The Year in Review - 2011

The Year in Review - 2011

I began this year with a set of Writing plans for 2011. I was actually quite successful in completing the plans as presented:

1. Yes, I published my second novel, "The Homplace Revisited," in June. Both books continue to sell, both in print and in Kindle editions. I am blessed, and happy. I also successfully taught my on-line course in the Spring. It appears that was my last time doing that. It was good, it is now gone.

2. I have continued to be an active Examiner.com writer - between my two topics I publish five articles each and every week.

3. I have made good progress on the non-fiction family history book on Sergeant Major William Kinnick. This work will continue into 2012. It would be nice to finish it in the coming year.

4. The Smith book is still on the back burner, but I've been doing more research on my Dad's family in the 1st half of the 20th Century. In the last six months, I have also made contact with three Sorensen/Neilsen cousins in Denmark, on my Mom's side of the family. This allowed me to complete my "round of 16" great-great grandparents. This work continues, as well.

5. The five blogs continue. I'm doing more Daily Theme writing on the Ancestor Stories blog. While I put the book blog on hiatus for a couple of months, it is now active again. During the last half of the year, I picked up on my Mom's 75 Years Ago diary entries that I had transcribed, on line, in 2005, and started following and commenting on them on the Ancestor Stories blog. In 2012, I will continue the weekly Tuesday comments, but will also be transcribing the 1937 daily entries on The KINNICK Project blog - she was Eileen KINNICK.

6. During the last six months of the year I continued to research and write about the place, times, and characters of "The Homeplace" series of fiction, including developing their family history back to 1833 when the homeplace was first settled. The earliest chapter, I adapted as a short story, "The Trek to the Homeplace," which was recently published in the Annual Anthology of the Ozarks Writers League: Echoes of the Ozarks, Volume VII. I will continue to research, develop and write "Homeplace" stories; but make no promises on specifics or timing… they will come when they come.  ;-)

7. Much of my writing, of course, is informed by my reading. I read on-line, on my Kindle, and books in print form - yes, I still read books in print form, a lot! A theme that ran through my recent readings has been both the upcoming and past presidential years. During the year, I read (on the Kindle) the Jimmie Carter White House Diaries, then the (old) print book, The 'Unfinished Presidency' about Carter after the White House years. I am now finishing Ronald Reagan's White House Presidential diaries (single book form) on the Kindle… continuing the saga; two very different perspectives on history. It has been most interesting to 'relive those years.' I've read very little on the post WWII era ('because I lived them') - but, these recent readings now remind me how much I really missed. Guess that sets up some future reading, yes?!  ;-)

Reading and Writing Plans for 2012 will be published on January 2.


Families are Forever!  ;-)