2014 Annual Review

For the past several years, I’ve been doing annual reviews of my life and work, based on the format from Chris Guillebeau’s wonderful Annual Review on his blog, The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris’s system is exceptionally detailed, more so than I really need, but the gist is there. It’s a great system for those of us who are self-employed and want to do an assessment of our work for the year. I don’t know about you, but I like accountability. I like the feeling of accomplishment I get when I look back over the past year’s worth of work and see what worked, and what didn’t. Here’s the link to the actual post. Go on over there and take a read. I’ll wait. And if you're interested, here are the links to my previous annual reviews for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The Year in Review - 2014: The Year of Making Do

2014 was the year I was going to slow down. The year I was going to cut back on my writing, limit myself to 2 novels and a short story. And instead, I wrote the most fiction words I have ever written, surpassing last year’s epic word count by 24,000.

And instead of filling me with joy (which it does on many levels, don’t get me wrong), I wanted to cry. No wonder I’ve felt so frazzled. No wonder I’ve felt so overwhelmed. 

You see, as far as executing my goals and sticking with my theme for 2014, I failed. Failed miserably. 

Here’s what I set out to do.

Recognizing how much we have and how little we actually need, 2014 is the year of making do with what's on hand. Not buying new books, but reading the ones I already have. Not buying new clothes and shoes; I already have a closet full. Use the food in the pantry instead of buying more and throwing so much away. Letting the work be focused on quality, instead of quantity. 

My spreadsheet writing goal this year was 200,000. I blew through that in August, and revised upward to 250,000. Early October for that one. I hit 290,114 on New Year’s Eve, and felt guilty when I stopped writing for the year.

Sheesh. I need to realign my priorities. But this is the right kind of problem, isn’t it?

In addition to all the writing, it was a very good year for the books. I released four - WHEN SHADOWS FALL in hardcover and later in paperback, THE FINAL CUT in paperback, and THE LOST KEY in hardcover.

I wrote two full novels and revised two others. THE FINAL CUT mmpbs and THE LOST KEY were big New York Times bestsellers. THE LOST KEY was a lovely critical success as well, receiving a Gold Top Pick from Romantic Times, multiple starred reviews, was named one of Books-A-Million's Best Books of 2014 and a Library Journal Best Thriller of 2014, and tested the boundaries of social media PR campaigns.

I did a major revision on a beloved short story for release in a new anthology this coming June. I signed a new two-book contract with Catherine and Putnam for more Nicholas Drummond novels.

My first solo hardcover, WHEN SHADOWS FALL, released to a starred PW review, a starred Booklist review, an RT Top Pick, was on two end of year best of lists, and is a RT Reviewer's Choice nominee for Best Suspense/Thriller of 2014. Very cool. I’ve now had the same editor for two Sam books in a row, and the continuity has helped my career tremendously. 

I was asked to participate in Brenda Novak’s box sets to raise money for juvenile diabetes, and decided to release CROSSED, the first Taylor Jackson novel that landed me my agent back in 2005 but was never published (with a light revision, of course).

And remember the secret project I’ve been hinting at? I sold my standalone, at long last. NO ONE KNOWS has been four years in the making, and having it finally get the attention it deserves is the absolute capper on a banner year. I worked with my very first editor to make it the best book it could be before it went out on submission, and all that work paid off. I can’t wait to dig into the edits and get it into your hands in 2016.

I met some major goals on the personal side as well. I redid my guest room into a yoga studio, and practiced much, much more. I lost seventeen pounds. I stopped eating wheat, and feel better than I have in years. We did major house renovations and traveled a lot, including a phenomenal surprise birthday trip to Paris. I was a good wife, a good daughter, a good friend and a good kitty mommy. I actually left the house and got together with friends in person, and started attending a fun Friday morning writer’s group at the Coffeeshop. Jameson and Jordan continue to be a blast, making our hearts bigger and fuller than I thought would be possible for another pet after losing Thrillercat. And I realized it was time to hire a local personal assistant to help me juggle the insanity that is 2015. Her name is Amy, and she is utterly divine.

I loved 2014. It was a year of firsts, of great love and wondrous insights. The blessings were innumerable. Looking back, it went so fast, so very fast, and I was very stressed for much of it. I want to fix that this year. 

The Nitty Gritty (aka Nerdology)

My goal was 200,000, and as I mentioned, I blew past that in August. 290,114 is a massive number for me, considering I struggled to make the 270,000 from last year. But that number is misleading, because when I look at the totals, 19,000 of it was in my miscellaneous category. Which means I overwrote and the words were not used in final products. I’m always an underwriter, so I attribute most of this discrepancy to the co-writing, where it’s better to give more rather than less.

Novel-wise, I wrote the second half of THE LOST KEY, all of WHAT LIES BEHIND and the first half of CHECKMATE. I did two major revisions of NO ONE KNOWS, wrote 3,000 words of Sam #5, did a major revision of THE NUMBER OF MAN, adding 3,200 words to the story. I wrote some things I can’t talk about, too, 9,000 words of “other.”

I attended RWA in San Antonio, the Military Book Fair in San Diego, traveled to California to meet with Catherine three times. I spoke to the Alabama Library Association, and met some amazing librarians who are working so hard with so little, and taught the January Jumpstart fiction track for the Tennessee Mountain Writers. We spent two weeks in Colorado for our annual retreat, though much of it prostrate, as CC and I had just finished THE LOST KEY. 

And of course, Paris — and I’ve just realized I haven’t counted the fiction I wrote while there, as for some unfathomable reason (ha-ha) I was completely inspired and began writing another standalone, by hand in a Moleskine, whilst sitting in the cafés of Montparnasse drinking champagne. This is the kind of cliche I want to be! (1,000 words there, and thank goodness I remembered! I need to get that transcribed ASAP.) (And this is why I do this, so I can capture everything…)

I worked closely with Nicole Robson at Trident, Catherine and our team at Putnam to develop an awesome social media campaign for THE LOST KEY. Nicole took my research files from Evernote and photos from my research trip to Scotland to create the awesome collateral. Yet another reason to work with an online capture system like Evernote.

I spoke with several bookclubs and had an awesome launch party for WHEN SHADOWS FALL at B&N Cool Springs, and did a fun event in Nashville at the Cheekwood botanical gardens with Parnassus Books. I also worked a shift for Indies First with my buddies and fellow novelists Ariel Lawhon and Paige Crutcher. I’m not sure Parnassus has recovered. 

All in all, I did a LOT. Wrote a lot, read a lot (55 books) blurbed several wonderful ones, had 15 authors on my blog for interviews, sent 12 newsletters and wrote 100 blogs. The super interesting number is email, which continues to be consistent in the 330k range. That’s 3.3 novels worth of email. Yikes. My non-fiction did grow this year, up 21,000, but can be attributed to more newsletters, the 7 Minutes With blogs, and the speech I had to write for the ALLA keynote. And we gave away tons of books and giftcards on the contest page – with such thanks to Writerspace for all their amazing help!

2014 Word Total: 814,529
Fiction Total: 291,114
Non-Fiction Total: 189,529
Email: 334,000
Fiction Percentage: 36% 

2013 Fiction Total: 270,000 (Fiction 34%)
2012 Fiction Total: 265,000 (Fiction 34%)
2011 Fiction Total: 252,300 (Fiction 35%)
2010 Fiction Total: 198,383 (Fiction 32%)
2009 Fiction Total: 135,738 (Fiction 27%)

The Year Ahead - 2015: The Year of No

2015 is the year I will begin setting real boundaries for myself. As much as I love to say yes, it’s beginning to hurt me. I need to back off traveling for conferences, back down my non-fiction writing, focus more on fiction and being creative at home. I need to work to be more present and more internal — journaling and exercising and meditating regularly. Finding a real writing schedule, the discipline to stick to it, and continue growing great relationships with my readers and fans. Hiring out more professional/business tasks to allow me a deeper focus on my fiction. Be more present, be more creative, read more books, do more yoga, spend more time with friends, and continue working toward my mantra - calm, kind, graceful, focused, strong. And make sure to have more queso dates.

After so many years, I realize these annual intentions are easy to say and hard to execute. This year’s theme is going to be especially hard. I am a yes girl. I love helping others, whether it’s a blurb, or a read, or advice. It’s part of who I am, and I have no intention of changing my fundamental being. I’ve realized I can help people more if I help myself first. I’m not doing anyone any favors being so scattered and intense all the time. It’s stressing me out, and it’s stressing out everyone around me who has to help me reign in and keep focused.

One of the ways I hope to accomplish this is developing a real writing schedule. For many years, my daily goal has been write 1000 words a day, five days a week. WHEN I wrote those words didn’t matter so much as getting them done. If I look at the metrics, writing 260 days a year (that’s 5 days a week) I averaged 1115 words a day. Excellent. On paper, I met my goal. But it didn’t work like that. Some days I wrote 10,000 words, some days I wrote 100, or none at all. Yes, I wrote a buttload, more than ever before, but at what cost?

I had stories that wouldn’t work, books that wouldn’t end, more days with nothing accomplished until 4 or 5 in the afternoon than I’d like to count. As many commitments as I have, I think a little more discipline is in order. I’ve looked to my lovely co-writer as an example, who is a bastion of creative habit skills, and am revamping my day to emulate hers. 

Ergo, I’m going to start writing in the morning. Which means no appointments, no classes, no Facebook and Twitter, no email outside of my VIPs (agent, editors, assistant, CC…) none of that until noon. I want to write from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., five days a week. Three hours a day. Instead of looking to meet a word count, I’m going to work toward uninterrupted, focused writing time. 

Yes, I want my 1000 words, but this way, no matter what, I have words done before the rest of the day begins. If I’m on a roll, I can break for lunch and come back to the page. If not, I’ll walk away knowing I did my best. This seems like a major win-win. I know many writers already do this, and they’re super smart. I’m going to get smarter about how I work. It’s my big, overarching goal of 2015.

Of course, I want to sell more books and reach more people. I’m really looking forward to the releases of both CROSSED and WHAT LIES BEHIND. It will be fun to get Taylor and Baldwin’s meeting out in the open, and the new Sam book is tight and scary and Sam’s really coming into her own. CHECKMATE comes in the fall and will be a total blast, and you’re going to love BASED ON. More on that closer to release. I've contributed a recipe to the MWA Cookbook, and KILLER YEAR will be re-released in paperback in June.

All in all, there is a LOT going on this year, and it’s going to be an amazing 2015. I hope your year is blessed, you reach your goals, and you’re kind to yourself. I know I’ll be trying to do the same.

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In case you're interested, here are the tools I use to keep track of my world:

• Daily word trackers (excel spreadsheets) from graphic artist Svenja Liv
• Scrivener - their Project Target tools allow me to set a deadline and see exactly what my daily word count needs to be.
• Day One - journaling, keeping track of major events and minor triumphs, idea capture
• Squarespace - my web platform, where I host this blog, Tao of JT
• Wunderlist - the very best online To Do list
• iCal - I have both online and paper calendars. I don't like carrying a day planner, so I use my phone when I'm out and traveling
• Journal 21 - my dayplanner, annual planner and logbook
• Clairfontaine and Moleskine notebooks - idea capture, notes, book notebooks, research, planning
• Pilot Knight Fountain pen - beautiful, sturdy, a real workhorse
• MacAir - the all day battery life is essential to my well-being.

10.30.14 - How Do You Use Your Writing To Attain Your Goals?

Last week I asked a hard question - why do you write? Now that you’ve had time to think about it, I have another question for you. 

How do you use your writing to attain your goals?

• Do you lose yourself in story?
• Do you spend your time deep inside your characters heads?
• Do you talk about your work on social media?
• Do you keep plugging away on the same book, year after year?
• Do you write when the spirit moves you?
• Do you wait for lightning to strike and the perfect story to land in your lap?
• Do you write every day, with a schedule and attainable goals? 
• Do you honor your writing time, and expect those around you to honor it too?
• Do you take yourself seriously?
• Do you learn about publishing, enough to understand which path you want to take?
• Do you procrastinate, then complain to friends how hard writing is?

You already know the answer to the question, don’t you? The only way to succeed at your writing goals, no matter what they are, is to show up to do your work. Yes, lightning strikes. How many writers can you name who’ve had that one idea that propelled their career and allowed them to never write another book again? Harper Lee comes to mind. J.D. Salinger. 

Ergo, it doesn’t happen all that often. You have to write. You can’t succeed in your career if you don’t write the book of your heart, right now. Write the book that you’ve always wanted to write. Life is too damn short to wait. What if, God forbid, something happened to you tomorrow, and you hadn’t worked on it?

Yes, yes, we have to maintain our careers. We have to feed the family and make the deadlines. But I challenge each and every one of you to spend five minutes each and every day writing the book of your heart.

Because guess what? That’s the book that will break you out. Break you free. Your passion for the story, the characters, the setting, will translate.

And it might break you entirely. You may feel like you’ve already written that book, and no one responded. Or it didn’t achieve the acclaim you wanted. Revisit it. You’re a better writer now. You’ve learned so much. You’ve achieved so much. You can rebuild it. Make it stronger. You know it’s not perfect. Nothing ever is.

Five minutes a day. Only five. Two hundred words. That’s a solid, single, solitary paragraph. That’s all it takes. You do that everyday, starting tomorrow, and the book of your heart will be there waiting for you in a year. 

And when you’re ready, you can love your perfect story into being. Sell it, sit on it, whatever. 

But isn’t THAT why we’re writers? To tap into our very souls and create something that makes our hearts sing?

10.22.14 - Why Do You Write?

I find the following question to be one of worth to all writers, at every stage of the game, from aspiring to NYT bestseller:

Why do you write? 

I admit to a deep interest in the question. I have a number of author friends whose opinions matter to me a great deal, and I’m curious to see if any of them will stop by and share their answer.* 

I ask also because I recently had the pleasure of attending a writing retreat with a number of brilliant, talented writers, and we touched on this, albeit briefly. I came out of the discussion with this -- I think it’s one of the hardest questions a writer can ask themselves, and truthfully answer.

Because there are a million answers to the question of why create art. Especially when there’s quite a precedent that shows creating our unique “art” does not guarantee fame, fortune, or self-actualization, as so many of us are hoping. On the contrary, it often leads to rack and ruin, unhappiness and divorce, even, at its worst, death.

So why do we keep at it? What is it that drives us?

Here’s a top of mind list of why we write (and by write, I mean create, in any form):

• To be read
• To make a living
• To win awards
• To become famous
• To get a job
• To tell stories that need to be told
• To entertain
• To affect change
• To give people something to think about
• To alter the course of humanity
• To show someone you can
• To get rich
• To win over a love interest
• To get revenge
• To chase away demons
• To satisfy some indefinable inner urge to write
• To heal thyself

There are many more reasons. What do you think, fellow scribblers? Are you willing to share why you do it? I’ll go first. 

I write to entertain, to affect change, to make a living, to chase away demons, to heal my soul, and because I can’t imagine doing anything else.

What about you?

*The comments section of the blog is back open! All previous issues with SPAM have been fixed, and I’ve discovered I like having the conversation here. So feel free to join in, writer and reader alike!

9.2.14 - On Living Out Loud, With Thanks

Writing used to be a solitary endeavor. I’ve only been in the game for ten years, and when I started, it was a solitary endeavor. I wrote in a vacuum, not knowing any other authors, unaware of writers' organizations, agents, editors, sales channels and marketing plans. I wrote for me, and when I finished my first book, my husband read it, and thought it was pretty good. A friend who knew I was writing a novel offered to read it. He too liked it. The next thing I knew, I was at the library checking out a copy of the Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents, and had an editor reading my pages for continuity and grammar.

Things took off quickly after that. A year later, I had a agent, and a year after that, a three-book deal. I’d joined a critique group, started blogging, first for my own blog, then on Murderati. I put up a Facebook page, began the race to accumulate “friends.” Shortly thereafter, Twitter joined the mix.

I was no longer alone.

Fast forward ten years. I’ve just turned in my 15th novel. Pinterest, Instagram and Goodreads have all become a daily ritual like Facebook and Twitter. I send monthly newsletters to a lot of people. I do chats, and blog, and create clever contests.

I am living out loud.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with sharing myself online. From the very beginning, I was incredibly careful what I put out there. I’m an introvert, and I like my privacy. I like sharing JT the author with people, but I also wanted to keep me separate from all of that. It was a learning curve. Whenever I let a piece of me into the mix, I felt raw and vulnerable, oddly exposed, like I’d walked into a cocktail party without my clothes, and everyone was staring.

Keeping the two parts separate was a nice ideal. It couldn’t sustain.

Years ago there was a successful writer whose blog I followed. She was a funny, quirky blogger, full of interesting tips about the writing process and publishing in general. And she talked about when writing was hard. 

-Gasp-

She talked a lot about it. So much so that some other nameless authors tried to run her off for being overly dramatic and whiny. So much so that even I read a few posts cringing. 

How could you put yourself out there like that? People will think you’re weak. People will think you’re lazy. People will think …

I was new. Bright, shiny. Brimming with ideas and exuberance. Unstoppable. The idea of writer’s block was a joke. That it would be anything but easy to sit down and write a book? Bosh. And that you might actually admit out loud to strangers reading your blog that you were struggling? Heresy. 

I know now I was running on a sort of extended adrenaline those first few years. Life does get in the way. Sometimes, writing is hard. Really freaking hard. It cuts you open just to watch you bleed, and laughs at you as you struggle on hands and knees to cross the room to your desk. And let’s not get into the parts that are out of your control: bad laydows, terrible art decisions, marketing plans that disappear, accounts dropped, promises broken.

This is a fucking heartbreaking industry, in so many ways, yet we soldier on in silence, for the most part, because there is an old adage that reads: Never let them see you sweat. 

I’ve always tried to stick to that advice, simply because of that open, honest blog I used to read. It seemed so voyeuristic, to see inside another writer’s heart. To watch her bleed to death, slowly, in public, while others cast aspersions from their ivory towers.

I’m not sure when I crossed the first line myself. But over the years, I’ve shared more and more. The lines between me and that JT girl blurred, becoming nonexistent. The day I too was stuck and thinking about giving up, I reminded myself of the blog I’d read with such disdain as a child author, realizing that what she was doing was her therapy, and wrote about it myself. It helped. God in heaven, it helped. 

I’ve never been good with weakness, from myself or from others. My BFFs know if you come to me with a problem, you first need to tell me if you simply need to blow off steam, because if not, I will find a path for you to fix whatever issue is nagging at you. It’s a character flaw, I think, but I’ve learned to live with it.

Sometimes, though, I need to be weak. I need to vent. I need to cry. I need.

Writing WHAT LIES BEHIND was one of those times. It was by far the hardest book I’ve ever written. Storylines wouldn’t work. Characters weren’t behaving. I was stuck, blocked, for weeks, trying machination after machination to get the story to work. Five months of head banging frustrations, slipping into despair more than once, thinking about shelving the whole thing and giving up.

And I blogged about it. I talked about it on Facebook. And on Twitter. I wined and complained and lived out loud.

And you came to my rescue.

You held me up. You encouraged me. You offered ideas, paths to cross over to different switchbacks. You sent prayers and namastes and care packages.  You saw that I was weak, and needed help, and you rose to the occasion without a moment’s hesitation.

Social media gets a bad rap sometimes. Yes, it’s a distraction. Yes, it takes time away from our creative endeavors. But when you build a community of incredible people who will lift you up when you’re falling? It is worth every second.

You got me through this book. Knowing I wasn't alone kept me going, day after day. And it is with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat that I give you my most humble thanks. I couldn’t have done it without you. When I turned the book in Saturday, I breathed a sigh of relief so huge I think I started a tropical storm in the Gulf.

Walk a mile in another man’s shoes, right?   

8.5.14 - On Showing Up

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I read a great article this morning by Leo Babuta called “Making Yourself Work.” It's an excellent piece, and I highly recommend reading it. For the crib notes, Leo makes a point I’m sure you’ve heard before: Showing up is the most important part of getting your work done.

But we’re creatives, you say. We work for ourselves, at our own pace. We have freedom! We decide whether to open our manuscript or go have lunch with friends. Our boss isn’t going to chuck us out the door for not showing up. We’re just creating stories for our readers, or music for an unseen audience, or paintings for future clients. We don’t have to punch a clock. That's why we got into this racket.

We have such a delicate faith in ourselves. If we build it, you will come. So there’s no need to really push ourselves. We’ll get it done. Someday. 

Right?

Wrong. Like in any other profession, if creatives don’t show up for work, we do get fired. And being fired by your Muse is a pretty shitty thing to have happen.

This is why I preach discipline. Creativity is a muscle that gets stronger and more defined the more you work it. You have to touch the manuscript (painting, song, lyric, blog, etc.) you’re working on every day. I think this is the most important part of being a creative. 

If you can’t write new words, you need to edit. If you can’t edit, start at the beginning, and read. Renumber your chapters. Change the font. Count the words. Eventually, things will click, and the words will pour onto the page.

But if you write one day, then walk away, the muscles atrophy. And it gets harder and harder to call the Muse down on your terms. When you start working to hers? You’re screwed, because she can be very flirty.

At least, mine can. I too need this reminder. The new Sam book is starting to shape up, and I have been working hard on it. I’m in the last big stretch, the last 25K, and I hit a stumbling block today. 

I started a scene at 11:30. At 12:30, I broke for lunch, having only written 100 words. At 1:30, I had 200, and was lost. I didn’t know why in the hell the scene was here. But something told me it was important. I’ve been doing this long enough to trust my Muse when she starts something.

All afternoon, it went like this. Me staring at the page. Not knowing what I was doing. I went back a few chapters, editing forward. Still nothing. Had a chat with my agent. Still nothing. Decided to call it a day with 300 words, very disappointed. And as I was closing the manuscript, boom. It hit me. I looked back over those meager 300 words, and saw where my subconscious was going. It is a HUGE golden thread that allows me to answer an entire subplot’s critical question, and might just be the last puzzle piece I’ve been looking for.

If I hadn’t read Leo’s blog this morning, I might have given up earlier this afternoon, when I wasn’t feeling it. But I kept after it, and something magical happened. I finished with only 1000 words, but what would have happened if I'd given up? 

Showing up is 9/10th of the battle. I love proving it to myself. Prove it to yourself, too.

Write hard, my friends.

While I was struggling this morning, I added a new page to my website with some live interviews and podcast links. Check it out!