Goodbye 2014 . . .

. . . and don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Anybody else as ready to say goodbye to 2014 as I am? But was it really as bad as I remember, or is that just the spin I'm putting on it. Let's review to find out, shall we?

To refresh your (and my) memory, here's a list of my goals for the year:

1. Organize my days
2. Publish three books
3. Do more self-promotion
4. Submit short stories and poems on a regular basis
5. Find a writing schedule I can live with and stick to it
6. De-clutter
7. Catalogue my books
8. Exercise more
9. Start using up the wool stash in my craft closet
10. Read more and more of a variety

So how did I do?

1. Organize my days
No. Not even close. It has nothing to do with schedules or having enough time, and everything to do with laziness and procrastination.

2. Publish three books
Again, no. The three books I'd specified in my goals were An Elemental Water, Lucky Dog, and Wandering Wizards. An Elemental Water was indeed published, although later than I'd hoped, but although the draft of Lucky Dog is done, it needs some serious editing. And Wandering Wizards I never even so much as looked at. However, I'm close to being done with An Elemental Earth, as well as this year's NaNo, that has the working title of Guardian of the Sea.

3. Do more self-promotion
A big fat hairy no here. If anything, I did even less promotion than I normally do.

4. Submit short stories and poems on a regular basis
I'm seeing a pattern here. No and no. Although I did write a couple of stories and poems. :-)

5. Find a writing schedule I can live with and stick to it
This one gets a "sort of". While I wouldn't exactly call it a schedule, I did get a lot more writing done this year, and the last few months it's been on a regular basis. I've been a little slack over the holidays, but prior to that I was a writing machine.

6. De-clutter
Well, I didn't have much luck getting rid of the clutter, but at least I didn't make it worse.

7. Catalogue my books
Again, this only gets a partial yes. I converted the closet in my office (or to give credit where credit is due, the hubby did most of the work) into a book nook and the books that went into it are catalogued. However, my science fiction and fantasy collection is only the tip of the iceberg as far as my books go.

8. Exercise more
At last! A full and hearty yes! LOL I started out using the stationary bike and hand weights, but then in the early fall I joined a gym and I go at least five times a week.

9. Start using up the wool stash in my craft closet
This one gets a qualified yes. While I did use up a lot of my stash, I also added to it, so I don't know that I'm any further ahead. :-D

10. Read more and more of a variety
While I know I read more of a variety of books, I have no idea if I read more or not. My way of keeping track was Goodreads, and I fell behind on it and never caught up.

So as far as my goals, went, except for the writing, the year was pretty much as much of a failure as I thought. Which is not to say the year was a total failure, just my goals.

But to be honest, it just gives me that much more incentive to do better in 2015.

See you then. :-D