2014 Wicked Goals

Barb: Wickeds, last week we talked about our 2013 accomplishments. Now that we’ve basked a little, let’s talk 2014 goals. What are your top 5 goals for 2014? They can be writing or life. (Because to do your writing, you have to take care of your life, yes?)

Julie: 2014 has a lot in store for me. It is exciting, yet daunting. So my goals are all about balance, balance, balance. Five goals: 1. Daily writing habit no matter what. (#JanNoWriStart). 2. 10,000 steps a day (or some sort of activity). 3. 64 oz of water a day. 4. Monthly artist dates–and theater doesn’t count. Museums, craft fairs, concerts, something to feed my soul. 5. Time for rest.

Liz: I’m already feeling great about 2014 – it’s going to be a great year! My first, and probably most important goal, is to take care of myself. I have a tendency to be too hard on me when I feel like the “shoulds” and “have tos” are piling up. This year, I’m eliminating those words from my vocabulary. I’m going to focus on my career, write the best books I can, and have fun. So with that in mind, my goals are: Write every day; Be open to the amazing new opportunities coming my way; Continue focusing on my financial goals; Give – to myself and to others; Remember to treat each day as a gift.

Jessie: There is a lot I expect to accomplish in 2014. I want to walk 1,000 miles, complete 2 manuscripts, propose a new series, commit myself to a firm daily word count and complete 14 knitting projects. So far things are going great. JaNoWriteStart is helping me with the word count habit. My pedometer is helping track my workouts. I’ve got a supportive cheering section at home for the manuscripts. I’m not allowing myself to buy any yummy new yarn until I’ve reduced my existing stash by half so the knitting projects should be well in hand. And the new series proposal is dear to my heart and filling me with waves of enthusiasm so I think that one will almost take care of itself.

Barb: You guys are making me feel like a piker. 2013 was a roller coaster ride for me. My Mom died two and a half years after my dad and I became a grandmother for the first time. Clammed Up came out and Boiled Over got turned in (just). 2014 is a pause year for me. No longer co-chair of the New England Crime Bake, off the board of Sisters in Crime New England and writing the last contracted (so far) book in my Maine Clambake Mystery series, I’m hoping to use the extra time this year to reflect and do some course correction. More on that as time goes along. As for hard goals: 1) I hope to turn in Musseled Out and make it the best book it can be. 2) I want to successfully launch Boiled Over. 3) I want this year’s Level Best anthology (name to be announced soon) to be the best ever. 4) I want to complete at least two short stories that have been rattling around in my brain for awhile and need to see the light of day. 5) As much as possible, (and this is a hard one for me, the planner and schemer), I want to be present in my life everyday.

Sherry: I am a terrible goal setter, so thank you my Wicked sisters for forcing me to write something done. 1. To be healthier, not just by getting pounds off but by eating better, moving more and finding better ways of dealing with stress. 2. Launch Tagged with Death in a way that doesn’t make me or those around me  too crazed. 3. Write a great second book and turn Marred Sale Madness in on time. 4. Set more goals and procrastinate less 5. Find some way to quantify all of the above so they are really goals.

Edith: 1. Dig more deeply into any character I write. 2. Lose the proverbial ten pounds by focusing on my appetite, needs, and health. 3. Live, be true, and dance like death might beckon tomorrow (thereby possibly holding onto those ten pounds?). 4. Get the word out about my books to readers, locavores, farmers, and Quakers about my Local Foods mysteries and my Lauren Rousseau mysteries. 5. Write and find a publisher for the historical mystery that’s calling me to write it.

How about you, readers? What are your 2014 goals?