For being a writer, I am surprisingly into numbers. I love counting things! It helps me keep my stuff in order and my thoughts organized.

This year I accumulated some pretty significant numbers.

As part of Julie Hedlund’s 12 Days Of Christmas For Writers, we were challenged make a list list of our successes for 2018. Then we were asked to post those results for the world to see (brag).

Here are mine. The numbers first, and then a few extras at the end.

Ideas. This grew out of Tara Lazar’s Storystorm. She challenges writers to come up with 30 ideas in the month of January. This year I took it to the next level. I kept it up the entire year. In the end, I had 435 ideas. And since I decided to start early (Dec. ’17) I actually have a list of 478 new ideas.

Books read. I studied All sorts of kidlit books this year. Many were old classics I hadn’t picked up before. 17 Young Adult. 8 Middle Grade. 18 Chapter Books/Easy Readers. 5 Miscellaneous. And 1032 Picture Books. That’s 1080 kidlit books read.

Writing. I challenged myself to write a new picture book first draft every week. I also wanted to participate in Paula Yoo’s Picture Book Writing Week. In total, I ended up with 58 new stories written.

Conferences/Classes – 4, including the big SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles.

Critiques – I have several critique groups and individual critique buddies. With them I had 10 stories critiqued. I also had the opportunities for professional critiques with agents, editors, and published writers. 9 critiques with them. 19 times, I went through the critique process.

Awards/Challenges/Contests. With scholarships, art contests, writing contests, poetry challenges, twitter pitches and other opportunities all around, I entered 12 challenges.

Other accomplishments.

I actively submitted to agents, and a few publishers when requested.

I received some amazing praise for my work, both art and writing, from some highly respected individuals.

I got a new job as a youth librarian, where I made an eight foot wide snowflake.

I received a grant from the Nevada Arts Council to help further my career.

Overall, a pretty exciting year!