Happy New Year everyone! My long hiatus is over and I’ve been itching to get back from my self-imposed, month-long exile. OK, so it’s only been 26 days, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I’ve missed you all too much.
And the stats, how are the stats!?
It was probably a good thing it was a month-long break… the stat watching can get a bit intense after a while, and I really needed to go cold-turkey and get over it.
It’s unbelievable to think that I started this blog as a fresh-faced newbie back in 2015, when stats were a thing of the future. When I first started blogging, I was only 27 and working on completing my second novel, Mesmerise.
If I could sum up the last three years, what would I say? Probably that 2015 was interesting, 2016 was a series of unfortunate events (but filled with plenty of golden highlights!) and 2017 was atrociously sub par with lots of lessons learned.
I assume things can only improve from here. At least, I bloody well hope so.
The icing on the cake for me in 2017 was when one of my short stories was rejected from a newly established student literary magazine. The worst thing was? They REQUESTED the story. And then rejected it. Who does that!? When their apologetic email came through in December, I was so exhausted by all of the end-of-year-get-in-quick rejection emails that I broke down and cried. Like, proper cried. Totally not ashamed to say that.
I’m not looking for sympathy (but please feel free to smother me with love), for while that email initially crushed my soul into atomic dust, I feel more determined than ever to succeed. It might take a few more years, but I’ll get there.
I’ve always refused to do the whole ‘New Year resolution thing’. I mean, hardly anyone keeps them, they set us up for failure, and it means you make yourself wait until the New Year to change your ways. But, you know what? If the New Year is that one thing that spurs you on to dream big, write more and change your life for the better, than all the more power to you!
These are my esteemed, scholarly writing ambitions for 2018:
- Self-publish Mesmerise in April
- Complete The Other Pretty One and publish in October
- Create a blogging empire and get featured on that WordPress Discover thing, finally
- Have one of my novels make it to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List, and while we’re at it, featured in Oprah’s Book Club
- Have my novel adapted into a film
- Have that film become a summer blockbuster
- Become rich and famous
- Win the Nobel prize in literature (but first, the Man Booker Prize)
- Meet Andy Weir and compare notes
Ok, so I might not be able to get all of this done until at least 2019. But why not dream big?
Milly Rogers Author 
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