Kim Neville

It’s now been a full year since we moved our family from East Coast to West and settled into a new life in the city where we started it all. Here’s what’s happened since then:

1) I took a horrendously messy first draft and rewrote it until it resembled a novel. I just spent the last three days reading it from start to finish. It’s come a long way. It took a lot of work, but I can honestly say that it’s become a story that I will soon be able to query to agents with confidence and pride.

2) I had my first short story published by a semi-pro magazine. You can find Meriel’s Brownie in the current issue of Leading Edge.

3) I took my reborn love for my city and turned it into a weekly article for my favourite Vancouver website. It was so much fun writing for Vancouver is Awesome, and I was sad to leave my role as editor of The Playground, but once I started working again I knew I had to let something go if I was ever going to finish my novel.

4) I went back to work. This wasn’t part of the plan, but I’m glad I decided to do it. As it turns out, I am much happier when I’m making a financial contribution to our family (even if, as a half-time employee, it’s a small contribution). I hadn’t worked since I was pregnant with Cassandra in 2007; it’s a part of my life that I didn’t realize I missed. It means I didn’t get as much writing done as I’d planned, but overall, I feel I’ve created a good balance between a job I enjoy, writing and time with my family.

My goals for next year are simple: get my current novel finished and out to agents, and write the next one. See you in 2011.