At the end of last year, I decided that 2008 would be different. I had several goals: 1) start a new novel 2) work on my novel first thing every day, even if I had to get up an hour earlier 3) find or create paying work that I enjoyed more than what I was currently doing to earn a living 4) sell my detective series to another publisher By March 1, I had accomplished the three things I had control over—although not the way I expected to. January first, I began to outline my new Detective Jackson novel with working title, SECRETS TO DIE FOR. I began getting up at five o’clock to write for an hour before I went to work. At the time, I worked as an editor for an educational publisher, a demanding job that left me too mentally exhausted at the end of the day to feel creative enough to fill blank page after blank page (which is how a novel comes into existence). Next, I started sending out letters to agents, publishers, and writers, announcing my services as a fiction editor. And I contacted some corporate clients and magazines about nonfiction editing as well….