Let me tell you about 2017. It was completely bonkers. All my plans fell apart and all the gains came out of nowhere—God's perfect gifts.
I planned a smooth debut launch. Instead, on the night before my first novel came out, we had a family situation so intense and scary that the novel was the last thing in my mind.
I had hotel reservations and booked flights to attend two writers conferences and one readers retreat in 2017. I had to cancel everything to be with family. That was the right and the wise thing to do.
The plan was to stay in El Paso now that my husband is retired. But the old North Carolina house didn't sell, so we moved into it. Yep. Back to where it all started. Fort Bragg.
The plan was to transition the kids from their Texas public school to a Christian academy in North Carolina. Within a month it was clear that they couldn't accommodate my son's unique needs, and in late September I got a license to homeschool.
The plan was for my daughter to stay at the academy, but she now wants to come home too. So my home school is about to double in size. After the Christmas break, she will begin receiving her education at home too.
I expected Les Stobbe to continue being my agent. Instead, he decided to retire from agenting and sold his agency to The Steve Laube Agency, so I'm with them now.
I didn't plan to have an audiobook. But looks like one will happen soon.
A Season to Dance is now available in Portuguese (an old dream, since I have a lot of Brazilian followers and since my family is there and no one speaks English). But the paperback travels from here, and it takes time. The book is expensive too. Brazilians are not into e-readers, so the ebook is not much of a solution. The result? We're not selling as well as we had hoped. Can we sell? Yes. But it will take a big effort. It will be time consuming. Right now I can't do all I would like to do. I'm editing a manuscript that has to be finished by January 3.
Bonkers. Just bonkers.
Am I hopeful? Absolutely. A lot of these unexpected changes seemed scary at first, but have become a blessing.
The problem? I'm exhausted. I can't keep this up.
So I hereby resolve to resolve nothing. If I don't have resolutions and let God drive in peace, maybe I can be less tired, and I can enjoy the journey more. I want to take this trip one stop at a time. Now it's manuscript work. Later it will be...
Wait. Nope. That's planning.
I don't know what the next stop is. I'm at the manuscript-work stop. When God shows me the next stop, I will take that in and go from there.
How about that? Can you live that way? Do you do that already? What are your end-of-year rituals and/or evaluation processes?
Love,
Patricia
Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas 2017).
She’s a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 with a B.A. in English Literature and then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children.
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Hi Patricia, wow what a year! Good on you for being able to write about it and have a good perspective on it all.
ReplyDeleteI've been spending a lot of time reading Luke 1 & 2 for Advent. There's so much in these 2 chapters about the birth of Jesus. But what the Lord has been particularly impressing upon me is that He is the God of surprises. There are just so many, angel turns up here, then there, 13-14 year old peasant girl is blessed with carrying the Messiah, He's born in a barn, shepherds are the first to hear the news ... and the surprises just keep on coming.
Yes, a broad outline for 2018 is a good thing but as you've shown us God just wants us to let Him show us the path ...
Audiobook is a great idea. Will you do a Portuguese version too?
Keep praying, keep believing, my friend. The Lord's got this!
Hi Ian!
DeleteNo audiobook in Portuguese for now. I doubt my publisher will want to invest anything new on the version that's not selling well yet. After I meet my January 3 deadline, I will see what I can do to sell more copies and get some reviews. I would love for God to do something here while I work on the new novel. "I can't. God, You can. Please do."
I'm very excited and thankful the publisher is doing the English audiobook. I received a wonderful audition this week, amazing narrator. I hope we get her. This is brand new territory for me, and I'm enjoying all the steps.
I love the end of the year. This time to look back and see what worked and what didn't, what to repeat and what to avoid... Good stuff :)
I totally agree. I sometimes set goals, but never make resolutions. Much better to leave it in God's hands.
ReplyDeleteDonna, I'm such a control freak. It's hard for me to not side-seat drive this thing. But I'm on survival mode. I have to let go and let God :)
DeleteI love this! Thanks for sharing, Patricia.
ReplyDeleteHi Iola! Thanks for stopping by. Happy to share. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We all carry so many bags - many full of disappointments. I believe sharing helps. I'm the queen of thinking I always end up with the short end of the stick. When I see that what's happening to me is also happening to others and that it happened to Bible people too, then I fret less. I like fretting less, and I want others to fret less, so I prefer to be candid about this road :)
DeleteHi Patricia, what a liberating way to live! As a new-ish writer, I find myself living very much from stop-to-stop. A single goal can help to keep me focused and I pretty much live in that single goal until it's within reach. At the moment I'm working on my second book with a goal of having it ready for editing within the year. That's it!
ReplyDeleteStop-to-stop sounds pretty good. A single goal. I like that. Thanks for stopping by Steph. Funny you used the word liberating for how I plan on doing things. My word for 2018 is freedom :)
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