2017 in Review

Time to analyze 2017! Wow, did it throw a major curve ball at me! But all in all, I didn’t do too badly meeting the goals I set in January. You can see my 2017 goals here.

In 2017, I wrote about 240,000 words of fiction and released about 270,000 words.

Written in 2017:
• Promise of Peppermint (30,000 – the prequel to the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series)
• Memories of Mist (55,000 words – Urban Farm Fresh Romance 3)
• Rooted in Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 2 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 11)
• Better Than a Crown (45,000 words – Christmas in Montana 3)
• Wishes on Wildflowers (55,000 words – Urban Farm Fresh Romance 4) (Feb 2018)

Goals set last January included writing Harvest of Love in 2017, but having a heart attack in late October meant this section of my goals did not get completed.

Published in 2017:
• January: Sow in Love (30,000 words – the prequel to the Garden Grown Romance series found in Romance Grows in Arcadia Valley)
• March: Promise of Peppermint (30,000 – the prequel to the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series)
• May: Sprouts of Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 1 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 5)
• July: Memories of Mist (55,000 words – Urban Farm Fresh Romance 3)
• September: Better Than a Crown (45,000 words – Christmas in Montana 3)
• November: Rooted in Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 2 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 11)

Two audiobooks were released in 2017: Butterflies on Breezes and Memories of Mist (Urban Farm Fresh Romance 2 + 3).

Keeping in Touch
I promised to blog here weekly, and definitely haven’t done that, especially in the fall. I have continued to blog monthly at Inspy Romance, and, as of November, am no longer on the regular rotation at International Christian Fiction Writers. I’ve sent out an average of two newsletters per month (sign up here) and started a readers group on Facebook that is going well only because Paula is a capable and enthusiastic administrator.

Family and Health
Our fourth granddaughter was born in February! We enjoyed a couple of camping trips with the older three. Jim and I took a ten-day road trip through western British Columbia in June. A planned cruise in November had to be canceled due to my heart attack two weeks before we were scheduled to leave. Needless to say, any health goals I had for 2017 went by the wayside but, on the other hand, I’m thankful to be alive and improving in health.

I’ve been posting my annual goals to my blog for quite a few years, if you’d like to have a look. Before 2009, my reporting was a bit haphazard, so after poking around for a while, I decided “back then” wasn’t relevant! Still, if it would amuse you, here’s the list: