Happy New Year, everyone!

I know, I know. But Aubrey, we're 11 days in, aren't you running a little behind here?

Yeah, I am. But at this rate that shouldn't surprise anyone. I really do have a good excuse, too. I was in Tennessee over the New Year, as my best friend got married on the 30th. And all last week I was playing catch-up at my day job after being out for two weeks. That might have been the longest week ever. Seriously.

Now, though, I'm getting back in the saddle. And getting back in the saddle means thinking about my writing goals for this year.

So without any further adieu:

1. Continue to submit BGNLT to agents. Someone will fall in love with this book, dammit.
2. Begin to work on my next women's fiction/rom com Fourth and Inches. Well, when I say begin to work on, I mean I have the first chapter written (and workshopped!), but haven't looked at it in forever and a day. Plus, with football season ending, I'll need to get my football fix somehow or another.
3. Submit at least two--if not three--stories as my alter ego to my alter ego's publisher. One of these will hopefully be novel-length (50K to 120K, most likely between 50K and 75K). I've already started writing my next story for this goal, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Simple goals, right? They're flexible, too, which is always a good thing. Notice I haven't said, "Find an agent" for goal number 1. While I really do want to find an agent for BGNLT, I also realize that saying I'll find an agent this year could be unrealistic, as that part is something I have little control over. All I can do to see that happen is to continue submitting, writing those query letters and keeping my fingers crossed. I am, however, toying with the idea of setting a goal of submitting to one agent a week. Last year I was trying to submit to five at a time, but with moving and then the holidays coming up and deadlines for my alter ego, that just, well, yeah. So I think for this year, saying I'll submit to one agent a week is a good, solid goal that's easily achieved. If I happen to submit to more than one a week, good for me.

For anyone wondering, I have already submitted to one agent/agency. If I haven't heard back from them by February 1, I'll know they passed on the manuscript, so at least it's a pretty fast turnaround. I'm still waiting to hear back from one agent I queried last year and who requested a partial, and I'm thinking I might need to shoot her an email just to make sure she hasn't mailed something to my previous address and it hasn't been forwarded.

Since I've shared my writing goals for 2009 with y'all, what are YOUR 2009 goals? Anything interesting or exciting?