Writing Year Round Up for 2021 Part 3

Here is the third and final part of my Writing Year Round Up for 2021:

In SEPTEMBER I continued to write new chapters on my second book in the Romano series (Christmas Evie being the first), whilst editing Christmas Evie (CE) using my publishers workbook which I sent the updated version of to my editor mid September. I also took part in #PitMad garnering likes for my YA and both my romantic suspense novels.

Following an agent 1-2-1 on Zoom I had more editing notes for my MG novel and attended a GEA Meet the Agent Zoom, an Arvon What is Commercial Fiction Masterclass with Darcy Nicholson and continued to work on my edits for CE. I also submitted my YA and romantic suspense novels following #PitMad and submitted my crime novel to the Myslexia Adult Novel competition and my MG to the Chicken House Open Coop.

In OCTOBER I continued my edit of CE and submitted my picture book to win a writing clinic place with Digital Book Trust winning a place which takes place at the end of this month (January 2022). I attended a BBC Script Writing for Casualty webinar, applied for a Screen Skills workshop place and attended Words in Mind poetry sessions, two of my poems being selected for their upcoming anthology. In the third week of October I sent my completed edits of CE to my editor and was informed the release date would be pushed back to December 2021. The last week of October, I typeset an updated article for a Professor and attended Creative Voices 2 online.

In NOVEMBER I took part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) editing my first romantic suspense novel for submission to my US publishers but mid November I received an email telling me that they were pushing back Christmas Evie until next year. This put me into a deep dark place and I was unable to write or edit anything for the rest of the month or DECEMBER, managing only to enter my MG novel into the Searchlight Awards: Best Novel opening for Children and Young Adults.

As you can see 2021 has been a year of both ecstatic highs and terrible lows but I feel I have learned a lot from both. I am working on re-editing CE with a view to publication in Summer 2022 and my three main goals for the year are: 1) Complete edit for publication in Summer 2022 of Christmas Evie 2) Complete edit of my crime novel for submission to HarperNorth following #PitMad and to the three agents who requested to see it 3) Edit my MG novel following invaluable feedback for submission to agents and competitions. 

My wish list for the year is as follows: 1) Find a publisher for my crime novel 2) Get an agent 3) Get a publishing deal for my 2 romantic suspense novels 4) Enter (and hopefully be longlisted, shortlisted or win) more writing competitions 5) Get a publishing deal for my MG novel and if I can, get my romance sequel to first draft, as that will be a bonus too.

So this year I won't be giving up (despite getting my first rejection on 3 January) but continuing to strive for my dream. I hope you do too.