Celebrating our Achievements

At my work, we have a new standing agenda item on every meeting in the organisation. It's called Celebrating our Achievements, and every meeting must start by mentioning and celebrating positive achievements by our staff.

So, I am rolling out "Celebrating our Achievements" to the Bootcampers. As 2010 comes to a close its important we celebrate the great work our writers have done over the year. When I put the call out to the Bootcampers to give me their achievements, I had a great response. Congratulations to all on their achievements in 2010, some of which are listed below.

Eleni Konstantine

• Healer’s Destiny - polished, submitted to agents and entered into 4 competitions.
• Registrar for Romancing the Novel.
• Attended Coogee Conference – pitched to agent and editor
• Attended BootiCon!
• Obtained funding to help with Coogee costs.
• Attended WorldCon
• Entered 2 short story competitions. (one a brand new story)
• Submitted short stories to markets.
• Wrote one new short story needing work.
• Dream Tamer – first draft completed.
• Presented a Blogging Workshop at the Writers’ Centre
• Won the Little Gems cover contest
• Focusing more on writing and less volunteer work.
• Published on Antipodean SF, November issue with ‘The Bucket"
• Mirror, Mirror flash fiction accepted for publication by Mindflights e-zine
• Undertook Bob Mayer course via RWNZ
• Reading – lots done and a range of different genres/subgenres. Fun.
• Nominated for the Lynne Wilding Meritorious Service Award.

Goals for 2011

• Edit – DreamTamer, Gateway to Hell, Clown story, sanctuary sci-fi story (for Aus anthology)
• Write – Shadow novella, Lady & the Dragon, short story for MZB’s Sword & Sorcery anthology
• Read resources on writing I have on my shelf.
• Overhall website
• Enter Little Gems Short Story
• Enter Little Gems cover contest
• Submit once stories are polished :) Hoping to sumbit one novel, two novellas and 6 short stories.

Dana’s Achievements for 2010

• completed two more semesters of uni (only four more to go!)
• finished a synopsis for Believe in Fairy Tales
• entered the STALI
• entered HM&B’s New Voices comp
• started a new manuscript in a new genre
• learned heaps through Bootcamp, Breathless in the Bush, the RWA’s Perth Roadshow, and the RWA’s 2010 Sydney conference
• pitched to and editor and an agent (got requests from both)
• studied a new writing topic every two months
• built on and founded new relationships with other writers

Nikki Logan

A whole bunch of firsts for me this year...

• Saw my first book on the shelves (Feb 2010, and then quickly followed it up with two more and a novella before the end of 2010).
• Signed a contract for books 7-9.
• Got my first royalty cheque
• Entered the RITA for the first time (didn't final though)
• Did my first general public romance writing workshop and RWA workshop

Tracey's achievements for 2010:

• Made the second round of the Emerald award.
• Finishing TAFE course.
• Attended Coogee conference, with successful pitch to Harlequin.
• Entered my first international writing contest.

Fiona's 2010

• Entered the 2010 Little Gems Short Story Competition, and story was accepted for publication in the anthology
• Entered the 2010Valerie Parv Award and received good feedback
• Entered the 2011 Emerald Award, waiting….
• Attended the RWA conference and Booticon and met all of the Bootcampers
• Managed the RWA Group Grants Scheme
• Volunteered as Editor on work newsletter and published six editions

I'm sure everyone will agree this is a FABULOUS list of achievements. Congratulations to all. As 2010 draws to a close, and thoughts turn to New Years, I urge you to make a list of writing goals for 2011, then in December next year, you too will be celebrating the year's achievements.

Happy writing in 2011 everyone.

Future Gazing - 2015

My face to face group are having a writing retreat at the end of May and this week my invite arrived for Friday night cocktails. What a fabulous challenge - each member of the group is to come as their "writer self" as they will be in 2015. Props such as published books are encouraged and from the moment we arrive Friday night we are in 2015.

This has got me thinking during the drive to and from work. Here's some things I know as facts:

• I'll be closer to fifty than forty, still fit and healthy and not ready to start aging.
• I'll still be trying to build a retirement house on a block of land two and a half hours from home (and still trying to clear the fences)
• My trusty station wagon (The Saxon Warhorse) will be retired
• My gentle giant of a dog (aged 10) will no longer be with us
• My galloping pup (aged 1) will have grown a brain and hopefully stopped eating things - last week it was a cupboard handle from the kitchen
• I'll still be writing and actively seeking publication. And I'll be improved from where I am now.

And now the things I can't be sure of:

• I'll be published somewhere (But I'm thinking positive so now I have to mock up some books)
• I'll have a website and a pen name
• Maybe an assistant (for the fan mail)
• And a cleaning lady
• I'll need a new car - what to choose - station wagon (farm car), SUV, sports car
• I might have finished the house and moved. I'll have a fireplace for all those cold winter's days and nights I spend writing.

So, all you writers out there, have a think about where you want to be five years from now, make a list and start working towards it. Keep it somewhere safe, pull it out every year and check your progress. You never know where you'll end up in the year 2015.

New Year's Resolutions

Do you make new year resolutions?

I try to have a few, and I always choose a challenge outside my comfort zone. So previous new years resolutions included "learn to do cryptic crosswords" and "run a marathon". And I succeeded with both of these resolutions, even if it did take five years and hours of lessons from my mate Hugh to crack the cryptics. And hours and hours of training to run a marathon only slightly faster than a group of competitive walkers in their seventies.

So this year, my resolutions include "spend less time doing cryptic crosswords and spend more time writing" and "do the Gold Coast Half Marathon (if my knees hold up)"

But when it comes to goal setting, my face to face writing group, the Belles have it all sewn up. At the first meeting of the year, members write down their writing goals for the coming year in a special book, and we look back to see how they progressed the year before. In the wilderness that is pre-publication, celebrating the successes of the group members is one of the things I look forward to at the start of the year. Walking into that meeting, most of us think we haven't achieved much with our writing, but we leave invigoratated by our success and ready for the year ahead.

So what are your writing goals this year?