We just finished the third quarter of the year, so it’s time to revisit my 2021 goals to see how I’m doing.

My writing goals were to finish two novels in progress.  No Time for Mistakes, my third book in the No Brides Club Series is done, turned in, edited, and set to be published next week.  I’m now back to working on the other novel I hope to finish this year, Playing at Murder, the third book in the Market Center Mysteries Series. It currently stands at 33,000 words of a projected 70,000 – 75,000.  It will be a stretch to finish it by the end of the year, but I’m giving it my best shot.

On the short story front, my goal was to write five new ones.  I’ve met that goal now with five new stories this year, though I hope to write at least one more. Of the five, four have been accepted into various anthologies, including one in the Bould Awards anthology (I have two in that one, but one is an older story), one in the forthcoming Home for the Holidays Christmas Romance Anthology, one in the forthcoming Triangle Sisters in Crime anthology, Carolina Crimes: 20 Tales of Rock, Roll, and Ruin. Of the other two, one was accepted for an anthology that was cancelled, and the other remains unsold. I’ll continue to look for good homes for those two.

My personal project of scanning my photo albums slid somewhat during the summer, but I’m back at it now and making very good progress. I probably won’t finish it before the end of the year, but I expect to do so early next year.

On the personal hope list, my search for a way to give back in a meaningful way, to find a volunteer way to help, has been hampered by the reality of the continued prevalence of the Covid pandemic. I’m at a vulnerable age and already slowly recovering from Long Covid, so I’m not ready to get out and mingle with people except in very safe ways.