I'm Posting! April Fools! Oh, That's Tomorrow?

Yea, been almost two months. Guess I can't play the April Fools' Day I'm posting but really not joke - huh? *mutters* I should have waited until tomorrow! ;)

Anyhow, things have been slow going, per the norm as of late. I was sick for a week, and that also included my little one (she's 2-years-old now, as of last Friday - where did the time go!?) and my husband. There were also a couple weeks of extremely stressful, not sure what's going on, brain doesn't want to turn on until the issue is resolved time. I won't go into the details because I'd likely get upset all over again, and that's no good for me and my productivity. Needless to say, that situation has been resolved, and I am a little more at ease. Another weekend was spent up north at my in-laws, as my father-in-law was in the hospital. It hasn't been a good two months for crossing off things on the evil To Do List.

So, you likely guessed it - I haven't managed to get anything written. I did read through the old critiques of "Ode to Buses and Libraries" as well as re-read the story. I pretty much know what I need to do to revise, I just haven't been able to get around to it. I also have been chugging through a long critique. As of yesterday, I only have 75 pages left!

I did finally write up my Scholar's Discount essay and send that in, along with my acceptance. Things are still up in the air, though, since I haven't received confirmation yet if I can take the one online class at a time the next two terms and still receive the discount. My fingers are crossed because there is no way in hell I'll have time to eat, sleep, or breathe if I have to take 3 online courses and a writing term all at once.

Unless I am pretty much forced into starting my first residency this June, I intend to go to the WPF Retreat this year. It's been two years since I've gone! The retreat is open to non-graduates of the Writing Popular Fiction program as well, so I made sure to put the link in if anyone else might be interested in attending. As always, there are pitch sessions, which are always good, whether they make me nervous or not.

Forgive me for a moment, for I am about to put my usual pessimism aside. Today is a gorgeous day here. The sun is shining, I have a lot of the windows open in the house, and it's the first day of the year where the temperature has reached 70 degrees (it's 75 here according to weather.com!). Yesterday I saw a robin hopping around in the back yard - that's always been my sure sign that spring is finally here. I'm in a decent mood, and I intend to take my daughter to the park after I post this blog entry. I'm hoping, nay I'm determined, that this mood will follow me for the rest of the year.

Will I get any writing done today? No, but that's all right - a new month starts tomorrow, and I intend to make the most of it. I will scratch things off of that To Do List (actually both lists, the one for writing and the one for other things...).

With that determination and optimism (yes, so unlike me), here are my Writing Goals for April:

- Clean the cursed study so I can use it! And while I'm at it, try to figure out which herb decided to hop around all the other pots and take over everything....
- Finish critiquing Cheryl's monster manuscript. ;)
- Finish the rough draft of "Love Fades".
- Write at least one more chapter for Dead as Dreams - I am under-shooting this time, so if I get more written, I'll feel good about myself - lol.
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries".
- Update my Website, and perhaps create a Facebook page (would anyone Fan me?).
- Get those stories back into slush piles! Before I knew it, all the ones I sent out are back and waiting to go out into the world again (to be stomped on most likely - sorry, can't scrub out all of my pessimism).
- 3 Agent Queries for Mind, if I can find 3 more agents to query - I have nearly exhausted that list.
- Blog mid-month! =)
- Continue reading Storm of Swords - I'm slowly plodding through.

Small steps for me in April. I need to get back into a groove, and the spring weather should help me with that!

I intend to encourage my little one's love of books consistently as well. I'm just hoping she'll sit quietly for the story time at the public library. She's fine at home, but she also insists on turning the pages herself, or she gets upset. =P

Well, I think it's time to wrap this post up and go out to soak up a bit of that sunshine. Happy writing, all!

Another Month Has Zoomed By

January disappeared on me before I even had the chance to realize it was here, and now we're almost a quarter of the way through February! I miss the days of my youth where time just seemed to exist in endless quantities.

Well, January pretty much consisted of me dealing with my little one's new favorite thing: temper tantrums. Yup, that's right, she wants what she wants NOW and if she doesn't get it then she decides to bang her head on the floor.... She is not making life easier, I'll say that much. And I spent a week dealing with my husband's computer that managed to collect the Sinowal Trojan - it's still not fully off, and I will likely have to do a wipe and re-install of the entire OS (for now I'm waiting on a response from the tech gurus at Bleepingcomputer.com).

So, where did all this leave me? With not a single new word written. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. And six days into February with no new writing to show for it either. I did critique a lot again. Had to have a novel critiqued by the end of January, but I was even four days late on that because of the damn sick computer.

Let's see...I also revised "Ancient Ways" and got that into a slush pile, which was just returned as a rejection this week and has now been sent out again. I also sent out my three queries for Mind.

Oh, yes, I do have a bit of good news! A story I submitted to the Writers of the Future contest earned me an Honorable Mention. I know, it's not a publishing credit, but I have to savor every scrap I get.

I've also been thinking about the MFA. Aside from still needing to send in my acceptance and write the essay for the Scholar's Discount, I think because of the little one's new temper tantrums (did I mention she's also not napping until like 7pm? sigh), I am going to have to take it at a slower pace than originally planned. If I'm allowed to, I'm just going to take one online reading course during the June term, as well as next January term, then go back for my first residency and the heavier load in June 2011. I hate to do it, but I think it's the wisest path (see, there's that Wisdom goal peeking in). I still intend to get the F in between my MA - it'll just be a little longer than originally planned. This also means I can ease up on my Before June Battle Plan.

Anyhow, goals for this month, even though it already feels like the month is almost over.

- Study - clean, organize, file the papers away, put pictures up...finally make it usable for a writing hideaway! (Yes, I still haven't done this - I hate cleaning SO much.)
- Finish the rough draft of "Love Fades" and send it out for critiques.
- Dead as Dreams rough draft - right now any progress would be good....
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries," then send that out for critiques.
- Edit and Submit "Ode to Buses and Libraries," depending on when I get it revised and critiqued.
- Start revising "Hell Hath No Fury".
- Continue critiquing - I'd like to get through another 180 pages of a novel I'm critiquing by the end of the month.
- Update Blog and Website bi-weekly (likely opposite weeks).
- Send out three more Queries for Mind.
- Keep my completed short stories in slush piles - all are currently in circulation as of yesterday - let's hope for an acceptance somewhere!
- Continue reading Storm of Swords and resist the urge to pick up some already read Ursula K. LeGuin novels (I blame Cheryl for this itch!).

That seems doable. Maybe. It would be nice if I managed to get some downtime this month. I haven't played any video games for two weeks, and my body is yearning for a break! Break or no, I have to keep going and start crossing things off my scary To Do List. Happy writing, all! ;)

2010 Already!?

It snuck up on me! The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. I have no clue where the year went! But it is a new year now, which means renewed vigor to get things done. I hope. It's only the 3rd day of the year and I already feel behind...I hope I don't feel that way for all of 2010.

Anyway, with one of the silly collecting games I play, they have new creatures for the 1st of the year. I snagged a bunch on the 1st and named them after my hopes for the year. Here's the list, along with my pretty little Wisdom bird:


Wisdom
Balance
Patience
Diligence
Intuition
Determination
Creativity
Optimism

I need to think of these eight things as I take everything I do step-by-step, with each task I check off of my endless list.

I'm not going to post a yearly goals list here this year (that won't of course stop me from drawing one up otherwise, as I am a compulsive list maker - it's an obsession). I will continue to post my monthly goals, though. Nice doable chunks that way - right?

Sorry for not posting an update in December, but I got crazy busy with holiday stuff (we celebrate Yule in our house, but visited the in-laws since they celebrate Christmas). And since I was crazy busy with holiday stuff, I didn't get all the goals for last month completed. Sigh. That's why I feel so behind.

It doesn't help that a short story I had lined up to write in March decided it wanted to be written NOW. Fickle characters.... That means I'm behind on Dead As Dreams, even more so since I didn't attain my monthly word count. I have time to slowly catch up, really I do!

Are you wondering what I accomplished in December with writing? Mainly a heck of a lot of critiquing, about 3,500 words written between Dead as Dreams and "Love Fades", and I read a little bit.

The goals for January are as follows (some are copy and paste from last month):

- Study - clean, organize, file the papers away, put pictures up...finally make it usable for a writing hideaway! (Did I mention the holidays made things crazy? - Not enough time to clean - sigh.)
- Dead as Dreams rough draft and "Love Fades" short story - write at least 3,000 words per week, ultimate goal of 20,000 words by the end of January.
- Revise/Edit "Ancient Ways," then subsequently submit it somewhere.
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries," then find a few people to critique it. =)
- Edit and Submit "Ode to Buses and Libraries," depending on when I get it revised and critiqued.
- Revise "Hell Hath No Fury," then then send it out for critiquing (why do I see this one taking me a really long time - it's a massive short).
- Continue critiquing - lots of critiquing! - I am halfway through one manuscript, but it is now on hold because another manuscript has priority.
- Update Blog and Website bi-weekly (likely opposite weeks).
- Send out 3 Queries for Mind.
- Keep my completed short stories in slush piles (I have a few that came back and really need sending out).
- Read 50 pages per week in the current novel I'm reading. (I read a little bit in December.)
- Start to catchup with online Writing Groups and Newsletters that I am tremendously behind on.

I am really hoping the holiday craziness doesn't leak over into January too much. One of my Saturday's will be shot, though, to do the holiday thing with my mother. =(

Diligence, right? Have to get it done! Happy writing, all. =)