As 2011 crooks its seductive finger, I think it’s nice to recap the good, the bad and the ugly of 2010. There is no particular order to these.

The Good

• First short story accepted and published
• Notified of upcoming short story accepted for publication in 2011
• 1 partial request on The Pure
• 1 full request on All’s Fair
• 3 short story contest wins and 1 honorable mention
• Finalist in Cup of Comfort for Couples / Redbook contest
• 2 blog freebie wins
• 1 Goodreads free book win
• Finished The PURE
• Wrote My Fair Vampire, start to finish, including 2 ending variations
• Won NaNoWriMo for a novel that’s been percolating in my head for years
• Started 5 new novels (MFV, Book Portal, Sins, Horizon and Ellen’s story)
• Wrote 41 weekly flash fiction stories, 13 drabbles or hint fiction tales
• Got a free Createspace proof of my freshly edited 2009 NaNo win, All’s Fair
• Made a kick butt book trailer for The PURE
• Read 68 wonderful books (some better than others, all enjoyable)
• My terrific Facebook and Twitter followers and friends
• My wonderful and awesome writing partners, critiquers and colleagues
• Some amazing monthly blog chains
• The lovely rep points I received at AW, especially the ones from out of the blue
• A great group of regulars at AW’s Sunday night Flash Fiction Challenges
• 3 pending contests where I really like my entries
• A gen 3 Kindle from Hubs for Christmas and the technology that makes it so indispensable
• My blog followers, especially my Dad!
• One guest blog post and another one planned for January 2011
• My husband’s support of my writing through the gift of time, washed dishes and take out meals

The Bad

• Nothing but rejections on queries, partials and full = no agent
• Cut during final round of Cup of Comfort for Couples editing
• Mills & Boon New Voices competition roses voting system and the trolls who took advantage of it
• A couple of wrong way rubs on Twitter with people who have far more followers than those they follow (lesson learned)
• Didn’t finish NaNo novel beyond the 50k words required for the win
• Started but abandoned a middle grade book for my youngest son
• Several short story rejections
• Dismal showing in an erotica contest
• 3 rounds of NPR 3-Minute Reads contests with nary a mention (but I’m gonna keep trying)
• The frustrating quests to write a good query letter and synopsis
• The Christmas cards, exercise, home-cooked meals and housework that went shamefully neglected so I could write

And the Ugly:

Image by chris.corwin via Flickr