Happy New Year: Goals for 2016

Happy New Year!! As we ring in 2016, it’s time for the Wickeds to fess up to some writing goals for the new year!

Edith: My first goal is to thank all our lovely blog readers and commenters! We love having you pop in to share our world, our guests, and our celebrations, and hope you’ll keep coming around all year.

Now, for more mundane goals: Write Local Foods Mystery #5, Mulch Ado about Murder, due May 1. Finish polishing Country Store Mystery #3, When the Grits Hit the Fan, due March 1. Organize a big splash to release Delivering the Truth, Quaker Midwife Mystery #1, on April 8. Turn right around and celebrate the release of both Murder Most Fowl and Grilled for Murder on May 31. Write Quaker Midwife Mystery #3, and later do copyedits and proofs on #2, Breaking the Chain. Oh, and also write proposals, which will hopefully be accepted, for Local Foods numbers 6-8 and Country Store numbers 4-6. Fit in attending Malice Domestic, Bouchercon, and Crime Bake. And exercise. And a family vacation. And a summer garden. Yes, I’m already tired!

Liz: Echoing Edith in the thanking department! Also thanks to all our guest bloggers for jumping in and adding variety to our blog. We love you!

First up, I have to finish book 5 in the Pawsitively series, Custom-Baked Murder, by April 1. Then I’ll be deep in the editing process of Cat About Town book 1, as well as writing book 2. And of course, synopsis for book 6 in the Pawsitively series, and most of the writing on that. And I still have that other book I wanted to finish editing to start shopping around…
Going to work in a real vacation – a visit to Key West – in 2016, as well as the typical conferences. Plus the day job. Yikes.

Sherry: I want to write two really good books — book four (A Good Day to Buy) and book five (I Know What You Bid Last Summer) in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series. I want to make each book better than the last. And I want to write two proposals for series that have been rolling around in my head.

Jessie: I will be revising the first book in my new Change of Fortune series and writing the next one. I also want to write one other book I have in mind. I need to develop a website for my new series and all the accompanying social media that supports it. And, of course, there will be blog posts here and at Killer Characters and Maine Crime Writers.

Julie: Writing/finishing Book #3 in the series (working title Chime and Punishment), and celebrating the release of Clock and Dagger in August. Like my friends, I will also spend some time noodling with some new ideas. I am also going to conferences–Sherry and I will be at Left Coast Crime, the Wickeds will be at Malice, Jessie, Sherry and I will be in LA this spring for a Sisters in Crime event, many of us will be at Bouchercon, and of course, there’s Crime Bake.

Barb: My year feels very front-end loaded. My Christmas novella Nogged Off is due to Kensington on January 15. Thankfully, it is mostly done. Just polishing left. Then, book 5 in the Maine Clambake series, Iced Under, is due April 15. On the personal side, my daughter Kate and fiance Luke will be married in The Wedding of the Century in Portland, Maine, in May. After that, I’ll be writing Maine Clambake #6, but honestly that feels very far away.

Readers? Happy New Year! From all of us to all of you, may your reading and writing year be a wonderful adventure in 2016. Now, tell us your goals, small and large, long-range and immediate!