Several weeks ago my cousin/BFF asked me what I was doing for New Year's Eve and I quickly replied, "Nothing! I just want to forget 2012 ever happened!"

I'm sure my answer surprised her. First of all, New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday. I love it more than Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, and even my own birthday. And, of course, I like it more than Christmas. The idea of Javacia Harris Bowser not celebrating New Year's Eve is unfathomable.

She was also probably shocked because she was most likely thinking, "Has 2012 really been that bad?"

Honestly, it hasn't.

The year was tough and filled with disappointments  I didn't make the progress I had aspired to regarding my finances, my writing career or my fitness goals. And worse of all, I was not a very good wife to my sweet husband this year.

But my melodramatic response to my cousin was a rather bratty one as it discounted all the good things that happened in 2012. And those things were on my mind this morning when I started my day doing the Resolution Run (a 3, 5, or 10 mile walk/run through the trails of Red Mountain Park) with some ladies from See Jane Write.

Jennifer Dome, Jennifer Howell and I at Red Mountain Park for the Resolution Run

I signed up for this run on a whim last night after a blogging buddy asked me to do so. This go-with-the-flow spirit is exactly the kind of attitude I want to have in 2013. If I hadn't gone on this run this morning I would have missed out on so much fun and fellowship. And I even won a door prize -- a zip lining adventure for two at Red Mountain Park!

As I've mentioned before, I also want 2013 to be a year of gratitude. So let's kick off that now with a list of some of the things I'm grateful for as I look back over 2012.

• I completed my first half-marathon, without dying or passing out. 

This photograph was taken shortly after I crossed the finished line. Read my post "Why I Run" here. 

• I started freelancing for USA Today and Magic City Post. 
• I had the chance to interview Nina Garcia and write a profile on her for Hispanic Executive magazine. 
• I feel I have finally hit my stride in my teaching career.
• My husband got a great new job as a community engagement specialist for AL.com. 

• Hubs and I had a great time this fall when we took a trip to Chicago, a trip that, ironically, made me fall in love with Birmingham.  

• The Women's Fund of Greater Birmingham recognized me as one of the city's smartest, most innovative women thanks to my work with See Jane Write.

Accepting my award at the Women's Fund of Greater Birmingham SMART Party

• See Jane Write grew in ways that I never expected and through this group other local women writers and I started building amazing community. 

A few of the ladies of See Jane Write and I before sitting down for a post-jog picnic at Railroad Park.
Read more about this awesome day here.

• I found the courage to let go of a blogging project that wasn't working to focus on The Writeous Babe Project. 
• I found incredible blogs like The Very Worst Missionary and She Reads Truth. 

• I continued to build friendships with some of the wonderful women I've met at my church. 

My Church of the Highlands girls and I at this year's ReCreate Women's Conference.
Read highlights from this year's conference here. 

And I am most thankful for the breakthrough and epiphanies I had at this fall's LIFE (Living Every Day in Freedom) Retreat. There I realized how much I fear rejection and how much that was negatively affecting all my relationships and even my creativity. During the LIFE Retreat I felt God's love and grace in a way I never have before and I learned the importance of finding confidence not through how others see me but through who I am in God. Holding on to this idea is all I need to make 2013 my best year yet!

Image by Derek Key via Flickr/Creative Commons

Each December I compose a long, long list of goals for the coming year. Sometimes the list has as many as 99 or 101 aspirations. My rational, reasonable self tells me there's no way I'm going to accomplish all those goals in 365 days, but the dreamer in me drafts the list nonetheless. 

And I get so excited about this list of mine. I pray over it on New Year's Eve. I party in celebration of it on New Year's Eve. (Such a well-balanced girl, I am). And I celebrate it some more on New Year's Day with a yummy brunch.

For the first time probably in two decades I am not making a list of goals for the New Year. Mark Twain, one of my favorite authors, once said "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got." I think he was on to something and for 2013 I'm following his advice. I'm trying something new.

I'm just going to live my life one day at a time, letting three words guide me -- communion, gratitude, and joy.

This doesn't mean I'm going to be a loser sitting on the sofa all day. I'm still going after my dreams. Throughout the year I'll be composing a bucket list of sorts using the new app Everest;  and to keep things interesting, I'll be accepting some fun challenges through that program as well. But there will be no master plan labeled "2013." Instead I'm going to focus on living each day with intention. Each day I will reach for my heart's desires in some small way as the Spirit moves me. Or maybe on some days I will just sit on the sofa and do nothing, because sometimes I need to just breathe.

Also, I won't be partying on Dec. 31. I'm going to spend the daytime hours journaling and reflecting on 2012 and that night hubster and I are going to spend some quality time together at home. I will, however, definitely be having brunch on Jan. 1. (Let me know if you'd like to join me!)  But this year as I'm munching on my French toast or Belgian waffle, I won't be celebrating my laundry list of aspirations; I'll be simply celebrating the fact that I'm alive.

super cute photo found here

I’m not a fashion blogger, but I regularly read the Independent Fashion Bloggers website because it always features such great tips for bloggers of any niche.

At the beginning of this month I came across a blog post on that website on 31 Ways to Boost Your Blog into 2013. Taylor Davies gave a list of 31 things to do in the month of December to make for a more successful blog in the New Year. Unfortunately, I didn't see this post until a few days into the month and since I’m not a fashion blogger several items on the list didn't really apply to me. Then I thought, “I feel another blogging challenging coming on!”

Drawing inspiration from Davies' post, I’ve put together a list of my own: 31 Days to a Better Blog. Here are 31 things to do in January (that’s one task for each day) to improve your blog. What a great way to kick off the New Year.

Below is the entire list so you can play along, but each day I’ll be posting or tweeting @writeousbabe about the tasks (with the hashtag #31Days).

If you plan to join me on this challenge let me know in the comments so I can swing by your blog to check on your progress.

Happy blogging!

xo,
Writeous Babe

31 Days to a Better Blog

1. Carve out a new niche for yourself. Create the blog you wish existed!
2. Create an editorial calendar and stick with it!
3. Update your Twitter header.
4. Write a mission statement for your blog. 
5. Revamp your About page (and include that new mission statement). 
6. Redesign your header. 
7. Take a photo that you will use on all your social networking sites and add the photo to your blog as an "About Me" graphic that links to your About page. 
8. If you've been thinking about changing your URL, title or platform, do it! 
9. Sign up for a blogging class or conference.
10. Recommit to being more engaging on Facebook and Twitter. 
11. Dust off your LinkedIn profile. Believe it or not, I've had more people contact me about writing and social media gigs through LinkedIn than Facebook or Twitter. 
12. Update your Google profile. 
13. Learn how you can use Pinterest to boost your blog. 
14. Update your blogroll. 
15. Now recommit to leaving thoughtful comments on most of those sites in your blogroll. 
16. Cut ties with some of your tweeps to streamline your Twitter experience. 
17. Make commenting on your blog easier.
18. Organize an event for bloggers in your area.
19. Get connected with an online blogging community such as BlogHer, Skirt or IFB.
20. Make a pitch to be featured on or to contribute to one of your favorite blogs. 
21. Make a pitch to be featured in local (or even national) media. 
22. Start a video post feature on a topic related to your niche. 
23. Post an interview with someone you admire. These posts generally bring lots of pageviews.
24. Introduce yourself to important people in your niche. 
25. Blog about a controversial topic. These posts are shared over and over in cyberspace and are sure to bring you more traffic.
26. Start an e-newsletter.
27. Have a blog date. Go to your favorite coffee shop and blog for hours.
28. Highlight your best blog posts. 
29. Cover a local event. These types of posts tend to be popular, too.
30. Compile a post of all the lesssons you've learned about blogging thus far. Your readers who are also bloggers will appreciate it, and this will be a great post for you to refer back to when you feel you've lost your way.
31. Create a list of great blog post ideas for 2013. 

You may think that a novel about homicide isn't exactly something that could get you in the holiday spirit. And you probably think that there's no way a story about a Christmastime murder could also be funny. Stephanie Naman is here to prove you wrong. 

Naman's new book, Murder on the First Day of Christmas by Billie Thomas, cleverly mixes humor, homicide and the holidays to make for the perfect murder mystery and a great vacation read. 

Set in Birmingham, Alabama, the novel follows Chloe Carstairs and her mother Amanda, two decorators who find themselves in the middle of a homicide investigation after two of their clients are killed. Chloe and her mom soon become amateur sleuths determined to crack the case. The first of a series of Chloe Carstairs mysteries, this book is filled with laugh-out-loud humor, romance, irresistible mother-daughter banter, and a bit of Southern hospitality for good measure. 

I recently had a chat with Naman, a Birmingham resident who published her book under the pen name Billie Thomas, about the series, her writing, the Magic City. 

Tell me a bit about how you came up with the idea for this story.

My mom and I always traded mysteries back and forth and one day, out of the blue, I asked her to collaborate on writing one with me. I think I surprised us both, since I’d been struggling to write another book and hadn’t planned on putting that aside, much less starting a project with my mom. We had something of a rollercoaster relationship, but the idea of a fun, funny mystery with a mother-daughter relationship much like our own, appealed to both of us.

Why did you decide on a Christmas murder mystery and how did you get the idea for Chloe and her mom to be interior designers?

My mother wasn’t a professional decorator, but she could’ve been. She had great taste. And several years ago, I wrote a monthly column for Birmingham Magazine about some of the most beautiful homes in town. I got to interview a lot of interior designers, including one who did Christmas decorating like the kind Chloe and Amanda do in the book. Since this is going to be an on-going series, being decorators will get my main characters into a lot of houses, where they can find lots of skeletons in the closets.

I love reading all the Magic City references! What do you think makes this city a great setting for a story like yours? 

I love Birmingham and want everyone to know what a great city it is. It’s a character itself – often underestimated, full of surprises. Another Birmingham author, the late Anne George, was a master at using Birmingham as a backdrop for her stories. She was a definite inspiration.

Even though this book is a murder mystery, it’s also hilarious and I’ve always envied humor writers. Any tips on how to be funny on the page? 

The better you know your characters, the easier it is to find the humor in your story. The way they relate to a situation or to other characters are great sources of humor. Chloe, for instance, is self-deprecating and a little ditzy. Amanda is more sophisticated and has a dryer sense of humor. Their differences make their banter funny, but their affection for each other keeps it light.

Let’s talk about your writing process. How long did it take you to write this book? Did you have a writing routine that helped you complete the project? 

The first draft just flowed out in a couple of months. It was a joy to write. I’d work on a chapter, send it to my mom, she’d make suggestions and I’d rewrite. Easy. I workshopped it with my writing group and looked for an agent, getting some lovely, mystery-series-are-a-hard-sell-right-now rejections. We put the book aside for a few years and I worked on other things. Since then, I’ve become a lot more disciplined with my writing – writing every day unless work is out of control. A thousand words a day is my goal but I often do more if the story is taking off. And it never takes off if I’m not writing consistently. I keep a journal and scribble ideas all the time, so I have a stockpile to refer to if I get stuck.

Why did you decide to go with e-publishing with an independent press instead of self-publishing or going after a larger publishing company? 

At the last few writers’ conferences I’ve been to, indie publishing has been the hot topic. It’s no longer waving the white flag and admitting you can’t find a traditional publisher. It’s a way to take the reigns of your own career – something that’s right up my alley. Because my book is the first in a series, I thought it would be perfect to start with. When my mom died unexpectedly of an aneurism at the end of 2011, I became more determined than ever to see it published. My friends were using an independent press and it felt like a head-start on the process. I could get my manuscript professionally edited and not have to learn all the formatting that goes into self-publishing. Plus, we could cross promote – always a good thing.

What advice would you give to those out there who are looking to get published? 

Connect with other writers. I love writing but it’s not the solitary experience everyone thinks it is. You need to workshop your early drafts and network at conferences. You need people to commiserate with when rejections start rolling in. And you’ll need connections to help you market your book – which you’ll have to do yourself whether you go the indie or the traditional publishing route. I’ve met some of the best, most creative and generous people through writing – my See Jane Write girls included.

Why did you decide to publish under a pen name? 

My mom’s name is Billie and my Dad’s name is Thomas.  They both have been so encouraging of my writing, it seemed like a nice way to honor them. I’m so thankful I have this series because working on it makes me feel close to my mom. If I ever hear that a daughter loved it and passed it along to her mom, or vice versa, saying “this is so us”, I will be thrilled. I’ll bawl my eyes out, probably, but sometimes I do that when I’m thrilled.

Cross-posted at the See Jane Write blog.  

Image by Mike Baird via Flickr/Creative Commons
Maybe after exercising daily for a few months I'll be able to go out in public wearing a sports bra and no shirt. 

Even though I'm supposed to be training for a half-marathon, lately I have been completely unmotivated to exercise. I'm bored with routine and I'm discouraged by a lack of results. 

Recently a friend of mine told me she plans to exercise every day for a year and blog about her experience. When she told me I my first thought was, "Wow! That's so awesome. I could never do that." But why not? Why couldn't I do it?

So I started thinking I'd give it a try. I figured I'd begin on January 1. Then I remembered a recent blog post by my pal Tanya Sylvan. In her post she shared this quote:

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.” 
– Ivan Turgenev

Tanya went on to say: 

We can’t predict what our life will be like in two weeks or two years, yet we sit and wait for that “perfect moment” to make a leap into something new.

I do this all of the time. Everyone does. I hear people say, “Next year I’ll run a 5k” or “My diet will start after the weekend.” Hell, I’m guilty of waiting until Monday to start new training plans or workout routines. In our minds we rationalize it as waiting for a fresh start or blank slate. In reality, it’s just an excuse.

Guilty as charged. Why do I need to wait until Jan. 1 to start exercising daily? I should have a sense of urgency about this matter. My physical, emotional, and mental health (all of which are improved by exercise) are too important to be put on hold. 

And so here goes. Starting today I'm going to exercise daily for 30 to 60 minutes for the next 365 days. 

Though I occasionally will update you babes on my progress, I don't plan to blog about this regularly. Instead I'll be tweeting my daily workouts. So be sure to follow me @writeousbabe. 

Wish me luck! 

Image by Philip Daly via Flickr/Creative Commons

Media outlets and people all around are making a big deal out of today. It's December 12, 2012 -- 12/12/12. 

Last night just before bed I felt a bit weird that I wasn't jumping on the bandwagon. I'm always looking for an excuse to celebrate. And 12/12/12 is a date that will never again occur in our lifetimes.  

Then this morning I logged onto Facebook and saw a very poignant status update from the online magazine The Indie Chicks:

Up and at 'em power babes! So many people are emphasizing how 12/12/12 will never again happen in our lifetime! 
Newsflash: Each day we live will never again happen in our lifetime. Live it up, work it hard. Make those dreams come true!

How silly that we put such an emphasis on this day just because the date looks cool. We need to live every day with both an attitude of celebration and a sense of urgency. Each day is a gift, but one we will never see again; and we don't know how many more of these gifts we have left to receive. So, as cliche as it might sound, live each day to the fullest, doing all you can to realize your dreams, and doing all you can to let the ones you love know how much you care.

After all, you never know when the zombie apocalypse is going to strike. 

"By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command..." 

~ Hebrews 11:3

Image via Flickr/Creative Commons

I believe in the power of words. Since I'm a writer, you probably already knew that.

But the Jesus freak in me also drives my belief that words are important. With words the Creator spoke the world into being and with the written words of sacred texts, that same Creator communicates with us humans. John 1:1 says that Jesus is actually the living Word of God. Thus, it seems like words are a pretty big deal to God, so they should be a pretty big deal to me too.

Last week Sheree Martin of The Ben Franklin Follies asked such an intriguing question about words:

Can three words inspire, motivate — even define you for an entire year? A lifetime? If words shape our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, it would seem so.

And I completely agree with Sheree, who chose zoom, vivace, and jazz for her words. I was eager to come up with three words of my own to guide my year. Then I remembered my vow to let direct my plans for 2013 and I started pouted saying, "But God, I wanna play too!" 

Right after I read Sheree's post a tweet by Jamie Golden led me to her blog Jamie's Rabbits. Jamie confessed that she'd had a "Bah humbug" attitude toward the gratitude posts everyone was sharing on Facebook during the month of December.  "Then," she said, "God found Himself in my face for the upteenth time. He started with scripture. HE ALWAYS STARTS WITH THE DANG BIBLE." 

That scripture was I Thessalonians 5:16-18 -- Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances...

And just like that God told me I could play along too and showed me what my three words should be. 

Image by Ruben Vique via Flickr/Creative Commons

 Joy. 

I've struggled with depression most of my life and since anti-depressants turn me into a zombie I've been searching for other ways to cope. 

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon the quote "Joy is a choice" and added it to my vision board hoping it would serve as daily encouragement. Instead it became a daily annoyance. Choosing joy is hard! And that cute little quote scribbled on a yellow index card was not making it any easier. (I confess to throwing a shoe or two at my vision board thanks to this quote.)

I shared this story with someone who was praying with me this weekend at a church retreat. She looked at me and said, "God wants you to know that joy is a Person. And that person lives within you." And with that I felt the weight 10,000 vision boards lift from my shoulders. Instead of working to be happy I need to simply bask in God's presence, which leads me to my second word...

Prayer Booth
Image by Zach Alexander via Flickr/Creative Commons

Communion. 

Merriam-Webster defines communion as an act or instance of sharing or intimate fellowship or rapport. In 2013 my hope is to have intimate fellowship with God through prayer, worship, and study of the Bible, and by serving other people. The word communion not only makes me think of God, but also the people I love. In 2013, I want to spend more quality time with my friends and family and find more ways to inspire women writers.

Image via Flickr/Creative Commons

Gratitude. 

In 2013 I want to "give thanks in all circumstances." When things are great at work, when See Jane Write is being celebrated, when more and more people start reading my blog, and when freelance gigs come pouring in I want to give thanks to God and be careful not to take credit for these blessings. And when my students are driving me crazy, when I'm frustrated with See Jane Write, when I feel like no one cares about anything I write, and when the freelance jobs are scarce I want to still give thanks because I know that bad days only make good days sweeter and challenges only make me stronger. And I will give thanks because I believe the words found in Romans 8:28 --  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

What three words will guide you in the year 2013?