January 06, 2021

A NEW YEAR



IWSG BOOK CLUB ON GOODREADS:

Our book club is changing things up!

We will have quarterly book selections now, giving us more time to read. We will also have one fiction book selection and one writing craft book selection. Members can read both or choose between them. Finally, we won’t be offering 5 optional discussion questions anymore. Instead, we will be utilizing the polls that our members enjoy, so there will be one poll question for the fiction book and one for the non-fiction book on Discussion Day.

Our December/January/February reads are…

Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor, a book written in second person. Since many readers haven’t read a book in second person, and many writers haven’t written in second person, we figured this is a great chance to explore something new.

Preparing to Write Settings that Feel Like Characters by J Lenni Dorner. 
This will be our writing craft book, with a focus on settings.


Discussion Day for both books will be February 24, 2021!



***

A NEW YEAR

Every start of a new year I have a list of goals or things I hope to do, but not this year. This year, I am going to keep it simple.

MY GOALS:

BE & DO

BE who I am.

BE the best Chrys I can be.

DO what I want.

DO what feels right.

I also have two words that'll be my mantras/mottos for 2021. I couldn't settle on just one. I came up with these early in the morning on December 22, after the Winter Solstice and The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius, when I couldn't fall back asleep. They popped into my head when I wasn't even thinking about what my positive word(s) would be.

MY ONE-WORD MANTRAS:

REACH
for new things.

BUILD
my dreams into realities.


QUESTION: What are your goals and positive word(s) for 2021?


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

48 comments:

  1. More time to read is always good! I haven't had time for the book club reads yet - we'll see if I can this time. J Lenni's sounds great.
    I love your words - interesting that forms of both of them are title words for my Bloo Moose & upcoming series!
    My last year's word was Risk - I think this year will be Forward.
    Wishing you all the best for the year, Chrys!!

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    1. I'm glad my book sounds great to you! <3

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    2. You're right about the titles for your Bloo Moose series. I have Reaching for Normal on my TBR list. It's on my Kindle now. :)

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  2. My biggest goal is to get back out there for live events. Audio and eBooks did well last year but print sales took a hit. I'm ready to move them this year and spotlight several of our latest releases.

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    1. The fact that audio and eBooks did well is something to be very thankful for. I know as an author that I am grateful for that, because print book royalties are so small, far less than that of eBooks and audio books.

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  3. Look at you being all positive and goal-oriented.

    My goal for 2021 is the same as it is every day - make it until tomorrow. ;-)

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    1. Make it until tomorrow is a perfect goal for 2021.

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  4. Sounds like excellent goals and mantras to take into the new year.

    As always, wishing you all the best!

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  5. Sometimes one word just doesn't cut it. :) My word this year is FOCUS. Focus on what I'm doing in the moment, focus on what direction I'm heading in, etc. Over the years, I've gotten much more distracted and it's time to rein that in.

    Good luck with your goals, Chrys!

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    1. Focus is a great word for 2021. I was distracted a lot in 2020 (I think we all were), so FOCUS is great.

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  6. I'm that little kitten hanging on to that branch. Caption: Hang in there. And yes! I am that cute. hehehe

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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    1. I love that gif of the kitten. Hang in there, Anna!

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  7. Nice mantras for 2021! I don't have one, but now you've got me thinking.

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  8. Good selection, Chrys. I like the mix of fiction and non-fic.

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    1. We usually did one of each at a time, but it's nice to have them as a choice - one of the other. Or both. :)

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  9. Great positive words. Mine are: be kind, grateful, helpful, and hopeful that better times are coming

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  10. Good post. My goal is to up my productivity and not be afraid of hard topics. Also, letting go of fear and worry. Happy IWSG!

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    1. Not being afraid of hard topics is an important one, especially since hard topics have come up a lot last year and will likely continue to do so this year.

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  11. Happy New Year Chrys, I love your £Goal List" for this year.

    Take care and safe.
    Yvonne.

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  12. I love your goals and mantras! I really like the idea of the one word mantras. Maybe I'll try coming up with one or two of my own for this year.

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  13. Fantastic post! Thanks for the mention of my book.

    I hope your New Year is going well. I only read and reviewed 23 books last year, but my goal for this year is 30. My other goals are to publish another fiction book in 2021, do the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April, and increase the number of authors helped by Operation Awesome.

    I think "determined to try" would be my positive manta for 2021. Last year it became more about survival.

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    1. You're welcome!

      You are great goals, J Lenni. I wish you all the best with them.

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  14. Hi Chrys - excellent about the book club. I like your idea about keeping things simple and just being gentle ... I think I'm just going to remain positive and give everyone smiles ... hopefully cheering them too. All the best - Hilary

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    1. Give everyone smiles...I like that...I may have to give emoji smiles, though, since no one can see me smile through my mask. lol

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  15. I LOVE your goals and mantras. Such great intentions of positive change. My words: gratitude, grace, and service.

    Warmly,
    Elsie

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  16. Nice goals for the year! Last year I had a fancy list and I was only able to check off about two. It was too insane for me, but yours is very doable.

    My conintuing goal for 2021 is to be my best self!

    ♥.•*¨Elizabeth Mueller¨*•.♥

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    1. Being your best self is a lovely goal to always have. :)

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  17. I like your approach to this year, on which we are all putting so much. Being and doing may well take all my time! In fact, those might be my one-word mantras: Be. Do.

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  18. Simple is better than any other way. Good idea.

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  19. Ooh, those look like great books for the book club! I'm going to get both on Kindle right now.

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  20. I like the idea of reading a book written in the second person... I often listen to books when driving, but lately I started listening to the Great Lectures series. The last one I listened to was on Writing Creative Non-fiction and she spent a part of a lecture talking about writing in the second person.

    What a great idea to have a word(s) for the year.

    https://fromarockyhillside.com
    www.sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com

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  21. Happy New Year Chrys.
    I just finished Preparing to Write Settings that Feel Like Characters. Since no local libraies had a copy of Ghost Light, I order a used one online, but it still hasn't shown up. At least there's still plenty of time. I'm excited about your blog tour and your new site.

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    1. Happy New Year! You're ahead of me. I will be starting J Lenni's book soon. :)

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