Happy New Year's Eve!

Between working my day job as a medical transcriptionist, taking care of my rotten wonderful kids, and doing all the normal day-to-day things, I've still managed to keep plugging along on the first draft of my book (and I'm even ahead of schedule for hitting my goal!) and spend hours reading other blogs on writing. I've read a lot of very useful information as I mentioned in yesterday's post and I'm trying to incorporate everything I've read into my writing, such as to show and not tell (though my first draft will more than likely be a mixture of both), not to use passive voice, have strong dialogue that doesn't feel forced, etc. It is hard when reading your own work to pick out the errors you've made in some of these areas so, at some point soon, I am going to need to find a great critique partner or group to show my work to. But how do you go about finding the right critique group? I guess a little more research in this area is needed before I can set out to find the right one for me.

I'm really excited about 2010 and all the great things I hope the new year is going to bring for my family and me. My husband and I have been together since 2000 (married since Aug. 2001) and over the last 10 years we've had four beautiful little girls and a lot of ups and downs--more downs than ups. Basically, we've just had 10 years of bad luck but I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be the year our luck changes. In fact, it has already started to. My husband has just received a long-awaited promotion at his job which takes effect January 15 and I'm hoping to have better success with my day job as well as with my writing. Even if 2010 means that all I'll do is write a book or two that sit in a file on my computer without ever seeing the light of day, that's okay with me. But at least then I'll know that I can do it.

On another note though, 2010 is also the last full year that I will be a 20-something. I will turn 29 in 2010 so I want my 20s to go out with a bang and if I can accomplish the goals I've set for myself, I think I can make that happen. :)

Happy New Year everyone! Stay safe, don't drink too much, and make sure you kiss your loved one at midnight and not someone else's! (hence the reason why you shouldn't drink too much--just trust me)