Birthday

I have had a really good birthday today. I received many, many wonderful birthday wishes from friends and family. And many reminded me that the coming year should be my best.

I think that is true but it won't be unless I do my part to make it so.

In the last two-and-a-half years, I have finished three-and-a-half novels -- FIGHTING CHAOS, DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, and AN UNTIDY AFFAIR, with THE DEATH OF ART sitting at the 40,000-word mark. But I still an unpublished and unagented. Why? I'm not all together sure. Writing is a hard and lonely task. I have worked hard at it.

And while I have queried agents, networked with writers and others in the profession, entered contests, attended conventions and conferences, and reached out into the biosphere, I am not further along than I was at the end of 2007, when I started blogging. I have read and researched and tried many of the things writers do to get noticed. Nothing has really worked.

But I must also admit, at least to myself, that I have tried harder at the creative part of my job as a writer than I have at the business end. It is understandable. Many writers are more comfortable at writing than with promoting themselves or their work. But I know -- and I have blogged about this in the past -- publishers aren't going to come looking for me. I have to go to them.

So this year, as my birthday gift to myself, I pledge to re-double my efforts to improve me writing and to make myself more visible and viable in the industry. Then this will be the best year of my life, which I believe it can and should be.

Thanks for reading and don't give up. I won't.