I did something last year that I’ve never done before. I kept a bullet journal for my writing life.
It wasn’t one of those beautiful, hand-lettered affairs. It was simple, and what I recorded got simpler as the year went along. But if I hadn’t done it, I would never have realized what a stellar year 2018 was for my writing career! Let me share the highlights with you.
In 2018 I…
- “won” Storystorm (came up with at least 30 picture book ideas in the month of January)
- took an online writing class
- was paid for editing two books in the Green Ember series
- signed with my agent, Bibi Lewis of the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
- was a finalist for the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Literature (sorry, this is for an unpublished picture book manuscript, so it’s not available at this time)
- have a manuscript out on submission through my agent
- and some news I’m not allowed to talk about yet…
- sold two poems to magazines
- sold two stories to magazines
- had 10 stories and poems published in magazines and two in an anthology (see the full list HERE)
- acted as poetry contributor for Wildflowers magazine
- “won” the 12×12 Picture Book Challenge (wrote 12 new picture book manuscripts in 2018)
- read over 80 books (not including picture books, but including audiobooks)
Wow! 2018 was an eventful year! And I’m hooked on bullet journaling. At least, on my simple, messy version.