Anyway, the other thing that the new year means is New Year’s Resolutions. I’ll be honest I’ve never been much of a resolution maker or keeper, but I’m going to go ahead and make some this year. So, here are my writing related New Year’s resolutions:

1. Be a better blogger.

It’s only the second week day of 2012 and this is my second blog post. Sure, yesterday’s was only a sentence long, but I’m still way ahead of my usual blogging tendencies. I can’t promise a new blog post every day, but I’m definitely going to try and be a much more active blogger.

2. Be a better social networker.

This sort of goes along with the be a better blogger resolution, but this includes stuff like Twitter and Facebook and the much neglected Google+. I’m really going to try and stay more active in all these arenas.

3. Write more.

This might seem to contradict the first two resolutions because if I’m spending more time blogging and more time social networking, how can I spend more time writing. My theory is there is always extra time to find in the day. I may even try to do a little more outlining, since I think this will lead to more productive writing time.

4. Enjoy my writing life.

Sometimes I complain that my schedule is too busy or that I have deadlines or that I have to spend time doing all that social networking stuff, but this is stupid. I am very lucky to have my first novel published and a second due out in May. So, you know what? I’m going to try and enjoy all of it, even the tedious stuff.

Well, that’s it for me. What resolutions have you made for yourself in 2012?

As every school kid knows April showers bring May flowers, and May flowers bring pilgrims. So, what do March showers bring? Well, ear infections and floods, but I see a bit more green out there and hear a lot more birds so there are some positive effects as well. I’m hoping that today you are able to find a sunny window of your own, and if not a literal sunny window at least a metaphorical one.

Today I’m over at Adventures in Children’s Publishing for their WOW Wednesday feature writing about writing and being a rebel. So, if you have a chance please stop by.

And in case it didn’t make it to your inbox or you aren’t a subscriber, the latest issue of my monthly writing newsletter is now available. Click here to read it.

Anyway, Gae runs a regular Friday feature on her blog where you can read and provide feedback on the WIPs of different authors, and if you like submit some work of your own for feedback. So if you get a chance stop by to give me some feedback, and if possible share something you’re working on. I’d love to see it!

Like my role model, I was a freelance spy. I worked for no government or other entity. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any real purpose to my spying besides a general gathering of information. I did not work alone. My childhood best friend was also a reader of the Harriet books, and together we would set off through one of our neighborhoods notebooks in hand in search of spy-worthy events. Mostly what we found is that not a whole lot happens in your average suburban neighborhood. As I recall our notes mostly concerned various cars leaving  or entering driveways and the like. Sometimes we found pieces of trash on the ground which we immediately decided were clues in some sort of mystery. The relative lack of spy-worthy subjects meant that my own career in the espionage field was mercifully short.

Still, I think all writers have a little bit of the spy in them. Most of us don’t creep around our neighborhood with notebook in hand, but there’s still plenty to observe whether we are glancing out our bedroom window or people watching at the local coffee shop. Writers observe things that others miss, and like Harriet we don’t always have all the details to explain the peculiar behaviors of our subjects, but we’re pretty good at making stuff up.

Several of my fellow debut authors reached the same conclusion I did. Like me, they write primarily for themselves.

Here’s my response to this week’s question:

Well, it’s nice to see I’m in good company on this one. I mulled this question over some, and have come to the conclusion that I write for myself. One of my favorite writing quotes comes from Toni Morrison who says, “If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” That tends to be my philosophy with everything I write.

On those occasions when I’ve tried to write for a particular audience, I’ve found myself getting stuck. From a marketing standpoint, it may not make a whole lot of sense, but the books I write are books that I would want to read.

Now, my question for my writing readers is this, who do you write for?

This week’s question is: What do you wish someone would have told you when you started writing?

Here’s my answer:

I wish someone had told me to stick to one thing and see it through to the end. It’s lot easier to finish something if you aren’t constantly getting distracted and starting new projects.

Cruise over to Elevensies and see what everyone else had to say.

Also, writers, how would you answer this question?

I’m thinking the life of a pre-internet writer pretty much consisted of sitting at a desk and writing. If they needed to look something up there was probably a dictionary close at hand. Something requiring more research might have involved a short note and a trip to the library at some point.

Modern writers have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Unfortunately, all that information can be a bit distracting. When I need to look something up, I just pop open my web browser (Who am I kidding? It’s probably already opened.) it can be anything from a complex research question to a very basic spelling question. Even though I have a dictionary within reach, it’s still easier to go to Google and let the search engine correct me on my misspelling.

Of course, once I have my answer all I need to do is head back over to the old work in progress, but usually I don’t. I remind myself that’s it’s been awhile since I’m visited those great lands of timesuck known as Twitter and Facebook. Also, I should check my email. I then waste three and half minutes watching the funny video someone sent me. Then I remember to read that blog I like, but there’s a link to another blog, and another. I discover a blog I’ve never read before and am instantly hooked, and oh look she’s soliciting captions or inspired stories for a funny photo so I have to use some of that creativity I should be using on the WIP.

By the time I get back to work, my stomach’s telling me it’s time to take a meal break. The illusion is that computers let us write so much faster than having to write things out by longhand or fighting with a typewriter, but I have a feeling that only computers without web access really let us work faster.

Well, now that I’ve caught up from my internet hiatus, it’s time to get back to work. Well, just as soon as I figure out how to fix my busted iPod. I should probably look that up on Google.

So, if you’d like to learn a little bit more about me and find a great new blog head on over to The Book Scout.

That was nearly as bad as the time I sent my cousin an email about how I had won a writing contest. The only problem was that I had typed it as “one a writing contest.” I don’t know what was worse, the ironic typo or the fact that it was pointed out to me by my art major cousin.

Thankfully WordPress has a built in spellchecker or my most inadvertently funny typo would have been misspelling the word “inadvertently” in the title of this post. It took me three times to get it right.

So, be honest what’s the funniest typo you ever made?

Dorothea had lots of fun writing stories to share including some horror stories from her first book tour including an ill-fated trip to a Georgia Barnes & Noble where the event manager had quit and no one knew about her arrival and she ended up talking to an audience of two who turned out to just be there for the air conditioning. But my favorite part of her talk was her answer to the question of what got her started writing. She told the audience that it was a fight with her husband that made her decide to start writing.

She was mad at her husband for not buying her family home when they had the opportunity to do so, and she was looking for a career that she could take on while also raising her kids. So, she channeled that anger and set her mind to writing. The happy ending is that she has gone on to have a successful writing career and is still happily married to her husband.

There’s a lot of things it’s not advisable to do in anger, but writing, thankfully, is not one of them – well, as long as what you are writing is a work of fiction, and not, say, an email to your boss! So, the next time you get really angry, maybe you should sit down and write a story. Hey, it worked for Dorothea Benton Frank.