#FreshStart - Carolyn Hector

It’s the beginning of a whole new year; what time could possibly be better to become more motivated and inspired? You have a whole 365 days ahead of you, and now is the time to start making them count, so we're asking authors what they've got planned for the year ahead!

Carolyn Hector talks about her goals for the coming year, and how she utilises everything possible to stay on track.

It’s that blinking cursor on a blank page. The endless stories. The towns to build, quirky people to introduce to the world, and creating that perfect book-boyfriend for someone.

I’m not sure which I enjoy more. The beginning of a new school year with new clean unused notebooks or a new clean slated year to plan my next big adventure.

I can’t use the inspirational phrase, “If you write a page a day, you’ll have a 365-page novel in a year”. I’m a working mom raising five boys. There are days I’m just happy both my shoes match, and by the end of some work days when I have to attend another school meeting or function, I’m just happy to not arrive wearing pieces of my lunch from earlier.

My goals this year?

Better organize my characters
Write three contemporary romance novels
Attend RWA
Pitch to an agent/publisher during one of the #PitXX

My planner book has me all excited about being more organized. What planner? The one from Me & My Big Ideas. I get the undated ones and make my own calendar based on my goals. How do I plan on doing this if I don’t write every day? It is going to be about what I get done when I get my writing in. And, I am going to schedule it on my calendar. Motivational stickers, colorful pencils… It’ll be fun. Because I’m using an undated calendar, I can use it as an organizer as well as my plotting book. All those entertainment magazines from last year with the sharp outfits I can imagine my characters wearing… Guess what? It’s going in the pages to help me keep track of who is wearing what in each scene.

I’m saving for RWA now, entered the contest, and signed up as a judge. This is one of those no-brainer goals… As in... It will be done—leaky washing machine or squeaky breaks be-damned!

Romancelandia seems to be opening its doors to new books to different viewpoints. It was great seeing non-POC vouching for AOC (Authors of Color). I am a holiday-movie-loving gal and this year was quite the smorgasbord of movies featuring people of color celebrating Christmas just like the rest of world who celebrate Christmas. It would be nice if that continued as well as incorporate other POC in these movies and books. I’d like to read a Hanukah holiday romance. I’d like to see it made into a movie. Last month there was an exciting buzz about older heroes and heroines gracing the covers of romance books. I am so totally excited for that “trend” to kick in. I love all my beauty queens but keeping my characters under thirty can be challenging. These kids—I’m old enough to call them kids—are way smart and tech-gifted. I still have manuscripts with flip-phones!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… The Harlequin Kimani line is coming to an end. I still have no home with a publisher. I haven’t looked anywhere else, to be honest, but with completing these three books, I hope to set my goals into motion. This means besides getting up in the mornings while waiting on the boys to get up and get dressed, I’m going to dedicate more time on the weekends. I have my family involved with this. Just the other day when I was trying to be funny with my son on Facebook when he made a comment on a post during school hours, he clipped back with a “Don’t you have 700 words to write?” Okay… Sometimes public shaming helps. I’m positing my goals for the world to see, or at least the readers of The Pink Heart Society and hopefully if you see me on Twitter or Facebook doing random things, feel free to ask me how my writing goals are going.

As long as I stay on track this year, the next best thing I’ll see on a screen—well, besides a contract—will be The End… Just 3 times.

And as for the other goals we give ourselves, the typical “lose weight” “Stop cursing” “Eat Healthier” … There's the January 17th is National Ditch Your Resolutions Day.

Happy New Year, y’all!

Carolyn's latest release, Her Mistletoe Bachelor, is out now. For more information about her and her writing, check out her website, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.