Holidays are over. Now the work begins again.

*cracks knuckles* Yeah, it’s hard. But time to get down to it.

I don’t usually do resolutions. Or goals. But this year I’ve decided to tie myself to a few.

Number one I just completed, am pretty excited about, and comes with a countdown of ninety days. April 5th.

Not my taxes, obviously. Here’s a hint:

Yes, I submitted a short story to The New Yorker. Per their website, I will either hear in 90 days, or not.

Probably not.

However, I have joined the ranks of millions of other writer hopefuls. I had to try. See, I’ve had this little 4K story kicking around for a couple of years. It was so fun to write, I casually said to my DH, “I’m going to send it to The New Yorker.”

He reads The New Yorker, as do his siblings, as did his parents. Something along the lines of a century of combined reading of The New Yorker have gone on in this family.

Not in mine. We are avid readers of commercial fiction.

DH scoffed.

DH’s mother submitted short stories to The New Yorker. While she was published in many other magazines, her success at The New Yorker only advanced to the “personalized” rejections stage.

With that history of little hope or success, DH himself sent a carefully crafted Letter to the Editor, short and with a personal story about his encounter with a featured singer.

It. Was. Published!

Huge success, toppling the decades of his mother’s efforts, one he deemed never to be repeated, just savored. With those reminders, I procrastinated on my submission. But when a fellow writer began to rack up acceptances for his short stories in preparation for querying his novel, I came back around to the thought Why not?

According to Fiction Writing’s article Submit to The New Yorker:

Odds of Publishing Something in the New Yorker:

The odds, of course, all depend on who you are. If you’ve never published anything, the odds are very, very slim. The New Yorker publishes only one story per issue (devoting one issue per year to new fiction), and it’s safe to say that pretty much every ambitious American writer tries them at some point or other. And while The New Yorker does take chances on new writers, it tends to draw from a stable of established writers, like Munro and Murakami.

That said, if you’re one of the young writers they take a chance on, your career is made, so it’s worth trying.

Rahul Kanakia’s post of well thought out ideas for getting a foot in The New Yorker door claims it’s a 1 in 40,000 chance. A bit deterring.

However, back in August, I decided 2015 will be the year I am published. So, what the hey, I started with a submission to The New Yorker.

Whether or not that happens–probably not–I will be self-publishing my paranormal historical romance series, starting this spring with The Unraveling. My goal is to have the series out over the course of the summer. And after my success with NaNo, to blaze through a draft of another series I’ve had in mind, a futuristic set on floating islands.

But for now, I must keep my head out of the clouds, fingers on keyboard, butt in chair.

Have you set your new year’s goals?