New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year brings us all joy and success!

It feels good to be posting again. I didn't spend quite as much time as I would have liked on blog planning, but I did do a lot of reading. I also spent some time entertaining my in-laws and making sure my husband, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, took it easy all week. I have been lurking on everyone's blogs, but have no fear, my commenting will resume now that we are back to our regularly scheduled programming.

As far as the blog is concerned, I have a few resolutions I would like to work on for 2011.

1)  Get on a schedule.  I'd like to have some set days so readers know what to expect, and so I have added an "Upcoming Posts" gadget to my left sidebar in order to keep readers informed on what I have coming down the pipeline.  For now I plan to try and post reviews twice a week (probably Tuesdays and Thursdays), and participate in the Follow Friday and IMM memes (on Friday and Monday, respectively).  I'm going to post on my writing activities or other writing news on Wednesdays and post fun stuff on Sundays (see below).

2)  Post more on my writing.  I didn't set out to have this be solely a book blog.  That was part of the reason I bought my own domain and didn't name the blog "Super Awesome Challenge Accepter" or "Reading. Challenged."  I want to have this also serve as a sort of professional networking tool, and in order to do that, I need to post more about my WIPs.  This will also help motivate me to keep working on said WIPs.

3)  Join a book tour, wrangle up some author interviews, and attend BEA or another major conference.  I'm still new, but by the end of the year, I'd like to have grown this blog to the point where I have some good contacts with publicists/agents/publishers.  That way I can host giveaways and contests and other fun stuff.

4)  Lighten up!  I really am a silly and funny person, but I tend to be a bit restrained when I write.  I don't want to be so serious all the time.  This is my way of giving myself permission to act like a goofball sometimes.  I think one of my weekly events should be Silly Sunday, where I post on things that make me laugh.

Where my writing is concerned, I also have a few goals.  I want to have a polished novel by the end of the year.  If I can't have the whole thing ready to go, I'd like to at least have a few solid chapters that have been workshopped, critiqued, edited and worked into a semi-good place.  Ideally, by the start of 2012 I will have something that I can use to start the query process.

What are your goals for 2011? Do you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see on my blog?