CNYRW X-mas Party

Our local RWA chapter, Central NY Romance Writers, had our December meeting this past Saturday - which consisted of our annual Christmas party. This was my 2nd party with this group and once again, it was a blast. We have a wonderful group of men and women who are extremely friendly and fun. Christmas carols were sung, gifts exchanged, and our hilarious Rose Queens did a wonderful job at the Rose Ceremony this year!

(For those of you who don't know what that is - as writers we keep a year long tally of all of our writing accomplishments, and depending on what those were, we get a specific color "rose" for each accomplishment. The "roses" are tallied and awards are given out.)

And for the 2nd year in a row - I have received the "Rose Cup" Award for the one with the least amount of roses. Here's a pic of my award:

Isn't it just lovely? Can you tell what it is? Hint: the girls got it from a nurse. I laughed so hard when they whipped this little baby out as my award! Gotta love Kari and Barb for this one!!

But on a more serious note, when I got home and was looking at this little cup, it made me realize exactly how little I've accomplished as a writer this past year. I received the same award last year - and that was fine as I'd only just started with my writing career in October 2006. But now after having a full year go by, I really haven't done much. I haven't even finished a full ms yet and that depresses me. I won't beat myself up on this, I know most writers spend years working before they are published, so I don't expect to be an overnight success. I know I have much to learn and probably more rejections to face along the way. My main hurdle to get over is time - I've got to get in more time to write and get the writing done. It's very hard with the full time job and my responsibilities towards my family, but I've got to get it done.

So, I'm going to hang my rose cup at my desk where I can look at it everyday, and by golly! I'm going to get writing!!