Preparing for Next Year

This year has gone awfully fast! 

I now keep three calendars to remind me about what’s coming up next.  One I do on line, and it’s pretty easy.  It even sends me reminders, although I usually don’t see them until after the event is over.

I keep another on the wall in my kitchen, and that one includes things going on with my husband and the rest of the family. 

And I also keep another small one right beside my computer.  It’s usually a two-year pocket planner, and whenever possible it’s one with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on the cover.  Come to think of it, the one hanging in my kitchen is filled with Cavalier pictures.  Did I ever mention that I’m obsessed?  With dogs, of course, and especially with Cavaliers.

I recently bought a new two-year pocket planner that starts with next year, but the room to write things under the dates is really small.  I’ve gone back to another two-year pocket planner that started with 2012 and ends in 2013 to update my 2013 occurrences-to-be.   I just hope I find one for 2014 that I can write in more easily, when the time comes.  My handwriting leaves a lot to be desired, and I need to be able to see what I’m going to be doing.  On the other hand, since I type events into my online calendar, I can always go to that one to confirm what I tried to say more briefly with my illegible scrawl.

Keeping track of what I need to do is especially important for the first couple months of the new year.  I have two--yes, count ‘em, two--books being published in February: OODLES OF POODLES, my fourth Pet Rescue Mystery for Berkley Prime Crime, and UNDERCOVER WOLF, my fourth Alpha Force paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne.  I’m not sure what the significance may be to having books number four in two series coming out in the same month, but it’ll certainly keep me busy.  I’ll be doing a lot of promotion including guest blogging, for one thing, to let people know about them.

Have you been planning what you’ll be up to in 2013?  How do you keep track of it?