Another year glides over the horizon. Like a fair-weather friend who drifts into your life for a short time and then disappears, I feel like I’ve hardly gotten to know 2017. It barely seemed to have started, and suddenly I’m saying good bye to it.

Then again, maybe I should be saying good riddance. The year definitely did not pan out the way I’d hoped. I wasn’t expecting to be looking for a new job, barely two weeks in, and I wasn’t expecting to be looking for a new job again several months later.

As the year comes to an end, and with the security of a stable job at last, as well as a few other personal issues resolved (at least for now), it’s time to look back and revisit the goals I set for myself, and see what I’ve been able to achieve.

1. The new novel – Through the Flame – yes, goal achieved. I was proud to release Through the Flame in February. Since then it’s been racing up the bestseller lists. Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration (or maybe a really huge exaggeration) but after 10 years of development work (from initial idea to final edits) it still feels like a great achievement.

2. The next picture book – Bella and the Blue Genie – unfortunately still haven’t been able to put the finishing touches on this one. Sometimes I wonder if it had a genie’s curse placed on it, given how difficult it’s been. Hoping to have it available early next year but at this stage still can’t be sure of anything.

3. Another picture book – given the difficulties getting even one picture book out, there was no chance I was going to get another picture book out as well

4. More new picture book manuscripts – I did manage to have some success in this regard. I actually wrote texts for three new picture books. No idea how publishable they might be but I’m happy to add them to my growing list of manuscripts with potential.

5. A new novel – good news is I did achieve success in this regard. I started on the new novel in March and have made good progress on a first draft – over 70K words now completed which makes it substantially longer than anything else I’ve written. It’s also substantially more complex, with two interwoven narratives and a mix-up of genre that includes fantasy, comedy, adventure, satire and romance. I’m hoping to have the draft done early in the new year, and then I’ll let it sit for a while – possibly several months. It’s going to need a heap of rewriting so a final release is going to be several years away.

6. Just generally be less stressed and more happy – well I do have to laugh looking back at this now. 2017 was definitely one of the more stressful years I’ve faced, so it’s hard to consider this goal as anything but a failure. Still, I’ve come out the other side. I feel like I’m a stronger person for managing, and I also feel the main relationships in my life are stronger, so that’s one way I can try to take the positives out of it.

Hope you had a stress free and satisfying 2017 and all your goals were satisfactorily met. I’ll see you in 2018.