A little (unexpected) writing...

 

How are you today?

Well, I didn't expect to be posting any sort of update this early in the month, but productivity hits when it wants to. LOL.

As the title states, I wasn't planning on starting a new writing project this month. Instead, my plan was to revise the novella I wrote in June. I mean, I would still like to tackle this revision, but had to push it back a bit.

During one of my daily afternoon walks a few weeks ago, a new story idea struck. It's an unexpected tale that came out of nowhere. It's also one that I dismissed as soon as it struck. I mean, there was no way this story was going to work! 😅

The problem is, the next day more moving parts slid into my mind. Still, I didn't want to commit. I already had plans to revise and besides, this thing that wanted to be written was not going to happen. Seriously. How could it when I kept fighting against it?

Yet, in spite my own personal protests, bits and pieces continued to swamp my brain. So, I finally stopped fighting and decided to start taking notes...

Before I realised what was happening, I had PAGES full of stuff. I even started doing research, and naming characters, casting them too. This story was demanding to be told and wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Finally, against my better judgement, I gave it a go. Tried it on for size. And I kept writing, writing, and writing some more.

Here's how it all went down:

• 26/7: 4,563w (+2344 to original beginning) 
• 27/7: 7,454w (+2891) 
• 28/7: 11,128w (+3674) 
• 31/7: 15,112w (+3984) 
• 1/8: 19,687w (+4575) 
• 2/8: 23,256w (+3,569) 
• 3/8: 27,498w (+4242) 
• 4/8: 30,161w (+2663)

As you can see, the first draft is done!

I might have been unsure about whether this strange idea was going to work, but I now have a finished novella. One that poured out of me and ended up consuming my every thought until it was out of my head! LMAO.

There's some sort of lesson here. I should stop second guessing myself and just write the damn thing. If it's not going to work, it'll be clear early on. And if it does work, why the hell did I put it off in the first place?

Anyway, that's it for today. Just wanted to post a little writing update. I'll probably end up taking a break next week and then get stuck into the revision I mentioned above.

Have a great weekend!

PS. I finally have a Linktree with all my social media places, plus more.

Where did July go?

 

Hey! How are you today? Can you believe this month is almost over? Personally, I think July went a bit too fast. Not sure why, but that's just how it feels to me. 😬

Well, we're currently in the middle of winter, but you wouldn't know it because the weather has been quite warm. Sure, it's still cold in the morning and at night, but the days are quite warm. 

I usually take it easy in July. Mainly because it's my birthday month. I ended up doing a bit of reading, a bit of subbing, and a lot of thinking. Pretty much a bit of everything in equal small measure. 😅

We also went to the dentist and got some blood tests done. And my head has been full of stuff. Not just a bunch of different ideas forming at their own pace, but also lots of thoughts about my online presence.

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know how much I enjoy Twitter. But the new owner has decided to make it really hard to spend time over there. After fourteen years, I find myself slowly stepping away.

I even set up Instagram and Threads accounts.

So, if you're over there and I haven't found you yet, please feel free to find me. 😁

I also have a Substack newsletter. Actually, I posted a little more about my Twitter/Threads thoughts yesterday.

BTW, can you believe that my horror novella has been out in the wild for over a month and has over 80 ratings on Goodreads?! I can't believe it. It's so exciting to know that readers are actually checking out my story.

Whether you like it or not, THANK YOU for checking it out!!

Well, I guess that's about it for now. It hasn't been a very productive writing month but I did get an unexpected idea that I've kinda started writing. And a few almost-there rejections, which always get me like this: 😫... before I dust myself off and shrug away the sting.

Have a great weekend!

My New Planner

If you've ever read my blog at the beginning of the year, then you know that a New Year also means a New Planner.

Last year I went with this Peanuts design:

 And this year I picked this one... 

The Frida Kahlo Moleskine planner selection is bright and beautiful.

This particular Moleskine is my favourite format. It has One Page for a week with Opposite Blank Page on the other side. I love being able to keep a record of everything I do daily on the left (calendar side), and then add more detailed notes on the right (lined page).

Today, I spent most of the morning filling this lovely planner with important dates, my goals, stickers, washi tape, and updates. I also closed off the 2022 Peanuts planner and filed it away.

I'm usually more organised than this, but there aren't enough hours in the day! Anyway, it's done now and ready for use. 😁

Do you have a planner? 

Some Kind of Goals

Welcome to my 2023 Goals post. 😁

I'm not a big fan of resolutions because they don't usually stick, but goals are a different story. I love putting together a goals list at the beginning of the year, and post them here.

These are the things I'd like to achieve/continue to do this year:

• Go for two daily walks
• Get back into yoga and schedule more workouts 
• Write between 100-200k words
• Read 100 books
• Revise/finalise my NaNoWriMo 2022 first draft
• Write a novel or two
• Write a novella or two
• Keep writing short stories & subbing
• Try not to self-reject & submit stories no matter how much of a longshot it is
• Take part in NaNoWriMo
• Continue playing Animal Crossing and get into some other cosy, cute puzzle games.

Well, there it is!

This is my list for 2023.

Are you making a list this year?
 

2022 Goals

Well, here we are again.

We've almost reached the end of another year. And boy did 2022 turn out to be quite a weird, and often shitty, year.

I thought 2021 was bad, but things are not getting better. Nope.

I'm not sure what's happening to the cosmic order of things, but it feels like the ridiculous is slowly taking over the world. We're shifting towards a world where cruelty and bigotry is rewarded, but empathy and inclusion is belittled. I mean, how else can every pathetic thing that's happened so far be explained? The fact we're still in the middle of a pandemic, and most people choose to act like it's over, is only the tip of the iceberg.

There's a whole lot of WTFuckery? going around. 😐

Just take a look at what's happening to Twitter. A social media platform that didn't need to be made worse. But a spoilt man-baby decided he wanted to spend someone else's money to buy it and is slowly destroy it. Ugh. People are just rotten, I suppose.

Some good things did happen in this silly world. Our daughter came back to Oz. The LNP were voted out earlier this year. 

Anyway, let's get to my personal goals. 😁

Here's how they turned out:

• Go for two daily walks: THIS IS SOMETHING WE DID THE WHOLE YEAR BECAUSE HUBBY CURRENTLY WORKS WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE. I REALLY ENJOY THE TWO-DAILY-WALKS ROUTINE & ONE-DAILY-LONG-SUBURBAN WALK ON THE WEEKEND.

• Keep doing yoga workouts two/three times a week: WE CONTINUED DOING YOGA WORKOUTS DURING THE YEAR BUT, UNFORTUNATELY, DIDN'T MAINTAIN THE THREE-WORKOUTS/WEEK ROUTINE WE WANTED. STILL, SOME YOGA IS BETTER THAN NO YOGA.

• Write between 100-200k words: ENDED UP WRITING 159,020 words & EDITING A WHOPPING 3,843 pages. 👀

• Read 100 books: READ 117 BOOKS. (5 DNFs.)

• Revise/finalise the rest of the (5) novel first drafts sitting on my hard drive: I ACTUALLY FINISHED DOING THIS IN SEPTEMBER & COMPLETED 5 REVISION PROJECTS (Cosmic, Madness, Summer, Neon, Stuck), 1 FULL EDIT (Possess) + ABANDONED 1 YA WIP AFTER FINISHING THE SECOND DRAFT (Urban). I ALSO CUT A TOTAL OF 104,423 words!

• Write a novel: I WROTE ONE NOVEL DURING NANO (87,682w).

• Write a novella: I BRAINSTORMED, RESEARCHED & STARTED WRITING THREE NOVELLAS BUT DIDN'T FINISH ANY OF THEM. 😬

• Keep writing short stories & sub: I WROTE 7 SHORT STORIES AND HAD ONE OF THESE STORIES ACCEPTED INTO AN ANTHOLOGY THAT WAS PUBLISHED EARLIER THIS YEAR. 

• Take part in NaNoWriMo:  I  TOOK PART & GOT MY 16th WIN! (This time I wrote another horror story about a family with too many secrets, a place with too many ghosts & an old mystery that resurfaces.)

• Clear book clutter/piles: WHILE I DID CONTINUE TO GO THROUGH MY SECONDHAND/REVIEW BOOK STACKS, THE NEW BOOK PILES ARE STILL OUT OF CONTROL. 🫤

• Continue playing Animal Crossing: I'VE NOW BEEN PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS (ON MY SWITCH LITE) EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR OVER A YEAR.

Well, that's my list of completed goals!

As far as having stories published, 2022 was a total shocker. I did sign a new contract with Otranto House for my second YA horror novel, and my Creepypasta story will be published in an upcoming Cemetery Gates Media anthology next year, but as far as actual new releases go, there was only one:

SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED: An Anthology of Horror, collected and edited by Jennifer Bernardini was a great opportunity. I was lucky enough to get an invite from the awesome Wayne Fenlon. The anthology involved picking a writing prompt from Jennifer Bernardini's very inspiring, Something Bad Happened: A Horror Journal, and writing a short story. My contribution was a dark tale about a hellish roadtrip that doesn't end well for the narrator. 

On a side note, since writing this tale, I've actually written two more short stories that either mention or feature a distasteful character in The Loaded Trunk. She just keeps popping up. LOL.

Another very cool thing was having a piece I wrote, posted at Ginger Nuts of Horror. It was inspired by the very disturbing movie, Fresh, and is called, Not So Fresh.

Well, there you have it. The focus for 2022 was getting through the outstanding Revision Plan I set for myself last year. While that turned out to be a long and tiring endeavour, it was also very rewarding. And now, it's DONE! 🎉

2022 Summary

Now I'll need to come up with a 2023 Goals List...

My New Planner

If you've ever read my blog at the beginning of the year, then you know that a New Year also means a New Planner.

Last year I went with this awesome Alice in Wonderland design:

And this year I picked this one... 

Back to Peanuts it is. 😁

This particular Moleskine is my favourite format. It has One Page for a week with Opposite Blank Page on the other side. I love being able to keep a record of everything I do daily on the left (calendar side), and then add more detailed notes on the right (lined page).

Now I'm ready to fill my planner with important dates, stickers, washi tape and most importantly: the progress of my goals. 

What about you? Do you use a planner? 

If you do... Happy planning! 😃

Some Kind of Goals

 

Welcome to my 2022 Goals post. 😁

I don't like making resolutions, but goals are a different story. And I like to post my yearly goals list here so I can see how I did at the end of the year.

These are the things I'd like to achieve/continue to do this year:

• Go for two daily walks
• Keep doing yoga workouts two/three times a week
• Write between 100-200k words
• Read 100 books
• Revise/finalise the rest of the (5) novel first drafts sitting on my hard drive
• Write a novel
• Write a novella
• Keep writing short stories & sub
• Take part in NaNoWriMo
• Clear book clutter/piles
• Continue playing Animal Crossing.

Well, there it is!

This is my list for 2022.

Are you making a list this year?

2021 Goals

 

So, it turns out that after the hellish year that was 2020, we were kidding ourselves when we expected 2021 to be any better. 😒

We're still in the middle of an awful pandemic. Actually, I would dare to say that even though so many of us are now vaccinated (and even boosted), we're in a much worse position than we were this time last year. Several Covid variants have already spread all over the world and new ones keep popping up. And our hopeless governments have pretty much given up keeping us safe.

In NSW, our cases are higher than ever and our cruel government DGAF. This is what happens when the economy is put above health and responsibility. Seems to me like politicians have forgotten their roles/place in society. Ugh.

Anyway, now that I got the shit stuff out of the way, let's move on. I'm here to chat about my personal goals. Staying focused on my writing helped keep me busy. Especially since hubby went back to full-time work this year.

Here's how my goals turned out: 

• Continue our daily walks and eventually (depending on pandemic status) introduce a second walk again: THIS IS SOMETHING WE WERE ABLE TO CONTINUE DOING THIS YEAR. SINCE HUBBY WENT BACK TO WORK, WE GOT BACK INTO THE ROUTINE OF TWO DAILY WALKS DURING WEEKDAYS (SOMETIMES THREE) AND LONG SUBURBAN WALKS ON WEEKENDS. I LOVE WALKING. IT HAS A LOT OF PHYSICAL, MENTAL, DIGESTIVE AND INSPIRATIONAL BENEFITS.

• Keep doing yoga workouts and mix them up with the morning walking schedule: YEP. WE GOT BACK INTO OUR YOGA WORKOUTS. ALTHOUGH WE SKIPPED A FEW THROUGHOUT THE YEAR DUE TO VACCINES AND/OR BEING TOO BUSY/TIRED, WE'RE MOSTLY BACK ON TRACK.

• Write between 100-200k words: ENDED UP WRITING 159,431 words & EDITED 6,109 pages. 

• Read 50 books: READ 110 BOOKS. (11 DNFs.)

• Finalise some (of the many) horror novel first drafts sitting on my hard drive: MANAGED TO GET 5 OF THESE PROJECTS COMPLETED. ONE OF THEM WAS ACTUALLY EDITED FOR PUBLISHING. THIS YEAR MY FOCUS WAS MOSTLY ON REVISING/FINALISING SOME OF THE (MANY) FIRST DRAFT NOVELS THAT HAVE BEEN SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

• Write two new novels: SINCE I SPENT MOST OF THE YEAR WORKING ON REVISION PROJECTS, I ONLY WROTE 1 NEW (63,580w) NOVEL (during NaNoWriMo).

• Write a novella or two: THIS WAS MOSTLY A FAIL, THOUGH I DID WRITE AND REVISED A NOVELETTE.

• Keep writing short stories & subbing: I ONLY WROTE ONE SHORT STORY AND HAD THAT STORY ACCEPTED INTO AN ANTHOLOGY THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT YEAR. 

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: I  TOOK PART (of course!) & GOT MY 15th WIN! (This time I wrote a horror haunted house ghost story. 😁)

• Keep up with the clutter/book/stationery sorting: TOTALLY DID! THIS YEAR I WENT THROUGH MY BOOK STACKS SEVERAL TIMES AND DONATED 454 BOOKS TO LOCAL STREET LIBRARIES! 👀

• Actually play a game or two on my 2DS & Switch Lite (especially interested in Mr. DRILLER & Goetia): THIS IS A FUNNY ONE BECAUSE, WHILE I DIDN'T ACTUALLY PLAY ANY OF THESE, I DID START PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS (ON MY SWITCH LITE) IN OCTOBER AND HAVE CONTINUED TO DO SO DAILY SINCE THEN. I ADORE THIS GAME! ❤

Well, that's it for my list of completed goals for this year! But I'm not quite done because several stories were published during 2021.

 

My first YA horror novel, Wall of Dolls, was published in October by Otranto House:

My cyberpunk novella was published in January by Demain Publishing! And both The Wired City + The Bone Factory were released in paperback in August:

I also had short stories published in several anthologies:

And ended the writing year by having a shortie accepted into a Creepypasta anthology that will be released next year from Cemetery Gates Media. You can actually read The Hags of Merricktown on their website right now. Yay!

Well. This year turned out to have plenty of challenges, but I achieved something I've put off for years. I got stuck into a bunch of revision projects and actually made a real dent. And because of these finished projects, I even started taking part in PitMad more often.

2021 Summary

Now it's time to come up with a 2022 Goals List...

Real Life Got in the Way...

of my Mental Break.

That's right! 😞

After finishing each revision project, I like to take a 2-week break to rest my brain. A chance to relax. I also use this time to catch up on a bit of reading. That way, when I tackle the next story, I don't burn myself out.

But real life decided to be a total bitch this month. A huge Delta variant outbreak hit NSW and even after WEEKS of the loosest 'lockdown' in the history of lockdowns, the numbers are still high. Add getting our second Pfizer dose with side effects that lasted almost a week—that's how long it took to get my energy levels back—and hubby being considered an essential worker, plus Loki developing an eye infection when we're trying to stay away from people but ended up at the vet...

Yeah. None of this helped me relax. At all. 😫 

So I ended up taking the whole month off. July's just been too rough to throw myself into serious revision.

Although Loki's infection hasn't completely cleared yet and the case numbers are still pretty fucking high, with hubby's help I've managed to lower my stress levels a bit. Plus, we're finally fully vaxxed!! Yay. 

PHEW! 

*sigh* 

Feel very lucky to be fully vaccinated during such unstable times. We're also wearing masks every time we step outside and really keeing our distance when we're out walking. Being vaxxed doesn't mean you shouldn't take precautions. The world's not out of this pandemic yet. Far from it.

Reading Stephen King's latest book and Grady Hendrix's newest helped too. Not to mention finishing the very awesome Kitty Norville series, as well as this great spin-off and finishing this excellent futuristic YA trilogy. Oh, and did I mention this creepy gem of a novella? 😈

Books always make everything better. Plus Fear Street. We watched the trilogy and it was SO MUCH fun.

Now, I finally feel like I'm ready to get stuck into the next project on my Revision List. This time I'm going to tackle my YA horror possession novel. It's been a long while since I wrote this first draft, so I can't wait to find out how much work it needs. 😬 

Well, that's it for today. I just wanted to post an update.

Have an awesome weekend!

My New Planner

If you've read my blog during the last few years, then you know that for me a New Year also means a New Planner. 

Last year I went with the Star Wars Millennium Falcon design:

And this year I picked this one...

I ❤ this one because it's so appropriate at the moment. 😁

This particular Moleskine is my favourite format. It has One Page for a week with Opposite Blank Page on the other side. I love being able to keep a record of everything I do daily on the left (calendar side), and then add more detailed notes on the right (lined page). 

Now I'm ready to fill my planner with important dates, stickers, washi tape and most importantly: the progress of my goals. 

What about you? 

Do you use a planner? 

If you do...

Happy planning!

😊

Some Kind of Goals

Welcome to my 2021 Goals post. 😊 

As you might know, I don't make any New Year's resolutions because they don't work. Resolutions are a thing we mention a few times at the beginning of the year and shortly forget about. They don't stick.

Instead, I put together a list of goals. 

I like to post my yearly goals list here, but also make smaller lists daily, weekly, monthly... Whatever works at the time. I love doing this because it helps to streamline my projects.

These are the things I'd like to achieve this year: 

• Continue our daily walks and eventually (depending on pandemic status) introduce a second walk again
• Keep doing yoga workouts and mix them up with the morning walking schedule
• Write between 100-200k words 
• Read 50 books 
• Finalise some (of the many) horror novel first drafts sitting on my hard drive
• Write two new novels 
• Write a novella or two
• Keep writing short stories & subbing
• Take part in NaNoWriMo 
• Keep up with the clutter/book/stationery sorting 
• Actually play a game or two on my 2DS & Switch Lite (especially interested in Mr. DRILLER & Goetia)

Well, there it is! 

This is my list for 2021.

After the way 2020 turned out, are you making any goals this year?

2020 Goals

 

So, this hellish and bizarre year is winding down. It's been a year that often felt like five. I still can't believe it's ending because it feels like we've made no real progress in the pandemic department. 😣

I've never had more trouble keeping track of days and weeks because the global pandemic turned everything upside down and made it so hard to keep track of things.

Still, I didn't let that stop me from staying busy and losing myself in a bunch of projects and books. We made the most of the lockdowns and the social distancing/isolating thing.

It's time to look back at the writing, reading and other stuff on the Goals List I posted at the beginning of the year (before we knew what lay ahead). 

Here's how everything turned out:

• Continue the awesome habit of going for two daily walks: OKAY, WE KEPT THIS GOING UNTIL APRIL. AFTER SYDNEY WAS PUT ON LOCKDOWN, WE HAD TO CUT THE WALKS TO ONCE DAILY. STILL, SOME DAYS WE DID SQUEEZED IN TWO WALKS OR WENT FOR LONGER ONES.

• Try to get back into doing two yoga workouts a week: BECAUSE OF THE LOCKDOWN IN APRIL, WE STARTED DOING MORE YOGA WORKOUTS. MOST WEEKS WE ENDED UP DOING THREE WORKOUTS A WEEK.

• Write between 100-200k words: ENDED UP WRITING 304,696 words & EDITED 2,078 pages. (These totals make me VERY happy. 😃👍)

• Read 100 books: READ 150 BOOKS. (Only 7 DNFs.)

• Finalise at least two horror novel first drafts: UNFORTUNATELY, I TOTALLY FAILED THIS ONE BECAUSE I SPENT THE YEAR WRITING NEW STORIES, REVISING & COMPLETING THEM.

• Write two new novels:  I WROTE TWO FIRST DRAFTS. An Adult horror slasher (61,044w) and an Adult adventure horror for NaNoWriMo (65,560w). 

• Finally write at least one novella: THIS IS FINALLY THE YEAR I ACTUALLY DID WRITE SEVERAL NOVELLAS! (3, to be exact.)

• Keep writing short stories & sub: I WROTE SEVERAL SHORT STORIES & REVISED THEM. (I subbed quite a few stories to a bunch of places and actually got several acceptances. 2 stories were finalists in Crystal Lake Publishing flash fiction contest.)

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: I  TOOK PART & GOT MY 14th WIN! (This time I wrote a fun demonic horror/adventure with UF elements. 😁)

• Keep spring cleaning/sorting clutter all year: TOTALLY DID THIS ALL YEAR & I'M STILL DOING IT NOW. THIS YEAR I'VE GONE THROUGH MY BOOK STACKS & DONATED HEAPS TO THE MANY STREET LIBRARIES WE HAVE NEARBY!

• Actually play games on my 2DS & Switch Lite: WELL, THIS WAS A BIT OF A FAIL BUT I DID PLAY A BIT OF TETRIS ON MY SWITCHLITE.

Well, there's my list of completed goals for this year. Considering all the extra and very unexpected crap, I'm really happy about what I achieved. 😀

I'm also super excited about having two short stories published in these awesome Women of Horror anthologies from Kandisha Press:

 

And that my novella THE BONE FACTORY was published by Demain Publishing:

This year, I might not have revised the past books I intended to, but I did something else. Something totally new to me. I made sure that even after leaving a bit of time between drafts, I completed every story I wrote during 2020 from start to finish. The only one I didn't have enough time to revise completely was my NaNoWriMo novel. 

Very happy with all the stuff I accomplished this year. 😃

2020 Summary:

Now it's time to come up with a 2021 Goals List...

It's Time to Finish This!

Hey! How are you today? What's new this week?

The world is still a hellhole suffering through a global pandemic too many morons are trying to convince themselves is over, so we're still staying away from people and protecting ourselves with masks and hygiene.

This week I completed the WIP read-thru on my Paperwhite, added all the changes to the Word doc, and this morning I made some last-minute alterations. 

So, the story is now done and the final word count is 40,335. 🎉

I'm SO excited about finishing this novella for several reasons. Firstly, this gothic horror story turned out a lot better than I expected and broke my heart in so many unexpected ways. 😭💔 And secondly, it's the fourth novella I've written this year.

And why is that important to me? Well, writing a novella is something I've carried forward on my Goals List for several years. And each year, I failed. But 2020 turned out to be the year I finally met that goal. Who would've thought THIS year would be the one? LOL.

Anyway, I'm really excited about finishing another project and can now concentrate on other stuff. Like reading. Something I've barely done during the last few weeks. 😲 Not to mention that I can now sign up for NaNoWriMo and get stuck into NaNoPrep. 😃 

Most importantly, I'm taking a bit of a mental break.

Have a great week!

What I'm Still Working On

Hi there! How are you coping with everything this week? Are things getting better?

Personally, I go from feeling great and productive and having a great time hanging around the house with hubby, to feeling the weight of impending doom consuming my brain. That's not a good feeling because the anxiety attached with those thoughts makes me feel crappy and overwhelmed. 😞

This week, we started focusing on yoga workouts every second/third morning because we decided to cut our two daily walks to one long one in the afternoon. After putting up with an influx of people on the river path, and the rude actions of people who have no fucking idea what social distancing means, we decided it was for the best.

It'll help our mental health and stop my blood from boiling every time the path gets unbearably swamped. Seriously, these people are terrible.

Besides, we also get to sleep in. So I'm happy with this decision. 😊

Let's get on with my goals for this week. This is what I wanted to do: 

• Finish the creepy monster short story 
• Continue revising noir-mystery novella

And this is how it turned out:

• Monday: Completed the final draft of short story & subbed to an anthology. Total word count: 4,594. 

• Tuesday: Started novella third draft & revised 19/52pgs + added 655w.

• Wednesday: Completed third draft of novella @ 19,171 + added 811w (52pgs).

• Thursday: Took a break from revision to get a little distance before last read-thru. 

• Friday: Completed read-thru on my Paperwhite + made all the changes on Word doc: 19,293w (52pgs).

• Saturday: My novella WIP is now DONE! Total word count: 19,306 (52pgs).

As you can see, when I set myself writing goals, I do everything I can to achieve them. And then some. LOL.

Getting the short story done so early in the week was awesome. This happened to be an idea that came to me quickly and demanded to be told. It was also a story I wrote with an anthology in mind. So when the deadline was moved forward, I made sure to get it done and subbed ASAP.🤞

The novella took a bit longer to finish, of course. But it was worth every minute I spent working on the third and final drafts. I'm proud and super excited about how this story turned out.

Even though my main focus was on finishing the above WIPs, I also managed to squeeze in a bit of reading. Reading helps me forget about the outside world for a while. Because there's a lot of awful shit going on out there, isn't there?

I finally read LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng and absolutely loved it. It's a book I picked up during one of our thrift store adventures and have been meaning to read for ages. And it was awesome. I was hooked from beginning to end!

While I've been working towards these two self-imposed goals, hubby has been making his way through the UNCHARTED games on the PS4. He finished the first two really fast, got to the third and the file corrupted (WTF?), so he's moved on to the fourth one.😄👍

Well, that's it for now. Try and have a nice weekend!

A Post About Blogging

A couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of talk on Twitter about blogging. About whether it's a waste of time for writers to blog. Is anyone reading what we're posting, or are we wasting our time talking to the void?

So, the question seems to be: should we bother having a blog at all? 

Everyone seems to have their own opinion about this and it varies. A lot. And that got me thinking, because I definitely have an opinion about this issue as well. 

I started blogging in 2005 because I wanted to chat writing goals, liked to post about my projects and list my word counts. Plus, it was a place for me to write reviews of the books I read. It was also where I could list my goals, and quickly became somewhere to celebrate any contracts I signed, as well as my book releases.

For me, this is also a great place to talk about anything that's on my mind. After all, it's my blog, right? 😉

When I started receiving ARCs and books for review from publishers, my blog was the perfect place to showcase my thoughts and help promote other authors. I've even posted Q&As, guest posts, interviews and other features.

Even so, I have to admit that most of the time it feels like I'm talking to myself, but that's never bothered me. After all, I started this blog just so I could write about anything I wanted.

All these years later, I'm still doing it. Maybe I don't post as much as I should, but when I do it's still fun.

I think that having a blog is a great tool for many (many) reasons. Besides, I don't much concentrate on the number of daily/weekly/monthly visits I get. If a lot of people read my posts, that's VERY cool. But if I'm the only one reading everything I post, that's okay too.

Well, what do you think? How do you feel about blogging?

My New Planner

If you've been reading my blog during the last few years, then you know that a New Year means a New Planner. 

Last year I went with a very cool denim design:

And this year I picked this one...

This particular Moleskine is my favourite format. It has One Page for a week with Opposite Blank Page on the other side. I love being able to keep a record of everything I do daily on the left (calendar side), and then take more detailed notes on the right (lined page). 

Now I'm ready to fill my planner with important dates, stickers, washi tape and most importantly, my goals. 😊

What about you? 

Do you use a planner? 

If you do...
Happy planning!

Some Kind of Goals

Welcome to my 2020 Goals post. 😊 

As you might (or might not) know, I don't like making New Year's resolutions because they don't work. Instead, I like to put together a list of goals. 

Although I post my yearly goals list here on my blog, I also make smaller lists on a daily, weekly, monthly and even quarterly basis in my notebook. It helps to streamline what I want to achieve as well as any unexpected projects that pop up.

Anyway, these are the things I'd like to achieve this year: 

• Continue the awesome habit of going for two daily walks 
• Try to get back into doing two yoga workouts a week 
• Write between 100-200k words 
• Read 100 books 
• Finalise at least two horror novel first drafts 
• Write two new novels 
• Finally write at least one novella 
• Keep writing short stories & sub
• Take part in NaNoWriMo 
• Keep spring cleaning/sorting clutter all year
• Actually play games on my 2DS & Switch Lite

So, there you go! 

This is my list for 2020.

Are you making any goals this year?

2019 Goals

So, the year is winding down as quickly as the decade. Yikes!

This is always a good time to look back at the Goals List I posted at the beginning of the year. There were a bunch of writing and reading goals on my list. As well as a few other things too. 

So, here's how everything turned out:

• Continue what's now become our awesome habit of going for two daily walks: WE KEPT THIS HABIT GOING ALL YEAR. SOME DAYS, WE EVEN WENT FOR MORE THAN TWO WALKS.

• Keep doing two yoga workouts a week: WHILE WE DID GET BACK INTO YOGA, IT WASN'T AS REGULAR AS I WANTED IT TO BE.

• Write between 100-200k words: ENDED UP WRITING 263,580 words & EDITED 841 pages. (VERY happy with these totals. 😃👍)

• Read 100 books: READ 150 BOOKS. (Only 13 DNFs.)

• Finalise one/two of the YA horror novel first drafts I've got lying around on my hard drive: UNFORTUNATELY, I TOTALLY FAILED THIS ONE BECAUSE I CHOSE TO CONCENTRATE ON WRITING NEW STORIES INSTEAD.

• Write two new novels: I WROTE THREE FIRST DRAFTS. An Adult demonic horror (57,476w). A YA gothic horror (50,263w). An Adult 80s horror/SF (66,181w). 

• Write at least one novella: WHILE I DID WRITE A NOVELETTE (Breaking the Habit), I ONCE AGAIN FAILED THIS ONE. (Every time I planned to write a novella, they would turn into longer stories. 😂)

• Keep writing short stories & sub more often: I WROTE FIVE SHORT STORIES & REVISED THEM. I ALSO REWROTE/REVISED TWO OLDER SHORT STORIES. (I subbed quite a few stories to a bunch of places.)

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: I  TOOK PART & GOT MY 13th WIN! (This time I wrote a fun horror/SF crazy 80s romp just for me. 😁)

• Make spring cleaning an ongoing thing to keep clutter at a mininum: TOTALLY DID THIS ALL YEAR & I'M STILL DOING IT NOW.

• Actually play games on my 2DS: WELL, I DID PLAY A BIT BUT NOT AS MUCH AS I WANTED.

Well, there it is. That's all the stuff I managed to do this year. I missed a few things on the list but I'll just carry them forward. And I'm still excited about what I did achieve.

Something really awesome happened this year. The novelette I wrote at the beginning of the year was published by Demain Publishing:

BREAKING THE HABIT was published in July and I'm still very excited about it. I'm also very proud of it. 😃

The first half of this year was a bit wonky but hubby and I managed to get through it together. We went through several real life changes. Our daughter moved out of home, we renovated her room to become our games room, we're now debt free, and hubby left a toxic working environment.

This led to us spending two awesome relaxing and fun months together to recharge and spend time doing all the things we love to do. 😍

2019 Summary:

Now it's time to come up with a 2020 Goal List...

I signed up!

That's right. It's that time of the year again! I signed up for NaNoWriMo 2019. Yay. 😃

After spending the weekend thinking about the two stories I narrowed it down to last week, and chatting to hubby about both options, I picked one.

Here's the description I posted on the website:

A horror story with a science fiction slant and some wrestling. Set in the 80s, it's about a woman dealing with monsters, paranoia and revenge.

This is an idea that came to me last year. I thought it might be a short story, but as soon as I started writing, I knew it was going to need a lot more words. 

Asides from signing up, I also set up a new folder for Neon, added all the inspirational pics, made a dodgy cover graphic and put together a playlist.

I'm really excited about this new WIP I'm going to tackle because this is going to be a lot of whacky fun. And because November 1st isn't until the end of next week, I'm going to enjoy doing more NaNoPrep. That equals daydreaming, collecting more pics, taking notes and brainstorming.

Are you taking part?

Hope you have a great week!

Another Week

That's right! It's Friday. And this week, I'm happy to say that I completed several writing projects I had on my to-do list. Yay. 😁

These are things I've had on my mental to-be-done list for a while. Things I constantly carried in the back of my mind but, for one reason or another, I kept (unintentionally) pushing them back. So, last weekend I decided to move these things from my mental list to my handwritten to-do list.

That way, I actually set deadlines for myself, which always pushes me to complete the tasks. I don't know why, but when I write things down on paper, I hold myself accountable.

So, what were these things? Here's the list:

• Complete third draft, read-thru & sub latest short story WIP.
• Proofread the previously contracted story I recently got my rights back for.
• Write two guest blog posts & email.
• Answer interview questions & email.
• Reach the halfway mark on IT.

This list might not look/sound like much, but I broke everything up into different days, and it took most of the week to get through. I managed to cross everything off by the end of Thursday. Plus, I have another two finished short stories on file. 👍

Then, we celebrated by going to one of our favourite thrift stores. Where I found a LOT of awesome books. Our apartment is slowly becoming a books and games library, and I love it! 😁

I also (really) like productive weeks. It makes me feel quite accomplished. Especially when it involves writing pieces that were stuck in my brain for ages. 

Although my mind is never clear--because there are always ideas and plans and stuff jammed inside--I'm now in a place where I can start thinking about other projects. And that's what I'd like to concentrate on next week: planning my next project/s.

I have a pretty good idea what I'd like to work on next, but need to get pen + paper to sort through my thoughts on paper before getting stuck into a nice lot of brainstorming.

But first, I'm going to enjoy the weekend.

I hope you do too. Have a good one!