We have book doctored and/or edited some wonderful books this year. We have traveled from Iraq, to Zimbabwe, to Tibet in the 1950s, to WW II Poland, to the Civil War, to early 20th-century Afghanistan through our clients’ works – and it has been quite a ride.

We have learned about surviving the 1958 Lebanese Civil War, hip hop music in Israel, exercising to stay fit, dying with dignity, building successful businesses, drug dealing in Washington DC and wheeling and dealing at top government levels. We have been transported to fantasy worlds and inspired by religious fiction. We have been behind the scenes in Hollywood and the White House and to the scene of fictional murders in the Pacific Northwest and 19th century England.

You have made 2011 an exciting and challenging year for us. We are in awe of your dedication, your discipline, your prolific-ness, your enthusiasm, your various talents and most of all…your stories.

So instead of blogging about New Year’s resolutions for writers – such as always making a time to write or finishing a book or keeping a journal or overcoming writer’s block (as if a resolution would fix this) – we want to offer you a round of applause.
None of you is paid for writing. You do it in your spare time, often in addition to working a full-time job, and you work hard at it. You can be sure of no reward; the desire to tell your story, fiction or non-fiction, keeps you at it. Thus, we would like to take a moment at the beginning of 2012 to congratulate you for all you have achieved.

So, to all our authors and would-be authors: skip the resolutions and just continue to follow your muses. You are doing great.

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.

~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"