Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I celebrate the last year of my 30s. I get to spend the afternoon cheering my 6th-grade daughter on at her second cross country meet of the year, where she was the honor of representing her school as one of the Top 10 female runners. That's a pretty great gift, in my book!

Next year I plan on celebrating the next big milestone somewhere tropical, with fruity drinks and a few of my closest friends. But for this year, I decided to focus on some of the highlights of my past year. Here are just a few I came up with:

• I took the first ten pages of my YA novel, Between, to the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Carolinas Conference, where I received positive feedback and encouragement from a fellow YA author and a respected literary agent.

• I hunkered down in November and cranked out the rough draft of a second YA, tentatively titled Under My Skin.

• As a blog tour manager, I assisted ten authors with virtual blog tours through WOW! Women on Writing, resulting in new friends and professional relationships.

• I contributed 25 blog posts to WOW! Women on Writing, along with several interviews with writers.

• I wrote nine articles/profiles for Lake Norman CURRENTS magazine.

• I wrote numerous pieces of content for Little Ones Magazine, along with editing duties.

• I completed the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Summer Reading Challenge, putting in more than 30 hours of reading this summer.

• I took some fun trips with my family, to places like Boone, N.C., Carolina Beach, N.C., and Hilton Head Island, S.C., resulting in memories like these:

And a fun night at an Ingrid Michaelson concert!

 So . . . I've been a little busy. It's been great, and I look forward to the new opportunities this next year will bring.

Year in Review

I decided to sit down today and glance through my files so I could get a gauge on what I accomplished in my career this year. I've been fortunate to have a steady stream of work in 2012, but there is definitely room to improve my productivity and branch out into new markets. I'm already making plans to attend at least one writer's conference this year and subscribe to some helpful publishing newsletters. Here's a look at the accomplishments I'm most proud of for 2012:

• My articles appeared in 10 out of 12 issues of Lake Norman CURRENTS.
• I had two bylined articles in Making Waves, the official newcomers guide to Mooresville, N.C.
• I wrote four articles for Great Lake Living, the official newcomers guide to Lake Norman in North Carolina.
• I broke into my first Canadian parenting publication with a reprint.
• My article “Writing for Free Opened the Door for Paying Assignments" appeared in the March 2012 issue of The Writer.
• I began working as editor of Little Ones, a bi-monthly regional parenting publication based in Charlotte, N.C. This past year, I edited and wrote copy and feature stories for all six issues of the magazine.
• My post “My DIY Writing Retreat” appeared on WOW! Women on Writing’s Friday Speak Out blog.
• I wrote my first two short stories for children and am now submitting them to the appropriate markets.
• In November, I wrote the first draft of a middle-grade fiction book in 23 days.
• I made the decision to turn an unpublished manuscript from mainstream fiction into a YA book and am currently working on that outline before I make revisions.

What were some of your most notable accomplishments for the year? What do you hope to accomplish in 2013?