Uncertainty...

...Or a Look at What's Coming in 2014 It's the beginning of a new year. Every January I make a list of goals for the next year, personal and professional. This past year has been filled with a lot of ups and downs, some pretty low lows (not winning the Golden Heart for Unbroken), and some high highs (visiting Ireland, publishing not one but two books this year!). With all of that swirling in my mind, I found one thing rising to the top as I face this new year:

Uncertainty.

Career planning is a big deal in the publishing world. It's also almost completely subjective, because you don't know when or if a book will be accepted. This coming year, I hope to finish book three in my Secrets To Hide series, Ian and Cassie's book. But before that, I have a novella with Brad in mind. I have a story swirling in my head for Hank (from Naughty), but it would take me in a little bit of a different direction than I was expecting. I'm also working on a series I plan to self-publish later this year, Southern Nights, a trilogy that's a bit more on the suspense side than Secrets.

It sounds like I have everything planned out, right? Like I know what I'm doing? Um, no. :) I'm taking a stab in the dark here. I'm hoping these are the right decisions to make, feel like these are the right decisions, but then, who knows? What if it's not? What if I should be focusing on the Archai? My heart yearns to see those books moving forward, but when? How? And how do I balance all of this with my family and work and a schedule that looks like my clock threw up on it?

Mark Danielewski said, "Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of 'not knowing.'" Maybe that's the philosophical rewrite of "You do what you have to do." I don't know. All I do know is that I have to take one step forward, one at a time, until I get "somewhere." Most paths aren't straight. They twist and turn and fold back on themselves, on us. How do we know we're on the right path? How do we decide which fork to take? Or is the journey more important than where we end up?

I'm not sure I know. But when I look back on 2013 and see how life has changed, it gives me hope that 2014 will be even better, lows and highs included.

*Photos by Ian Meikle and Laenulfian.