Writing Goals for 2009

Today's weather forecast for St. Peters: Mostly sunny, high 45 degrees.

Happy New Year! For me, the first day of each year is always a fresh start--like a blank screen or a clean piece of paper waiting to be filled.

For 2009, I'm going to focus on my writing goals. When I worked as a management analyst, I learned one way to set and accomplish goals was by using the SMART approach.

SMART goals should be: Specific, Measurable, Are positively stated and written down, Realistic, and Timely (have a date or time attached to them). So, here are my SMART writing goals for 2009, with some comments on how I hope to achieve them.

1. Write two book reviews or author interviews each month. (I write book reviews and have done some author interviews for Bookreporter.com, Teenreads.com, Kidsreads,com, and have begun reviewing books for Thomas Nelson Publishing, so this should be attainable.)
2. Submit three entries to the Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc (OWFI) contest by Feb 1. (I have a few things in mind that I'll work on this month.)
3. Finish the first draft (50,000 words) of my YA novel by Sep 30. (I have 14K words completed, so I need to work harder on this goal.)
4. Polish my YA novel and query an agent by Dec 31. (dependent on goal #3)
5. Write a minute mystery (250 words) and submit to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Feb 15. (I will write the story then read at my critique group this month. After that I'll polish it and submit to EQMM.)
6. Outline, research, and write a proposal for a non-fiction book by November 1. (I have some notes on this but won't start in earnest until the summer.)
7. Double my writing income by Dec 31. (This one is dependent on all of the above.)

Other things I'm working on not listed above are: edit the galley for Cuivre River Anthology (Vol IV) by the end of January, coordinate entries for MWG flash fiction contest, continue this blog and network with more bloggers, and if my schedule permits, attend one writers' conference this year.

How about you? Do you have any writing goals for 2009 you want to share? If so, please post them here or e-mail me at dvolkenannt@charter.net and I will add them to the list and post next week.

Monday's Market - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

(Cover from the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine website)

Today's forecast for St. Peters: Mostly sunny, high 20 degrees; right now it's 3 degrees--brutally cold--and I need to run out and do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Brrrrr.

What better way to heat up a bone-chilling day than sitting by the fire reading a bone-chilling mystery? Today's market is Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which is part of The Mystery Place.

Here is an ecerpt of the guidelines from their website:

"Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine welcomes submissions from both new and established writers. We publish every kind of mystery short story: the psychological suspense tale, the deductive puzzle, the private eye case-the gamut of crime and detection from the realistic (including the policeman's lot and stories of police procedure) to the more imaginative (including "locked rooms" and "impossible crimes"). We need hard-boiled stories as well as "cozies," but we are not interested in explicit sex or violence. We do not want true detective or crime stories. With the exception of a regular book review column and a mystery crossword, EQMM publishes only fiction. We are especially happy to review first stories by authors who have never before published fiction professionally. First-story submissions should be addressed to EQMM's Department of First Stories.

"EQMM uses stories of almost every length. 2,500-8,000 words is the preferred range, but we occasionally use stories of up to 12,000 words and we feature one or two short novels (up to 20,000 words) each year, although these spaces are usually reserved for established writers. Shorter stories are also considered, including minute mysteries of as little as 250 words. Our rates for original stories are from 5 to 8 ¢ a word, sometimes higher for established authors. EQMM does not accept stories previously published in the United States. "

Manuscripts should be sent to:

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

475 Park Avenue South

New York, NY 10016

You can download their guidelines here: http://www.themysteryplace.com/pdf/writeeqmm.pdf

So, here's my challenge: By Feb 15 I'm going to write a mystery and submit it to Ellery Queen, probably one of the minute mysteries (as little as 250 words). How about you?