I belong to a number of writers groups and a common thread right now is setting writing goals for 2016. For me, this is a particularly valuable process. I’ve found in my life that where I set goals, I strive to meet them and where I don’t, well… I don’t. To understand what makes sense for 2016 goals we need to take a look at what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past two years.

At the beginning of 2015, when I was setting goals for the 2015, I planned for three full novels and two short stories in the Privateer Tales series. When I did this, it was a leap of faith. I you recall, in 2014 I’d only delivered two full-length Privateer Tales and two short stories (if you want to get technical, I also delivered Lesser Prince, but I’d actually written that several years previous).

At the end of 2015 I found myself in the fun position of having finished my goals well before the end of the year so I decided to try to squeeze in a new project by the end of the year. It was a stretch goal and if you look through my facebook posts, you’ll find that sometime in early December, I actually admitted that I didn’t think I was going to make it. Turns out, I got inspired and on the last day of the year, I set my pen down on top of the first draft of Wizard in a Witchy World. We can’t actually count it as a completed novel for 2015, but I’m quite happy to be releasing it to the editing process.

The question now is what are my 2016 Goals? And what’s happening with all these series?

First, let me say, I’m listening to my readers. By far my most popular works are Privateer Tales. Each release is bigger than the previous and I’ve a tremendous fan base that I don’t want to disappoint. How does that affect my goals? Easy… Privateer Tales comes first. I’ll be honest, Privateer Tales is by far the easiest writing I do. So much so that I’ve wondered if I was actually born in the right century (you’re right, that’s just wishful thinking). Privateer Tales will see three new full length novels this year. What I’m not sure of are the short stories. The story of Priloe as he sails out to Descartes will help me understand how we’ll move forward with shorts in 2016.

The second objective for 2016 will actually be the first delivered book and that’s Wizard in a Witchy World. Turns out, much to my surprise, this is a book that I’ve found difficult to write. I’ve deleted more chapters and rewritten more content in this story than any of my others. It’ll be a telling moment when I release it to you all and receive feedback. Will there be a second Witchy World novel? It’s too soon to tell. If I’m inspired and readers respond, then sure. Will there be one in 2016? At this point, I doubt it.

My third objective for 2016 is a short story in the Guardians of Gaeland series. The working title is Grelia and the Bear and it’s about a young girl, who travels to Gaeland and meets up with Tig, Sam and Amber. I’m hoping to write this between Give no Quarter and the second, as yet untitled, Privateer Tales novel.

Finally, I’ll finish the short story of Life of a Miner in 2016.

As you can see, we’ve a busy year ahead of us and I’ve already lost two writing days to editing on Witchy World. Looks like I need to get cracking.

Oh, and what’s up with the feature image? Well, that’s our new wizard, Felix Slade’s bench copy of his favorite enchantments. If you want to read a brief introduction to this new story you can check it out here.

Happy Reading!

Jamie