It’s obvious. Every writer wants to write well, but reading the publishing news is enough to make most of us feel like Henny Penny. Or is it Chicken Little? The sky may be falling, but I’ve decided I’m not going to focus on the economy or e-readers or the fact that my local Borders store looks like K-Mart before filing Chapter 11. After reading blogs from every agent, editor, and writer on the web, I’ve decided the only advice that means anything is “Write the best book you can write.”

So that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s my only goal, my New Year’s resolution. Though I’ve deconstructed, rewritten, turned my book over to a Beta reader (Hi, Sonya), recorded then listened to the manuscript, read enough about Charles Dickens and Georgia O’Keeffe to write a dissertation, changed points of view, changed verb tenses, changed word choices, taken out the pop culture references, added the pop culture references back (Just when I got rid of Jay Leno, Oprah decided to quit,and now, Jay’s back.), watched episodes of Bonanza from the early 60’s, and read, debated, and analyzed copyright infringement on every article I could find (including a few about Charles Dickens), I still have more to do. I’m still working.

I’ll let you know when I’m finished.