Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Friday, May 01, 2009

Triannual Status Update - First of 2009

Okay, so no crazy, wacked-out blogging today. Really. I promise. Maybe. Depends on what you think is crazy. =)

You might think it's crazy for me to come back to my scary yearly goals list and pick apart what I've done and what I haven't. You may also think the goals list was crazy to begin with. To me, that's not crazy, that's just me being normal.

Here we go - what have I done this year so far?

- I have not written 4k per week - the baby chasing only leaves me so much writing time, and recently I have been concentrating on other things besides fresh words
- I have not critiqued 1 thing per week, but I am critiquing on a more consistent basis - so far a total of 3 things for the year, as far as I can see, so hopefully I can pick that pace up a little bit
- The allotted hours I had listed...yea...little one says "I don't think so, mommy." (except when she says it, it sounds like "Eh, ma, ga, mmm, eh.")
- Obviously Shepherd of Dreams is not finished, and it is past April 30 =( - the Daina's Dance rough draft I am thinking might be pushed to next year
- Track Word Count/Productivity - I did when I was writing fresh words, but have not been with the story revisions...oops
- Out of the 12 short stories that need to be revised and submitted - "Cold...Oh So Cold" was edited and is currently in a slush pile; "This Is Where I Stand" has been revised, I recently received some editing feedback, will edit it next week and it will be out in a slush pile then as well; "Path of One" has been revised and I received suggestions for the last line, so i just need to make a decision for that line, then it's going to a slush pile (likely next week); still have 9 other stories to deal with
- Haven't worked on any of the rough drafts of the 6 stories I had listed (or any other stories I didn't have listed, for that matter)
- All completed short stories ARE in slush piles - yay!
- I have submitted a total of 9 queries this year for The Mind Behind the Mind - 1 full manuscript request, resulting in a rejection; 3 rejections; 2 no responses, which looking at the websites means rejections; and 3 were just sent out last night
- Newsletters, magazines...? Remember, I'm not superwoman!
- Listerves, writing groups...see above
- More like once a month for the blogging, but I'm okay with that for now
- I haven't done much with my website - cleaned it up a bit once, but I have an idea for a Writing Prompt, and I really need to post it soon
- Backing up files has been pretty consistent
- My reading has plummeted - it may just be I really am not digging the third George R. R. Martin novel - political fantasy may be my brother-in-law's cup of tea, but not mine, and it could also be the fact that I'm too exhausted to read by the time bedtime rolls around
- Um, the study...the loveseat is cleared off, does that count? Still way too many boxes (and cobwebs), though
- I will not be attending the WPF Alumni Writing Retreat this year - money, alas money, is the main reason...if we are short $6k to paint the outside of our house, we definitely don't have the funds for me to go to Pennsylvania =(

That's the update. I am no where near on schedule. I'm at least keeping up with submissions, and I think once I have a bunch of short stories off the revision pile, I'll feel much better. Should I be crazy and set some basic goals for the next triannual status update? Hehehe - why not?

- Revise, possibly get more feedback, and submit the following stories: "Dreams in Shadow", "Hell Hath No Fury", "Ode to Buses and Libraries", "The Awakening", and "Ancient Ways"
- Write 25-30k more for Shepherd of Dreams
- Critique 6-8 things
- Post that Writing Prompt on my website
- Finally get my study cleaned (this is I think the most difficult to do)
- Get through Storm of Swords and move onto something more to my liking for reading!

That's not too scary/crazy of a list...right? Baby willing, I'll try my hardest!

How are everyone else's yearly goals moving along? Please post to my comments so I know what everyone else has done this year. =)

Happy writing, all!