Mindy Carlson

Wow, 2022 has come in smacking everyone six ways from Sunday, hasn’t it. Snow, extremely cold temperatures for the East Coast, and I think everyday has see a celebrity that was an integral part of my childhood dead. Also, I’m “slimming” so I’m steadily working my way through a tub of salad greens and have given my children all my chocolate. I may have cried.

But not even this parade of crap can stop me from picking a word to live by in 2022. This year’s word is…. MOXIE!!

Launching a book is the ultimate in audacious acts. As a kid I learned it was better to fly under the radar. Asking to be noticed either got you more work or it meant you were in deep trouble. It was better to stay silent and hope someone happened to see the work you were doing. Now I’m literally jumping up and down while waving my arms hoping you’ll pick me-pick me-pick me!

Also have some audacious goals.

1) Write 3 first drafts. This is crazy. Usually a book will take a minimum of 3 months to write. And that’s if you ignore the cats and children asking to be fed. (Ask me how it’s going.)

2) Get 2 books ready for submission. Again, HA! This is wildly ambitious. In part because this includes about a billion rounds of editing by me, then a round or six of edits suggested by my agent. All while also drafting the aforementioned 3 books.

3) Plan the best book launch I’m capable of. This is akin to planning a wedding. I have 5 months to do this. I have very little done. On the bright side though, I have a lot of the thinking work done and can move into the doing work. If you’re interested in attending or participating in my book launch sign up for my newsletter!

4) Write a holiday short story. This doesn’t look ambitious on the outside, but I haven’t written a short story since high school and those weren’t earning A-pluses. Or even As. However, I think it will be fun and I’m hoping it will allow me a chance to play with my writing for a month or two.

5) Get physically ready for traveling. The pandemic has been … unkind to my body. I’d self-medicated with chips and brownies while being trapped with my children and husband 24/7. I did, however, write a book while I had nowhere else to go. That part at least went well. But I’m not ready for the grueling nature of the high-traffic travel schedule I’m envisioning for myself. Soooo…. the “slimming” program I mentioned above. Exercise will wait for a minute. I’m not going to the gym until Omicrom or whatever it’s called calms the hell down and it’s not 19-freaking-degrees outside (-7.2 C for my Metric friends).

I should also add survive my 16yo learning how to drive, but I was sort of hoping to foist most of that onto my husband. I tend to scream in terror when we threaten to side-swipe a parked car, he just blinks and says, “Huh. Maybe a little to the left.” At least the 16yo is wearing his glasses.

Anyway, this should be more then enough for me to handle this year. Especially since 2022 seems to be throwing out so many surprises for us already. (Ugh.)