Thank you to everyone who started the year with the 'Resolved: Now Write' event. We were excited to hear about all the progress each of you made during that day. We hope that you can keep that momentum going throughout the rest of the year. Of course, we want to encourage you and help facilitate. This April, join the ICAN Directors in Caldwell, ID for the 2023 Spring Writers' Retreat. We are excited to be spending the day in the refurbished Huston School. During this one retreat, we will be giving you "fundamentals for your writing foundation", one on one council time, a cozy and quiet area to write. Snacks and refreshments will be available all day, a delicious lunch, and of course, Kimbre's cookies. Space is limited to 12 guest, so reserve your spot today!
In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at a coffee chat or two. On February 25th we will be meeting at Sunrise Cafe in Middleton at 10am.
ICAN BOOK RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT!
If you released a new book (or a new format of a previously released book) during the past December or January, please provide the following information within the body of an email and email it to our ICAN director Mary Vinecore at: AuthorMaryVine@gmail.com.
ICAN will announce your book release on the Idaho Creative Authors Network Facebook page. We look forward to helping you get the word out and celebrating your book.
Book Title:
Book Genre:
Format available (print, E-book, audio, other):
Link to Purchase:
Short description (limit 100 words):
Where can the author be found online (please provide links):
Please also attach a jpg file of your book’s FRONT cover.
Oh, and new releases will be posted in early February!
Looking Forward to 2023 by Mary Vine
I read an article in AARP The Magazine about actress Helen Mirren. She said, “Each year I make the same New Year’s resolutions: I will not procrastinate. And every year, I procrastinate. I will be more communicative. And every year, I fail to be more communicative. Certain character failings stay with you forever, it seems to me.”
That sounds like several of us, and the reason many no longer make New Year resolutions. Still, I continue to do so. In Proverbs 29:18a the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I believe there are a couple of ideas about what this verse means, but the one I take to heart is about looking ahead and making goals to move toward success in a chosen endeavor.
Looking back, I can’t remember a resolution I made about my day job. I simply showed up and tried to work to the best of my ability, yet I did enjoy working with students.
It took me some time to get started on goals, however. At age thirty-six, I started to write and a year later I completed my first novel. Like so many first manuscripts, it didn’t sell. I set it aside and started writing another, then another and the third one sold. That’s when I started making resolutions. Yes, I sit there, close my eyes, and commit to my goal in a prayerful way. Why? Because writing is part of my legacy, what I will leave behind after I leave this world.
Still, like Helen Mirren, I procrastinate. Now, I no longer work outside the home. Also, shortly after retirement age you will know what you will and won’t do (your character failings as Helen had said). I have successful writer friends who write far more words than I do. But I want to do other things, too.
I like to watch TV with my husband and cook now that I have more time. Through my writer’s group, I like to help new writers during the year, and I belong to an author co-op where I write blogposts just like this one. And it’s funny how the older you get it seems the days go so much faster.
So, I make my New Year’s resolution reasonable. I know I personally can’t (or won’t) write three books a year, but I am able to produce one and even two. My new resolution is to write two per year again, because it’s a challenge that is doable.
I know not all of you write but do have the option of making a New Year’s resolution. What is it you really want? Is some of it doable? Will you do it? What will get in the way of your meeting your goal?
Start smaller. Want a garden? How about just grow one plant? Do you need to exercise? How about simply get outside more? Want to redo your house? How about just paint one room. Who knows what else you can do after fulfilling a simple goal?
Further, being older doesn’t mean you are done, by any means. You could live until you are ninety and older, so you still have much to do, one year at a time.