Happy New Year Everyone!

We are once more beginning another year full of promise, goals, and ambition. First and foremost, I wish everyone a happy beginning to the year and hope all your goals are accomplished this year. Let’s make this year better than the last and strive to do more good and get closer to our dreams.

I tend to avoid making any resolutions each year because let’s be honest, most resolutions go unaccomplished. How many of us strive to get in shape this year or be healthier? That was always a common resolution I set for myself and ended up not only not accomplishing the resolution but actually feeling like a failure when I gave up. To me, resolutions do more harm than good. For that reason, I tend to shoot for smaller, short-term goals that will lead to bigger long-term goals.

For example, this year I want to read at least 50 books. I know that is a goal I can accomplish because I did it in 2018. However, to accomplish that goal, I must start with a smaller goal. I will start with striving to read one book a month. Twelve books seem more manageable than fifty. I’ve joined a book club that has a monthly reading, so that will only help accomplish this smaller goal. I have already purchased the January’s book and am ready to kick of my reading. The reason I reduce my actual reading goal with a smaller one is because I have found that one book just isn’t enough when I actually get going and start reading. I always end up wanting to read more and more and more. I don’t let the big 50 scare me and overwhelm me, so I reduce the goal and slowly, through the enjoyment of the books I read, I accomplish smaller goals until I eventually surpass my reading goal! This past year, I set out to read fifty and ended up reading around sixty-eight! That is the success of short-term goals.

Another short-term goal I have for myself is to write and edit more. I have set a goal to edit a chapter of my current project a week. That is a very simple goal to accomplish, and I already know that once I get going in my editing, I will eventually start editing a chapter a night! The fear of a new year and the fear of failing my goals has always petrified me and kept me from actually getting anything done. But these short-term goals have helped so much, and I encourage others to do the same.

Whether you want to read, write, or edit more, start with a paragraph, a page, a sentence a day, and then work your way up to more and more! Start with small goal you know you can do. Doing so will motivate you to keep going, and you’ll find the process more enjoyable and soothing when you surpass all of the expectation you placed on yourself.

Here is a simple writing, editing, and reading goal I have set for myself that many can follow if they are doing all three at once, as I am:

• Reading: 5 pages a night or a chapter a week
• Writing: 1 page a night
• Editing: 1 page a night

This is a very simple goal for each area and can easily be accomplished. So I encourage you to set very easy goals and surpass them as much as possible in order to prove to yourself that you can do it!

January Reads:

I assume that as readers, we all have a pile of To Be Read books in our rooms/offices and more in our shopping carts ready for order as soon as our next paycheck hits! The picture above, shows only a portion of that list that I have. My priority is to read Eve of Man, as that is a book that I will be posting a review of by the end of the month and will be discussing it in a book club. After that one, my next priority will be The Rose Society, as I am loving the series. Those two novels are my priority reads of this month. After those, I want to follow up with the third book in The Young Elites Series and then any of the others in the list. I have such a hard time deciding what to read next. There simply too many amazing books out there; I want to read them all!

H.J. Reads Reviews:

I have decided to start up a small review segment to this blog that will take place every Friday. Since I enjoy reading so much, I decided I should go ahead and fill you guys in on what I am reading and what my thoughts are. For the month of January, I will be posting reviews of the four books above: Scythe, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Young Elites, and Eve of Man. Therefore, for the time being, every Friday at 5:00 pm, Central Time, I will be posting reviews. For January, I will post the reviews in the order that I listed the novels above. I have already read three of the book above. I finished reading them this past month and am eager to read the fourth and final book I will review. Stay tuned for those reviews and for the review announcement for the month of February.

January Editing Project:

This month I will be continuing my editing of my YA science fiction novel The Exiled. I started this project in a creative writing course a couple of years back and am currently on my fifth draft. I have enjoyed the editing of this project from the very start and will be editing this project for what I hope will be the last time before beginning my hunt for publishers and agents. I am excited to see what 2019 will have in store for this novel!

January Writing Project:

As I am working to edit my first novel, The Exiled. This month’s writing project is to work on a different project than anything in The Exiled series. This other writing project is currently untitled and is very different than anything I have done before. This project is a fiction novel (not my typical writing genre: science fiction) and will likely be a stand-alone novel. I do not usually tend to take on multiple writing projects at once, but since I am not doing much writing at the moment, given that I am editing The Exiled, I tend to aim to edit one project and write another and keep that cycle going. I do not usually write two stories during the same writing period. That is a writing/editing task I can actually take on without getting confused and mixing up the stories or characters.

Stay tuned for more updates! For now, I plan on posting my H. J.’s Thoughts posts on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm, Central Time, and my H. J.’s Reads book reviews on Fridays at 5:00 pm, Central Time. My H. J.’s Thoughts posts will feature information regarding my writing and editing and will include any information I have regarding what I am reading or what to expect in upcoming posts. They will serve as my way of communicating what I have planned for you guys. I’m hoping that in the future to separate all of my posting updates for editing, writing, and reading, so keep an eye out for those changes. For now, I wanted all of you to see what is planned for the first month of 2019. Next week, I will be sharing more on my writing and editing process, so stay tuned!

Best Regards,

H. J.