Looking back, looking forward

Time's Echo ... all 130,000 words of it

It's that time of year.  It's too close to Christmas to concentrate on work so I've been looking back on 2011 instead, and letting out a long 'phew' at deadlines made that seemed almost impossible at the beginning of the year.  

But somehow or another, it all got done, with the exception of a second romance.  I've done a rough draft, but decided not to beat myself up about not finishing it completely.  It's my first job of 2012, and in the meantime, I'm thinking positive and giving myself a pat on the back for the things I did do this year.  

They include writing We'll Always Have Paris and a  ‘time slip’ now called Time’s Echo; researching and writing  a history of the Merchant Adventurers of York, and editing an illustrated book on the same; writing   a short piece in the style of a Regency romance, based on a portrait, for an exhibition called (Now That Would Be) Telling which opens in London in January; and teaching: a ten-week evening course, a one day Crash Course in Writing Romance, and a week-long course on writing popular fiction in Tuscany.  

Oh, and I’ve explored the idea of whether reunion romances can work in real life as well as in fiction (still a work in progress!) and had a lovely time walking walking the Lycian Way in May, and spending long weekends away in Scotland, London, Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Cambridge, Brighton and Tuscany.  Yep, all in all, it's been a great year!

Now I’m looking forward to 2012.  We’ll Always Have Paris is out in the UK in January and I hope will be released in North America too, although I’m having trouble finding out exactly when!  Time’s Echo will be published on 30 August, so that will be very exciting.  

Less excitingly  (for me, anyway) I’m going to have to get to grips with a new website and tackle more social media stuff too.  Apparently I have to learn to Twitter … aaarrrgghh … while still in a terrible muddle on Facebook, where I’ve been trying without success to switch from a personal profile to a page.  I’ll have to sort that out next year!   I’ll be writing another ‘time slip’ and a couple of romances, and teaching another one day course on Writing Romance in June. 

So a much less frenzied year, I hope, but we never know what’s round the corner, so I’m making the most of the good times now.  In that spirit, I’m shutting down my computer tomorrow, and won’t be switching it on again until I get back from Christmas and New Year celebrations in Scotland and Wiltshire.  

A HUGE thank you to everyone who’s read and commented on this blog over the year, and made me feel as if I’m not wittering on alone.  I wish you all a very, very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous 2012, full of wonderful books  to be written and read. 

Jessica x