End of year round up for 2014

I can't believe it. It always seems to come around so fast. One minute, it's the promising start to an exciting new year. The next minute, it's all over. How could another year have slipped past so quickly?

At this time of year, it's always a good thing to look back on the writing goals I set myself to see how I went.

All things considered, my expectations should be pretty low. It's been an exhausting year for a number of reasons, both on the personal and work fronts. I'm not even sure how I've managed to find any time for writing at all.

And yet...

When I look back on the goals I set myself at the start of the year, I've actually done pretty well. Here's a quick summary:

1. Publishing

• I finished and published the third of my Neville Lansdowne stories - Scrawling. It took longer than I originally planned, but the extra effort was worth it. I think it's definitely the best of the Neville stories.
• Thanks to the good people at Evolved Publishing, I was extremely excited to publish my first picture book, Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle. The feedback I've gotten from young readers has been amazing.
• I had my novel Magnus Opum republished by the good people at Booktrope Publishing. Great to see Magnus in print at last.
• Am now in a fairly advanced stage of editing for my next novel, a comic detective thriller titled A Fate Worse than Death.

2. Writing

• I completed several drafts of my YA/MG novel (tentative title Throught the Flame) to the point where I believe it's not far away from being publisher ready.
• I set myself the goal of writing two new potential picture book texts, and I was able to meet it. The titles for these two new stories are Bella and the Blue Genie and Rory and the Rainbow Bird.
• As of this week, I officially made a (very small) start on my long awaited dinosaur story (tentatively titled Dinosaurs).

Not a bad effort for 12 months. I guess now it's time to start thinking about those goals for 2015.

Hope your 2014 was also a good one.