Fountain Magazine

I discovered a way to combine my interest in journalism with my love for people at my lifestyle blog, Lipstick & Gelato

I read quite a lot of non-fiction among the fiction and kept my mind sharp with it

I taught my first-grader (nanny-child) how to read

Though I can chalk up a few things I did accomplish as a writer, I can no longer hedge around the fact that in this season, writing is no longer my sole occupation. My job as a nanny has morphed into my job as a home-school teacher/governess which, among other things, requires fairly extensive lesson preparation. That means that when I am not at work and not doing errands and not prepping blog posts and not traveling and not with my family, I am planning lessons. Writing has, for now, fallen into a hobby-position. I no longer have the full-time hours to devote to publicizing, networking, blogging, and writing that I used to. However, I can't bear to close up shop and leave my precious writing-blog community just like that. You inspire and challenge and teach me and I intend to stick it out here on The Inkpen Authoress. But in order to be better able to keep up with everyone, a few changes will happen on this blog. I want to share more of my creative life with you, which means that I can't share strictly fiction. And since it's always a good idea to set goals for any business/blog/public, I sketched some out for you dear, patient people who might still read this blog. 2016 plans for The Inkpen Authoress include:

• A dependable blogging schedule. I intend to aim at giving you a Post Each Monday. The posts might be book reviews, author interviews, or posts of my own design. They might be sharing bits of my writing, or highlighting others'. They might be posts on the craft of writing, or the challenges of it. Other Posts You Might See Here: sketches from people-watching, both artistic and linguistic renderings; journal excerpts; quotes from books I'm reading; quotes from articles I've written. Anything literature-centered that has intersected my life and yours. I want this blog to reflect the morphing of my creative life as I grow as a woman.
• Commitment to working on my fiction frequently. I weighed heavily on the side of non-fiction this year, what with launching Lipstick & Gelato and keeping it up. I have found that I am good at writing non-fiction, and that I enjoy it immensely, but I do not intend to leave my fiction-writing behind completely. Not by a long shot. I will still work on books and publish them, but for your sanity and mine I am releasing myself from the strictures of having to publish something every three months.
• Publishing “The Spindle & The Queen.” Though its name might change, I'm planning to release this Sleeping Beauty retelling sometime in the early Spring in e-book format! So you have that to look forward to after Elisabeth Foley and Suzannah Rowntree publish their wonderful-sounding fairy tales!
• Exploring new avenues and ways to write. I am happy with the fact that I fell in love with “journalism” this year. I want to continue to play around with words, polishing old ways and branching out into completely new varieties. It's part of the joy of writing: that constant rearranging of language to aptly express all one feels. I also want to submit both fiction and non-fiction to various publications and get further experience in free-lancing.

Here's to 2016 being a better year in all ways than the last one! And may we always find a love for words overpowers even the worst seasons of Writer's Block!

Happy New Year, loves!  

Memory's Smile...

As I look back on this year the question comes up, was it a good year of writing? Life was busier this year than nearly any other I've lived in my 19 1/2 years. What time did I have for writing? Did I uphold my personal goals as a writer to write things worth reading and read things worth writing? Should I hang up my apron and lay aside my pen? I guess success, in a way, is measured by results, so I sought to lay out exactly what I have written this year. The consensus puzzled me. How in the blue blazes did I manage to write all of this in one jam-packed year? Beats me. But here's the list:
Puddleby Lane (unfinished as of yet, but something to the tune of 44,927 words)
The Scarlet-Gypsy Song (somewhere near 17,000 words right now) 
"Nazarene Noon": a short story
"The Master of Delgrade Heath": (a longer short-story, over 17,000 words)
"How About Coffee?" (a short story)
"A Fool's Hope" (A short story)
"A Roguish Scheme" (A short story)
"My Pale Rose Trembling" (a short story)
"Marcella Grey" (a short story)
"A Duel of Wits" (a sketch)
"I am Levi" (a sketch)
And numerous poems and scribblings besides.

Not half-bad, is it? I felt rather pleased with myself after I read all that. My inspiration applauded me and told me I had done well during 2011.  It's nice to be on terms with one's memory and writing. :P