where have i been?

i am embarrassed, to say the least, at the date of my last post. almost one month. holy cow. and i am also embarrassed to say that i have been feeling embarrassed a lot these last 30 days. the new year came with a vengeance. everyone and everything that was dormant and sleeping during the holidays just came up and whacked me on the head. and the funny thing: i was excited about getting back to work. 

now, i'm looking at what i just wrote and realizing you probably expect some bad news to come next. how depressing am i! haha no bad news here, just grieving the time i haven't spent writing on my blog. :) 

during this month, i went to dallas to meet with two amazing women i am proud to call a part of my team. tammy kling and sharon lynch of The Writers Group. i cannot express how blessed i feel right now, and i cannot wait to see what the rest of this year holds. 

tammy doing her thing

so, what am i doing right now? 

a. working on my final final read-through of falling stars **COMING OUT MAY 1!!!! i thought my last time to read through it was the last...but it turns out, i have one more week before we go to print, so i'm going through one more time just in case i missed something. you would too:)

after my first final read-through. yes, those are pjs, and yes, it was 3pm when i took this picture. 

b. working on ashlyne.co (on the back end) to update a lot of things! including a store!!!!!

c. real estate (i do have another job!) 

d. working on the sequel to falling stars. 

e. working on one of the recordings of the songs that i wrote for the book

f. schedules and such for the rest of the year (i.e. book tour, etc.!)

g. way too many trips to barnes & noble

h. reading novel after novel...i love being a writer. means i get to read during the work day and not feel guilty about it! 

i. designing new piecemeal cards for my etsy shop and my new online store! 


so, as you can see, i haven't been sitting like a bump on a log, but that doesn't give me an excuse!

i hope your january has been filled with lots of fun and planning for the year ahead:) 

new year promises

it's 2015. i cannot believe it. so much happened last year, yet it still flew by. i won't bore you with the details because, well, you can read the entire blog for all those, but i will say i have made some promises.

my husband and i were talking about goals on new years eve. normally, i would make a list of them, post the sheet on my cork board or wall or something. i would glance at it a few times for the first few weeks, and then it would basically be invisible because i knew my goals without even looking. but, here's my problem:

my goals used to be big and lofty...like "publish a book", for instance. even though i happen to be doing that very thing this year, it's been on my list every year since 2011. clearly, that didn't happen. because clearly i didn't realize what i was doing. and there was no way to know until i went through those years, knocking on this door and that, editing my butt off, learning the lingo, the language, the little rules i never knew as a consumer.

every close of the year, i would say "oh well"...i know why i didn't publish this year. because of this and this, and that and that. i'd shrug and move on. but what did that do to my list every year? it made me not really want to make them if i was going to be half-disappointed!

so! here's my new plan. i am not writing a list–even though i adore lists. our lives might be sectioned off into years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes, but my professional (or personal for that matter) life doesn't follow the rules...like ever. instead of a quantifiable list of goals, here is my new years promise.

*in the year 2015, i want to see forward movement in my life. it doesn't have to be a giant leap, but i want to go forward, whatever that means. in writing, in my marriage, in my faith. i promise not to be stagnant. and i promise to listen.*

what about you? have you been trying to nail down numbers and dollar signs to your januaries only to be disappointed and defeated in your februaries? it's easy to do. almost inevitable. try not to set exacts this year. try to keep your door open for opportunities you haven't even dreamed of yet. God has a better imagination than you, you know. :)

we went out for new years...it's a miracle. 

my hunky new years date

i've never had so much fun with a group of people.