Happy 2012!

Tip of the Day: Got an e-reader for the holidays? Check out this post on finding e-book deals.

Can you believe Author2Author has been "on the air" for four years? We have some very exciting plans for 2012, including introducing our newest Author2Author Miss, Megg Jensen. She'll be blogging every Friday, and you can see some of her book covers on the sidebar. We'll also be redesigning the site this winter in stages, so you'll see some small changes here and there.

This week, before Megg comes on the stage, we'll be recapping our year in writing for 2011. Was it what we expected? Oh, it never is!

I set a word each year for myself instead of a goal, and my word for 2011 was self-confidence. So naturally I got laid off from my day job in June. There were many personal challenges in my life, too. My father-in-law battled cancer with lots of help from my husband, finally losing his fight in May. In April, my youngest brother died suddenly. After all of this in the first half of the year, I was at loose ends in the second half. When you pick a word of the year, you often get challenged on it.

I started my new career as a freelance writer and editor. I had already been doing some fiction editing for Double Dragon Publishing, so that helped start the resume. I got an internship at Rhemalda Publishing, where I read manuscript submissions and help with publicity. That has been very educational and I can't wait to tell you all about it this year.

I received acceptances for two of my short stories from different places, one for an anthology and one for a magazine ... but NO CONTRACTS. How frustrating! So I can't make any announcements yet, other than to say I'm part of the frustrating waiting game now.

Other than that, I've been picking up ghostwriting work for short business ebooks and web copy. And naturally I've been working on my novel writing. So it's been a year of learning. Has my self-confidence increased? I think so. It's strange not driving into the city to work every day, but change is what keeps us growing. That may be something we all need to remember this year!

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages