By Patricia Zick @PCZick

At the beginning of the year, I posted my goals for 2013. Here we are three months into the year, so it’s time to see how I’m doing once again. I highly recommend checking on the goals. I’ve never done it before this year, and I’m finding it’s a great motivator that keeps me moving.

Writing Goals for 2013

• Launch Trails in the Sand. I published it on Amazon and have a print copy ready to proof. I plan to do a big launch for the novel by the end of January.

Update: Trails in the Sand is available on Kindle and in paperback on Amazon. It’s also available on Nook through Barnes and Noble. So far, sales remain slow.  There are eight reviews on Amazon – all five-star  Several review copies are still out, and I’m waiting for more reviews to appear. I decided to sign up for a blog tour with Worldwind Virtual Blog Tours so I’m busy writing guest posts for the tour, which begins on Earth Day, April 22. The tour lasts one week. Also, I signed up for World Literary Cafe’s Shout Out for April 22. I’ll report in my next update on whether I feel these two things were worthwhile.

• Finish Safe Harbor. I started this novel in 2007 but stopped when I decided I needed to find a wildlife officer to interview. I left for the big Route 66 trip, which led to the creation of Live from the Road. When I returned from Route 66, I took a new job with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and became very familiar with wildlife officers and experts. Now there’s no excuse not to finish the almost completed draft. I start by pulling out the spiral notebook where it’s housed and giving it a read. I always recommend that writers let pieces incubate, but five years isn’t what I meant.

 Update: I’ve read through the draft, made notes, and decorated my bulletin with character cards. I’m rearranging chapters now and and filling in gaps. I’m starting on Chapter Five this week.

• Publish a book of essays on my travels. I already have a name: Odyssey to Myself. I have most of the pieces written in various stages. It’s a matter of pulling it all together into one cohesive story of my travels from 2004-2009 as I discarded an old life and moved into a new phase.

Update:  Nothing to report here.

• Pull together all of my gardening blog posts from my blog “Living Lightly” into a book. I see it as a primer for gardening and preserving produce. Again, I have all the pieces here and there, I just need to pull it all together.

Update:  This book is coming along nicely. I’ve written the first four chapters (Introduction, Year Round Gardening, Winter, and Spring). I’ll be starting the chapter on Summer this week. The drafts of the first four chapters are on my husband’s desk awaiting his proofreading pen.

• Read the pile of books on my desk, both fiction and nonfiction. Reading is an essential part of the writing journey. How fortunate for me to have a career that requires reading for improving my craft.

Update:  I read another eBook and finished In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. I started reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver this past week.

• Establish myself as a bestselling author. Every year this one makes it to my list. Here’s to 2013  being the year it happens. For me, this goal refers to making a living as an author. I want to be able to pay more than the electrical bill each month with the proceeds from my storytelling.

Update:  Stay tuned.