First the obligatory Happy New Year wishes. May the coming year bring you…yada-yada. You’ve seen it everywhere. I have nothing new to add. (That’s meant to be a New Year’s Bonfire in the pic, btw.)

I’ve been doing a lot of ruminating about this blog over the last few weeks. The past year has been a learning experience; I’ve had to figure out the mechanics of WordPress plus suss out how to approach the world via this blogging thing. I mean really, my first reaction to the idea of personal blogging when I heard about it was, “Why would anyone be interested in what Joe Schmo has to say?” ( I had the same reaction to Twitter, btw. Never buy stock based on what I think of a social media trend.)

So, probably as a legacy of that thinking (why would anyone be interested in what I have to say?) and my inherent nature (shy person forced to be out-going by circumstance), my blog has been relatively, dare I say, dull. Directionless. And above all, harder than hell to write, because I have no idea what’s next.

So, on the assumption that any direction is better than no direction, I’ve chosen a couple, one professional and one personal. Both relate to things I want to accomplish in the next 6 months or so: Complete my next paranormal historical romance (my WIP*, Immortal Champion) in record time and drop 40 pounds. I intend to blog about the writing process, trying to do so in a way that will be interesting to both writers and readers (some technical posts and some that are emotional/inspirational/revelatory). And with luck, I can make the weight loss thing interesting and useful, too, with the daily grind aspects on a secondary blog and posts here for entertainment and accountability purposes.

Accountability. Franky, that’s why I’m doing this. I want your help to keep me on the straight and narrow (as in, how I want my rear profile to be). There’s nothing quite as motivating as the prospect of public humiliation to keep me focused. 

So, that’s the rough plan. Those aren’t the only things I’m going to write about, of course, because I’m kind of an intellectual magpie and pick up all sorts of shiny things that I’ll undoubtedly want to write around. But the processes of creating a book and decreasing my pant size will form the framework for a while.

I’ll check back in tomorrow with a bit more detail, like just what that pant size is (egad), where you can find that secondary blog, where I’m at in my WIP, and how I’m going to approach both projects.

Feel free to question or comment below. I’m especially curious whether any of you want to join me in dropping a few pounds…or in writing a book.

 

 

* WIP = Work In Progress