At this time of the year, I like to look back over the previous 12 months and determine whether I achieved any of my goals or not. While I didn’t manage to get a lot of my own personal goals (weight loss), I have started on a very determined regime that is working towards that. But we’re not here to discuss how heavy or light I am…you want to know the writing successes I had this year.

I wanted to write 3, maybe 4 books this year. I have written two, and if you count the two half books, I have written three books. I wrote the last of my Racing Hearts series, (Having Hope) and started writing my Tuivale series – Men in Kilts. I am over halfway through Quin and Stef’s story, but I tell you what, they keep giving me headaches those two.

I also wrote Resurrection, the first in my angel story I’m also a third of the way through Revelation. And I’ll start Redemption next year. I’ll be releasing this series under Alli Harris. This story gave me a migraine until November when I really sat down, looked at what I had written, and reworked my plot, so I have a definite idea of where I want the story to go. I will finish that next year and start on the last story in the series.

I wanted to publish three books this year, but I only published two.

I published Finding Sam Healey and Carol’s Christmas – mostly to crickets (as in, there was no one there to purchase them). I felt quite disheartened, because I pour so much love and attention into my stories, and I enjoyed writing them, and several people have said that they enjoyed reading them (and I love hearing from those who have read my books). I did consider giving up writing, but to be honest, I have way too many story ideas that I can’t give them up. I need to get them out.

Carol’s Christmas was my ninth book released, and next year I am publishing my Racing Harts series with Finding Faith coming out first, in March 2026. Gaining Grace will be in June or July 2026, and Having Hope will be in October or November 2026. I’m really excited to get these books out there because I’ve loved writing this series. The characters were so much fun to write and their partners – are so dreamy! I especially like Hope’s boyfriend, but you’ll have to wait to meet him.

My last goal was to write full time, and earn $50k a year, so that I didn’t have to go back to work. Of course, I was unemployed at the time, and I could give writing a lot of my time, and I got into a great routine of writing in the morning, and then finding something else to do with my day. I was applying for job’s flat out, because… well We need money to feed us and pay bills, and I was going for all the weird and wonderful jobs – including a DoC ranger, and an office position at JB HiFi. Instead, I got a job, working part time as an administrator at the hospital, and it threw all of my writing plans out the window. The hours were unusual and I work on a fortnightly roster, including weekends, so I found I was doing slightly less writing than I wanted. But I have to admit that I can do writing while at work, and I frequently do, especially in the weekends.

So overall, I achieved my writing and publishing goals, and I would love to extend myself further but I still need to make that elusive $1000. Will that happen this year?

I’ll share my writing goals for 2026 next week.