2019 Goals

I am writing down my goals for this year and hitting you with them now so that they have to be set in stone!

Where horses are concerned, I had a bit of a heart breaking year in 2018. Of course I could do nothing but struggle through to the other side and hope for the best. That is horses for you; they definitely keep you grounded!

It did however encourage me to take a break from writing “horses” as I literally live and breathe them, and it was all getting a bit too much. I have therefore taken the plunge and written a non-horse related, contemporary romance novel which is in the final stages of editing.

So as to not confuse things and keep horses separate, I plan to release this under the pen name Silvia Twizel. This is simply because I really aim to tailor my horse stories to those who know one end of a horse from the other, which I appreciate may be boring to – and the terms and phrases that are part of my (and probably yours!) everyday life go straight over the head of – people not familiar with horses. I therefore don’t want my fans that are waiting for the next horse story, being disappointed if I release one with absolutely nothing to do with horses. I feel like publishing them under a slightly different name will solve this, but as ever I would like to know what my readers think about this, so please do let me know.

Please rest assured that Hearts & Horse Trials #3 will be released as soon as I can find time to have a final read through!

I couldn’t tell you which is my biggest passion between eventing and racing – I love them both equally and would hate to choose 💓 So, while I currently don’t have any more racing stories penned, it is definitely something I want to delve into deeper this year, while obviously continuing with Fred and Elsa on the eventing scene...

Also this year, I am going to try and start treating my writing as more of a business. I don’t mean that in terms of making money, as I spend so many hours on it that I don’t see myself realistically making a living from it any time soon. I am starting by setting myself these targets. If no one knows about them, then my lack of progress doesn’t affect anyone else. However, if I have announced to people my plans, then I know I will be letting them down if I don’t accomplish them, and some days I really need this to spur me on!

But when I first published my first book, I literally didn’t think anyone would buy it. I was actually scared that someone WOULD buy it, absolutely hate it and message me demanding a refund 😱

Words cannot describe how much I love getting book reviews. Even the bad ones. OK, so the bad ones hurt a little, you can’t help but take it personally, but you have to take it on the chin and try and figure out what you can do to improve. At the end of the day you can’t please everyone, but you can try 😉

I get a lot of people asking me how I write. Well obviously I just put pen to paper, but of course there is so much to think about before that simple step even happens!

I wouldn’t consider myself a fast writer, and as I hold down a full time job and have various “yard” jobs scattered around this, it might (or might not) interest you to know that last year I averaged 732 words a day (I’m an accountant OK...I have a spreadsheet for EVERYTHING!). This may seem meagre compared to some, but hey that’s life and it’s not a competition! But when you bear in mind that Just A Groom is approx. 65k words, and Taking the Reins is approx. 93k words, you can probably see why it takes me so long to get the next instalment finished!

Some people need to have their whole story planned out to every minute detail, others have no plan whatsoever and see where their characters and circumstances take them. Both are fine.

I am somewhere in the middle. An idea will often come to me while I’m driving or – more commonly – poo picking. I’ll have nowhere to write it down and frantically taking my gloves off and trying to locate my phone, during which time one of the foals has probably run off with my poop-scoop, another has pushed over my wheelbarrow, and the rest have realised I didn’t shut the gate properly behind me and are half way down the lane by now...

So you can see what I’m up against, right?!

Sometimes an idea might just be a sentence, that I scribble down and forget about, returning to a few months later to try and figure it out. Sometimes it’s a paragraph or two, and sometimes it’s a whole story that I delve straight into as I just can’t wait to write it! When I start, I generally know the ending, but the events that are going to get us there are as much a mystery to you as they are to me! I just have to put pen to paper and see where my characters take me... Some days they are not in the mood, so on those days I just saddle up and go for a ride instead!

So, this is me, and this is how I’m progressing into 2019. I hate all that “New year, New me!” bullshit, so I won’t be boring you all with jumping on that bandwagon! Plus, I am already late to that party! (as per usual!!)

As always, feedback is always appreciated! If you love my books, please let your friends know! If you wish I could explore something different, or have any suggestions for improvement, I am definitely up for hearing them! 😏

I am just a girl, sitting at her desk, thinking of something to write..... 😉 Help me make 2019 a good year 💖