January Letter From the Editor

The holidays have finally come to a close. Whether that's cause for celebration or mourning for you, hopefully it's at least a window into a calmer time. A time many of us use to reflect on the previous year and look forward to what needs to be accomplished in the coming months.

Did you make resolutions? Is goal setting a part of your January each year, in any way, shape, or form?

For some, goal setting is a good idea, even if it isn't done in January. If you do it annually, you should do so with the idea that your goals will have to be somewhat flexible. Often, by the end of the year your goals and intentions have changed, and something that seemed important in January no longer matters to you in June. Re-evaluating quarterly can help solve this problem, allowing for adjustments or tweaks in the goals you previously set. In addition, this gives you a refresher in what you had hoped to accomplish; otherwise, it's too easy to forget or let projects fall by the wayside.

If you don't want to set regular goal reviews, maybe consider reviewing the whole shebang any time you realize one of your goals has changed or won't be achievable as you originally set it. Otherwise, just remember you're human, and that things will change. Don't beat yourself up when you drop a goal or have to modify it. Keep going, and make it what you need it to be.

Our goal here at Writing From the Peak is to continue bringing you great original content from your fellow Pikes Peak Writers members. We hope there's something here for everyone. Let us know if there are any topics you'd like covered that we haven't done yet, or haven't done enough. Are we overlooking an important subject?

On a related note, if one of your goals is to make it to PPWC 2014 this year, you might like to know that our scholarship applications have opened up as of this past weekend. The application period ends February 15, so be sure to get your application in!

Good luck with your goals, writing and otherwise, as we cruise into 2014. And Happy New Year!

~Shannon Lawrence
Managing Editor, Writing From the Peak
PPW Director of Non-Conference Events

Letter From the Editor - New Beginnings

Despite dire warnings to the contrary, we have now officially entered 2013.  Happy New Year to everyone!

The closing out of an old year, and the ringing in of a new one, is a time people tend to think about their goals and accomplishments.  For us writers, this inevitably leads us to analyze where we are in our writing paths.  Did we reach any of our goals this year?  Get published enough?  Get published at all?  Find the time to write?  Submit?  Plot?

Whether you make resolutions or not, January is still a perfect time to reevaluate where you are, and where you'd like to be by this time next year.

Don't stop there, though.  Consider longer-term goals, as well, and this will help you to hone down the short-term goals to get you where you need to be.  What do you see for yourself in ten years?  Five?  What can you do this year that will help you to achieve those long-term goals?  Is what you're already doing moving you toward your ultimate goal?  Why not?

This month, you'll find advice on goal setting, as well as how to achieve those goals.  But that isn't all we're talking about here.  You'll read about writing from the heart (or not), online privacy, editing, and more.  The wonderful columnists here at Writing From the Peak have insured that this month will be one that will bring you into 2013 prepared for a productive and successful year.

We here at Writing From the Peak and Pikes Peak Writers wish you an amazing year, a year that you achieve your dreams.

Shannon Lawrence
Managing Editor

  

What's Next for PPW?

By Mandy Brown Houk


There are all sorts of hackneyed metaphors to use for the end of one year and the beginning of another. But for the purposes of this article, I’ll zoom in on just one: the turning of a page.

As writers, we’re all avid readers (and if you’re not, you ought to become one). We know the delicious breathlessness of the turn of a page. In a particularly lovely book, you start to slide your finger behind the page you’re on before you’ve gotten halfway through it. If you’re like me, you sometimes have to deliberately slow your eyes down to make sure you don’t miss something in your haste to flip over and find out what’s next!

I find that I do the same in life sometimes. I forget that reality doesn’t work like fiction, so resolution isn’t necessarily imminent or swift or paced in a manner I’d like. I yearn for things to be linear, to follow a pattern. For each year-end since 2004, I’ve been sure the next “page” (year) would bring a book deal, or at least an agent. I finally signed with an agent this spring, but my finger’s still paused there, lifting up the corner, itching to see when (if) the ultimate goal will actually happen, and when.

Regardless of where you are in your writing journey--starting your first draft, or going on tour with book number eight--you can’t predict what will be written on page 2013. It’s exciting and aggravating, suspenseful and maddening.

Here’s where Pikes Peak Writers can help.

          

First, we’re all right there with you. If you haven’t already, you need to treat yourself to an evening with Deb Courtney or Mary Karen Meredith, the hostesses of our monthly get-togethers (Writer's Night and Open Critique, respectively). You’ll find kinship and conversation and even critique partners.

            

For brushing up on your craft and marketing skills, we have a wonderful calendar planned for our Write Brains (both in-person and online).

            

And, of course, the biggie: PPWC 2013. Each year I’m amazed at the opportunities that unfold in the halls of the Colorado Springs Marriott. Opportunities to learn, sharpen skills, meet other writers, breathe life into perhaps dormant dreams, and meet industry professionals that can be instrumental in turning that crucial page toward publishing (where do you think I met my agent?!).

            

Check out our calendar and our conference brochure and see what we’ve got planned. You may not know exactly what’s printed on page 2013, but you can make yourself ready to meet it.

            

Go on. Lift that corner.

About the Writer:  Mandy Brown Houk is a freelance writer and editor, and she teaches at a small private high school in Old Colorado City. She's written for several magazines and anthologies, and has completed two novels--only one of which is worthy of the light of day. Mandy's work is represented by Sally LaVenture at Warner Literary Group. Her web site is www.mandybrownhouk.com.