2012, 2013, and beyond

Well, hello there.  Welcome back!  Thanks for joining me.

Here we are in a new year, and I am attempting to get back into this blog.  The two aren't necessarily related, I've just decided it's time.  And with the new year, what a better subject than to analyze the last year and set goals for the new one.

Here are some numbers for 2012:

• Days on which I wrote:  366.  That's right, leap year, and I wrote on every one.  Even Christmas.
• Submissions:  40
• Acceptances:  0
• Rejections:  42
• Markets that never responded:  2
• Critiques:  Hah!
• Blog posts:  66

This whole year sort of petered out starting in September.  The only thing I've really managed to accomplish is to keep writing/revising every single day.  I'd been hoping to finish revising my novel this year, but I didn't.  I'm through 25 of 38 chapters.  I'd originally wanted to write and submit new short stories every month, but that goal died pretty early on when I realized how complicated that would be when also working on a novel. I wanted to get my children's Christmas book queried/submitted, and apart from a GUTGAA pitch that went nowhere, I did no other work on it.  I wrote the first draft of a children's picture book earlier this year and had been hoping to query/submit it too, but haven't done so.  My short story submissions abruptly stopped in September, and at the moment only four of my twelve "submission ready" stories are under consideration.

Which isn't to say that life hasn't been busy.  I've been working on designing a mobile app, though that, too, has stalled a bit.  I'm raising two magnificent boys and am always running to keep up with them.  I've found an awesome playgroup to take the boys to, which has made me much happier with my social life as a Mama.  I just haven't been able to balance things very well lately.

Enter my goals for 2013.  I don't have too many specific goals yet, I just know that I want to step up my game, both with writing and in life.  And I really, REALLY want to see something happen with my few completed kids' books this year.  So those are the goals that are really important.

• Finish revising my novel within three months
• Submit my children's Christmas book
• Submit my picture book
• Start...something new.  Whether it's a focus on stories or beginning a new novel, I'm not sure yet.  Perhaps some of both.  I'll hammer that out when I get closer.
• Get certain aspects of my personal life organized again, too

For the last few weeks, my revising has gone at a really good clip.  It could just be that I'm working on chapters that haven't needed as much work, but I'm feeling the momentum again.  That's why I'm thinking I could realistically finish up revisions in the next three months.  That would require basically a pace of one chapter per week, with just one extra squeezed in.  I'd been considering taking a month off from the novel and focusing on a few short stories, but now I'm not so sure.  I started considering that before I got momentum going again, so I'm not sure if I want to stop right now.  In either case, if I keep plowing through I hope to finish my novel by the end of March.  If I take a month off, I hope to finish it by the end of April.  And then, perhaps, I can actually make something happen with it this year.

2013, I think, will be the year of the book.  Because I want to get my books (of all stripes) into the hands of agents.  I'll keep busy with other projects once I have that going, but I really need to take more steps towards publication.

Happy New Year to anyone still checking in.  How was your holiday?  Are you gearing up for a productive year ahead?

Happy Turkey Day!

I'm thankful for many things.  Family.  Loving families on both sides who get along so well, we can combine family gatherings.  Family who is always here to support us, and who wraps us in their love.  Wonderful, beautiful kiddos who share their joy of discovery and learning with us every day.  And who are so darn cute!  Friends.  Old friends.  New friends.  Especially new friends who show all signs of being ones who will stick around forever.  All the things we have, even the stuff we don't need, because we've been fortunate enough to be able to accumulate it.  Health, even with its little hiccups.  School, and being able to watch my child grow and blossom even as he moves a little farther from us.  The fact that, even in financial hardship, we still can maintain our house, keep it comfortable, feed ourselves healthy foods, and enjoy life.  The creative desire to write, and the dedication to carve out time for it.  The encouraging rejections, even in the absence of acceptances.  The chance to start stretching my wings into a whole new territory, even though it terrifies me.  Romantic getaways.  Food, fun, happiness, love.  Life.

I hope, on this Thanksgiving Day, each of my readers has the chance to eat good food, spend the day with someone (or several someones) they love, and reflect on all their blessings.

Happy Turkey Day!

Two Solid Years

I failed to post this the day it happened due to my extended blogging absence, but October 19th marked two solid years of writing or editing every day.  (Minus a maternity leave, of course, so I actually started in July 2010.)

That's quite the milestone for me.  Before I set this goal for myself and held myself accountable, I had always wanted to write every day, and I would regularly get started, but after a few weeks I would lose my enthusiasm and stop.  The next thing I knew, it had been months since I had written.  That silly little ticker in the corner of my blog really helps me, as I don't want to see it go back down, and it forces me to find SOMETHING to write, even if I've finished a project.

I'm proud of the dedication I have managed to put into my writing these past two years.  It gives me confidence that I'll be able to persevere until something comes of it.

Now if only I could maintain a better motivation when it comes to submissions......

Few non-preschool crafts

My crafts with Zaxxon have slowed w-a-a-y down lately, because we don't have as much time and he's getting some in school.  He's not coming home with as much as I would have expected, though.  His school is very free-form, allowing the kids to dictate what they want to do with much of their day.  Whenever I break out a craft at home, Zaxxon usually gets excited, but his enjoyment of that hasn't been able to compete with all of the cool toys the school has.  So he makes things sometimes, and makes a lot of his own creations like "books" (a few papers taped together,) flags (a small strip of paper on a stick) and other odds and ends (today he brought home a partially formed paper box.)  He also sometimes paints or does a special project they've set up, but probably less than half of the time.  He's thriving at school, though, and is already good at a lot of the skills he needs at this age.  So I bring out crafts when I can fit them into our schedule, because it's still fun to do at home.

Making another map from where Mickey lives, this time of Animal Kingdom

Hubby helped out.  He really wanted the background to match the park map

Here it is:  Zaxxon's path through Animal Kingdom

He made a birthday card for his Dada

I asked him to trace the word "Dada," but he wanted to circle the letters instead

This was the first time we used watercolors.  We had an extra set, because it was supposed to go to the first preschool for a school supply, but wasn't needed at the second place

He brought a pinecone and some sticks home from the preschool playground one day, saying he was going to make it into a man.  I racked my brain, raided the backyard, and helped him make pineconeman

Pineconeman

He didn't use all the puffballs and eyeballs, so he wanted to just glue them on paper.  Mostly, he wound up drawing with the glue.  Yeah, not too fond of that method of crafting, but he had fun while it lasted

And that's really all we did from August through October.  We've done one Thanksgiving craft so far and I hope to make a few more before the day, but we'll see

Sometimes it's best to let things go

I suppose that's a rather ominous title for a post after more than a month of absence from blogdom, however, I'm not referring to the blog.  In my absence I've continued to write (or rather, edit my novel) daily, sometimes a lot and sometimes a little.

For the last week and a half, it's been on the "little" side.  I've been working on a chapter that just hasn't been working.  As I set to correct the little details and bring it into line with some changes I made earlier in the book, I just haven't been motivated.  I've wasted time.  I've stalled.  I've finally forced myself to focus, gotten through a small passage, and declared my obligation "done," though in the weakest sense of the word.  Today, however, as I stared at the screen with all signs pointing toward another day of editing doldrums, I suddenly realized that if this chapter has been boring me so much (the first moment I realized it even was boring me), then it probably ought to just be cut.  I could start the chapter later and add a few paragraphs of summary, and instead of dragging me (and very likely, my readers) down, it would arise stronger, tighter, and as a better read.  Hooray!

Except that now I feel like I've wasted the last week and a half.  All that time spent arduously ironing out prose that isn't even going to make it.  My husband tells me they weren't wasted, that I needed that time with the work stewing in my mind before the solution could come to me.  Wise words.  Slightly tempers the disappointment.

Anyway, after restarting the chapter, cutting a little here, pasting a little there, and writing brief summaries, I turned 900 words into 200.  And regained my enthusiasm to keep going.  So it was the right thing to do, but boy, it can be hard to throw out that much work.  Especially recent work.  Such is the work we do.

Now to see if anybody's still reading!