Happy Belated Birthday (to me from you)

Each year I select a few major goals to try to accomplish. They provide me focus. Sometimes I succeed with all of them; often I find I was too ambitious and am only partially successful. I’m flexible; as life changes I make modifications. That’s been a good thing this year.

For 2012 my writing goals were to:

   1. Promote my bridge book One Trick at a Time: How to start winning at bridge that Master Point Press released in early spring. I planned to attend a number of bridge tournaments, give mini-lectures and write monthly bridge columns for one of my bridge club’s newsletter, which had a wide distribution.

   2. Find a publisher for Bad Policy, a novel of suspense (having unsuccessfully tried the agent route).

   3. Submit Cabin Fever, the sequel to Bad Policy to agents.

   4. Develop a wider social presence.

#1. On the bridge front, the first negative development was that at the beginning of the year the club decided to fold the newsletter, ending my monthly columns. Then, during the first tournament I attended, Jan took ill and had to be hospitalized. Naturally I rushed home, cancelling a book signing.

A month later, just before I was to go to the next bridge tournament, this one a national, Jan again got sick and this time underwent surgery. I cancelled the national and during her recovery cancelled an additional tournament. This autumn, just as I was about to begin a second series of tournaments, my father died, forcing me to again change plans.

#2. I was wildly successful with finding a publisher for Bad Policy. I sent out only two query letters, got positive responses from both and ended up choosing Barking Rain Press.

#3. Before I could submit Cabin Fever, I needed to do a rewrite, give it to beta readers, polish to near perfection, craft the query letter and synopsis, research agents, and send out the letters. Even with the various setbacks, I’m through the polishing, but with the time necessary to deal with Dad’s passing, I have not started the query process. That’s what I plan to accomplish this month, so perhaps I can still reach this goal.

#4. I rejoined Writers Who Kill as an active blogger, revamped my website to allow people to buy my bridge book directly, but I have otherwise bogged down.

This is where my belated birthday wish comes in: I want to provide my readers (current and potential) with a quarterly newsletter. However, I personally hate spam and so am unwilling to just send it to everyone in my address book. I’ve signed up with tinyletter.com to manage my newsletter, and now I need people to let me send it to them.

So my birthday wish: please sign up for the newsletter. Signing up will entitle you to receive a link to read the first four chapters of Bad Policy when they are available. I’ll provide background information and details about where and when you can purchase my books. You’ll get information about my appearances. You’ll be the first to see the cover art Barking Rain Press designed.

I promise not to abuse your trust and inundate you with junk email. I will only send you something at most once a quarter. The sign-up process does not take long. Click the link and provide your email. You’ll get a confirmation from tinyletter to make sure you are real, not a bot, and that you and not someone else signed you up. You can always remove your name from the list, but before you can to that, of course, you need to sign up first. Isn’t that an inexpensive birthday present?

And thank you.

~ Jim