The Unbroken Resolution.

Today I write this blog and, for the first time in my adult memory, I do not have a single regret over the past year. Despite being Scottish, New Year, or Hogmanay, has always been a time of depressive reflection on another year having passed with nothing to show for it. Another year of simply following the path of least effort and resistance.

I don’t do New Year’s Resolution. The usual boring ones of ‘Go to the Gym’, ‘Eat more Healthily’, ‘Drink Less’ etc were too easily broken. They were meaningless to me and were never made with any kind of conviction. So I stopped making them. Well, what’s the point of making a promise to yourself that you KNOW you will break and which will only depress you further when you reflect upon it a year later?

365 days ago however, on the 31st December 2016, I broke this resolution of not making resolutions. I made a very solemn promise to myself. I promised myself that, come hell or high water, I was going to finish writing the book I had started ten years before. I was absolutely determined that this was a resolution which would be kept.

I cannot begin to describe how I feel today. Knowing that 2017 was the year when I finally DID SOMETHING! I made my resolution and I stuck to it. I completed that book. And, even better, I wrote a second one which is currently going through the editing and re-writing process.

I learnt so much this year and achieved even more. From setting up a website to embarking on my first ever blog tour. My book has been read by friends, family and people whom I’ve never met and their feedback has been both kind and positive. These helped me to keep focused as I wrote my second book.

I have also made so many new friends and have joined some fantastic book clubs on Facebook. The Fiction Cafe Book Club, however, has to be one of the best with great administrators and fantastic members and my heartfelt thanks go to them all for their support over the year. Here is the link if you wish to join us – The FictionCafe

The end of this wonderful year was rounded off with the joyful news that my debut novel received a Readers Award from the Chill With a Book website. It is impossible to try to describe the extent of my joy when I received that email. This was validation that my efforts were worth something. My deepest thanks to Pauline Barclay for her support.

As I sign off for the final time in 2017, I would like to thank all my readers and followers for their support over the year and I look forward to sharing more with you over the one yet to come. I also wish you all a very, very Happy New Year and I wish you all the best for 2018.

May you still have dreams to follow and the courage to set your foot upon the path which will lead you to them.

After all, if I can do it, so can you!