Rachel Starr Thomson

As I go over my 2009 goals, I note that the lion’s share of them are business-related. This makes sense: I spend the lion’s share of my time on business! This year, I want to do three major things, all of them interrelated: increase my income (by a specific amount, but I won’t actually share how much), use my time more effectively, and increase exposure for my writing.

That last one is the most fun to think about, and the most challenging. It requires investment (of time, and some money), creativity, and probably as much disappointment as success at this stage. Here are a few of the ways I hope to increase exposure this year:

1. Go on virtual tour! I hope to run at least one blog tour this year, hitting fifteen blogs in a month. I’m working on getting YouTube book trailers together, thinking over interview templates, and figuring out how many books I can afford to give away in the process of touring. This one is going to be fun!

2. Submit new work every other week, both to fiction and nonfiction markets. I’d like to break into at least one new magazine as well as writing for my regulars.

3. Build the Web site. I’d like to make this site more helpful than it is now. Among my plans: blog regular reviews of fiction and nonfiction related to writing, come up with a couple of online courses/seminars for young writers, and post writing tips (from the Writing Tips book I’m planning to write this year).

4. Go to a conference! This has been a dream for years, and this year, I’m making it happen. I’m planning to attend the Writer’s Digest writer’s conference at BEA in New York City this May.

What are some of your business goals this year? How do you plan to reach them?

When I was very young, my father taught my siblings and me that goal-setting should become a regular habit in our lives. For a while we were required to write out daily goals every morning and have them approved before the day went on. At the time it seemed rather pointless — our lists commonly looked like this:

1. Get up

2. Take pajamas off

3. Put clothes on

4. Eat breakfast

Daily goal-setting trailed off after a while, but as we girls have gotten older, many of us have reverted back to the habit. Without it, forward motion seems an unattainable dream. Dad taught us that goals are more than a to-do list, and far more specific than your typical New Year’s resolutions. He urged us to set yearly goals, to break those down into monthly and weekly goals, and to break those down into daily goals. So if your goal is to write a book this year, you figure out how many words you need to write per day to make that happen. Goals can and should evolve as time goes by; some will be dropped, others revised, others renewed.

My goals are not quite that detailed, but I do break long-term goals into short-term steps, and my daily to-do lists keep all my desires and projects moving forward. I’ve taken to setting and revising goals twice a year: once at the new year (which is roughly when the Fall Semester ends) and once at the beginning of summer (when the Spring Semester ends).

In the spirit of New Year’s, I’m currently writing and streamlining a list of goals and plans for 2009. It includes business and marketing ideas, educational goals, books I want to write, relationships I want to invest in, and personal lifestyle changes. I’ll be blogging about some of these things over the next few days.

I’d love to hear from you: do you set yearly goals? In what areas? What are some of yours for this year?

As we come into the last days of the year, I have a distinct feeling of standing on tip-toe–trying to peek over  the edge of the coming year to see what grand and glorious things lie in store. Anno Domini Two Thousand and Eight has been an amazing year in many ways. It’s been a year of beginnings, of growth, of past, present, and future all meeting together.

This is my first day solidly back at work after the holidays. I have three weeks off between WriteAtHome semesters, so I’m hoping to write a great deal — to do significant editing on a couple of novels — to read — to pray — to do a lot of the foundational work for our next Soli Deo Gloria Ballet tour. The work should carry me into January, and I go gladly, with great expectations.

For some reason, I’m pulling a late night. I’ve had a few involuntary late ones, so now my body doesn’t want to go to bed … and I’m a bit behind on marking papers, so despite an unexpected reprieve in their due date, I’d like to mark some tonight. It’s nearly midnight and I’ve got five to go, so I really ought to get cracking!

In mid-December of last year, I was visiting the Curreys, and Carolyn and I were looking over the year ahead and detailing our plans. Two ballet/performing arts productions to create, rehearse, and tour; promotion and publication of our book Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled, publication of my book Burning Light, the launch of Soli Deo Gloria Ballet as a business and ministry, plus various personal goals. I looked at her and said, “This time next year, I am going to collapse on your bed and just lay there and palpitate.”

Well, “this time next year” came, and I was so busy I forgot to palpitate! That’s ok … the holidays are just around the corner. I finish the semester with WriteAtHome on December 24, and then I have three weeks “off” (which is not really “off,” just doing other things). During this season, one of my cousins and oldest friends returns from a long time away in Bolivia, another of my dearest friends comes to visit from Florida, yet another of my dearest friends drives up from Virginia with her beautiful boys, and well, I suppose even the holidays are shaping up to be busy!

But as I look back on the year, on the launch of Soli Deo, the productions of Emmanuel and Father, the books published, growth experienced, and experiences grown, I look back with satisfaction and joy. It is a good life, and I could not be more blessed.

Today I made use of my still-new driver’s license, spending five and a half hours on the road on my way home to my wonderful family. The sky was cloudy and wintery and glorious, with the sun pouring through in cream and yellow streaks. I listened to music and prayed and missed people and looked forward to seeing others. What a beautiful, wonderful life.

Last night we performed Emmanuel at an Anglican church called St. John the Evangelist in Niagara Falls. It was a small crowd, but I really enjoyed the performance — something about it was very warm. It’s a privilege to be able to read the Word of God in these performances, along with my own narrations, and to sing the songs of Christmas — the songs of Emmanuel, God With Us.

Earlier today I got online to listen to a radio show being hosted down in Louisiana. My friends Katie, Paige, and Steven Rees (three parts of the family Cajun band L’Angelus) were on, doing an interview and performing a few songs from their new Christmas album, O Night Divine. (You can hear song clips and purchase the CD at this link.) I dearly wish they lived closer, but it was fun to hear them, and very special to know that we’re not the only ones singing the songs of Emmanuel at this time of year!

Books are not just books; as W.E. Channing wrote, “They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.” My latest Boundless article, “Mind Soul Ink Paper,” is an exploration and celebration of the power of the written word–and a plea that more Christians might read.

What a week it’s been so far! Emmanuel, our 45-minute Christmas production, began touring last Saturday at a church in Stoney Creek, followed by a performance in Welland on Sunday morning. We were blessed at both performances by standing ovations from the crowd — definitely an encouragement! Our third performance was a nursing home on Monday, and on Tuesday we drove up to Burlington, bound for the Holiday Inn and the television studios of Crossroads Ministries.

On Wednesday, we performed two pieces from Emmanuel live on 100 Huntley St, which airs all over Canada and the United States. Between songs, Carolyn and I did a 10-minute interview with the hosts, sharing what Soli Deo Gloria Ballet is all about, how we got started, and what we’re currently doing. I even got to talk a little about my writing. (You can watch the program here: http://www.crossroads.ca/broadcas/program.php . If by the time you click it this link no longer leads to us, check the Archives for Wednesday, Dec 3.)

It was a lot of fun, and praise God we weren’t even nervous. Carolyn was too out of breath from dancing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” (that and having a mic attached to her dress in record time) to have TIME to be nervous, and as for me, well, I seem to have lost any intidimidation instincts a long time ago. The hostess told me that I was as confident and relaxed as a pro .

Which brings me to an interesting thought. When I was a young teenager, like many young teenagers, I would have thought of myself as shy and fairly awkward. I had no particular desire to get up in front of people and sing, speak, read my writing, or do any of the other things I do on a regular basis now. And because I thought of myself that way for so long, I still often think of myself in that way–yet, at the same time, I know I’m not like that anymore. I really don’t even qualify as shy. These conflicting selves set up an interesting sort of tension: we live every day between who we are and who we used to be, and the choices we make day by day determine who we become. We are this way because God fashioned us thus, and THAT points out a fascinating contrast between our ever-changing natures and God’s steadfast one: as I read in Emmanuel’s last narration, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” No wonder we need Him so badly!

We still have eleven performances to go in the Emmanuel tour, our next being tomorrow (Friday) evening. Your prayers are appreciated! The name of our group is Soli Deo Gloria Ballet, and truly, we want to glorify God alone in all that we do. It can be tricky, when you’re standing up there in the spotlight, to remember that our words, our dances, and even our very SELVES are all about Him–the One who created us to speak, to dance, and to live. But they are; we are; and we’re grateful for His blessing and presence with us on this tour.