A Quick Look Back Before Stepping Forward

2009 closed quietly for me. We celebrated my youngest brother's birthday and just played board games as a family. Since then, I've laid low, enjoying some well-deserved peace and quiet following the tumultuous year that passed. I've played video games, taken down my Christmas decorations, and watched some movies. But I feel that I've earned it as I've put in a solid year of work in 2009.

Rachel Vincent has gotten me addicted to the numbers of the business as she frequently posts numbers related to finishing a book or a year. I like it because it gives tangible evidence that I actually got something done in 2009.

For the curious:
Books written: 2 (Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk)
Words written: more than 235,000 words and deleted thousands more
Revised: 2 books (Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk)
Copyedits: 1 book (Pray for Dawn)
Released: 2 books (Dayhunter and Dawnbreaker) and 1 anthology novella (Unbound)
Attended 1 conference (RomanticTimes Book Lovers Convention)
Gave away more than 2 dozen signed books
Had first solo book signing

Up for 2010:
Releases: 2 (Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk)
Books to write: contracted for 1, hoping to finish 3
many edits
Conferences to attend: at least 2 (RomanticTimes Book Lovers Convention and Romance Writers of America Convention)

Speaking of writing books, I have finally started chipping away at the work for Book 6. On Sunday, I actually finished the plot outline for the book. I was having trouble with this one so I turned to post-it notes on a blank wall. When I started, I knew about this much -- just a few post-it notes. It was sad and more than a little daunting.

However, after letting the book stew in the back of my brain for a few days and staring at the wall, the plot finally started to fill itself out. The pink and yellow are two major plotlines, the blue is a major subplot, and the orange are some minor writing notes to myself. It still needs some smoothing out and filling in, but that will come when I tranfer this format to a formal outline and then an synopsis for my editor. With any luck, I will actually start writing the novel either late tonight or tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to writing this one. I'm trying out some new techniques, revisiting some old characters that I haven't seen in a while, and I just miss playing in the Dark Days world. What's more, I actually have a title for this one -- something that never occurs to me. I doubt it will get past my editor, but it's a starting place. Fingers crossed.