A year ago today

Today I was thinking about where I was this year at this time — with my business, I mean. There was a lot of talk about the economy and the recession last winter, and my January income was pretty short. That wasn't unusual in itself — the first month of the year is typically pretty slow for me — but then February was short too.

Also this time last year, I was getting ready for a trip to Haworth and London at the very beginning of March. You can read all about my adventures here:

The longest day of my life
My working vacation
Advantages and disadvantages of the handheld laptop
Literary travels: A writer's journey, part I
Inspiration: A writer's journey, part 2
A writer's journey, part 3

Fast forward to 2010. January proved to be a bit more lucrative, and February is shaping up to be the same. Still not raking in the dough, but then I never am this time of year. I am making more time for my horse now than I was a year ago, though, which is a good thing. I am also having to make time to force-feed a sick cat, which isn't such a good thing — although of course I would never choose the alternative.

Another major difference is that I'm making more of a commitment to work on my fiction now than I was this time last year. During NaNoWriMo, I worked on the novel I'd started during our trip to Europe in March. I'm still not quite done with it, but now that Kathy Kehrli and I are doing virtual write-ins once a week (when we can manage it), I'm at least moving ahead at a regular (if slow) pace.

This year has begun a bit differently than usual. No New Year's resolutions, and I haven't done monthly assessments on my blog in quite a while. I feel a bit like I'm surfing from month to month, wave to wave, with hardly time to do anything except a few things I force myself to make time for (riding being one of them). Not even my blogs are getting as much attention as they used to.

In some ways, I like the changes between this year and last. Spending more time with both my horse and my novel are major advantages to the harried schedule I've been keeping, and of course nursing my cat is a necessity. But I'd also like to do some more marketing and update my website (finally), and I'm honestly not sure how I'll find the time for either.

How about you? How has your business — and your life — changed from this time last year?