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...

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...

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...

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...

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!

Some Kind of Goals

Welcome to my 2019 Goals edition. 

As you might (or might not) know, I don't do New Year's resolutions. Personally, those never work for me. Instead, I put together a goals list, which really works for me. 

Although I like to have a yearly goals list, I also make smaller lists on a daily, weekly, monthly and even quarterly basis. It helps to streamline what I want to achieve, and caters for the projects/changes that pop up. Because plans were made to be broken, right? 😄

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

• Continue what's now become our awesome habit of going for two daily walks
• Keep doing two yoga workouts a week 
• Write between 100-200k words 
• Read 100 books 
• Finalise one/two of the YA horror novel first drafts I've got lying around on my hard drive
• Write two new novels 
• Write at least one novella 
• Keep writing short stories & sub more often
• Take part in NaNoWriMo 
• Make spring cleaning an ongoing thing to keep clutter at a mininum
• Actually play games on my 2DS 

So, there you go! That's my list for 2019. It's as ambitious as always, but I'm determined to stay on track and get as much done as I can. 

Are you making any goals this year?

My Latest Project

See this chunky blue folder? This is my latest project. 

It's full of my teenage writing. I've been carrying it around with me for years, and until a few weeks ago it sat in the laundry cupboard, forgotten. But when we went through the clutter, I decided to keep it out.

It's time to sort through the contents. It's also time to scan what's inside, so I can have a digital copy of everything. This folder contains depressing poems, tragic short stories, a cheesy horror script, horror shorts + novellas, writing plans, idea scraps & a LOT of unfinished stories. It also features a bunch of bad grammar and some pretty awful spelling. 😂

These handwritten and typewritten pages are the foundation of my writing. Before computers, I either wrote everything on notebook paper, or used a typewriter. This is where I started turning the pesky tales weaving inside my young head into actual stories on paper. Without these corny, badly written and weird stories, I wouldn't be where I am today in my storytelling.

I find a lot of writing advice to be take it or leave it, but the one about the more you write the better you'll get, THAT one is true. Just like your body, you have to exercise your writing muscles and you have to start somewhere. 

And THIS is where I started.

Scanning all of these pieces of paper is going to be tedious and time-consuming. It's not going to be fun or exciting, but it is cool to see some of the stuff. Some I don't even remember writing, LOL. And other pieces make me cringe, or laugh. 

No matter what, I'm proud of every little piece I've written and want to document it. Not to mention that some of the paper looked just about ready to disintegrate.

Unfortunately, there's some paper that I had to scan and throw away. Others are still in good condition and as I scan, I'm going to put them in plastic sleeves, and then airtight bags. It's the only way to store and keep them from browning, etc. But like I said, some has to go, so having a scanned copy is the perfect way to preserve all those words. 😁

I've managed to get quite a bit done already, but have HEAPS more to go. That's okay. However long it takes is fine with me. I'm hoping to be done by the end of the year, but that's a bit ambitious.

The time it takes isn't an issue. What's important is getting every bit of paper scanned and added to my Archived Writing Files. 

So, that's what's consuming my brain at the moment. Guess I still have the spring cleaning bug. 😬

Spring Cleaning during Summer

So, how are you today? 

As I mentioned the last time I blogged, after my daughter started sorting out her room I was inspired to do the same. So I've had a very busy couple of weeks tackling my own Spring Cleaning Project. It turned out to be a pretty big project that wormed its way so deeply into my brain, I started having dreams about sorting stuff. 😁 

I started with the Big Stationery Trunk Reorganising, which turned into the Huge Bookshelves Reorganising Project and ended up becoming the Excess Toys/Collectibles Sorting. I even added a bit of Pen Shuffling.

Yep. There was a LOT of stuff to do, even more to go through, and I made a pretty big mess while trying to find proper homes for everything. Although there was a lot of physical work involved, at the end of each day I was mentally exhausted. There was just SO MUCH to go through. A lot of stuff to reorganise and then donate.

Seriously, during the last 3-4 weeks we've probably donated about 20 bags full of assorted stuff: stationery, toys, clothes, collectibles. A lot of the stuff we got rid of was practically new, some still in their original packaging. It's nice to recycle things for other people to enjoy, rather than throwing things out so they end up as landfill.

I even infected hubby with the spring cleaning bug. We went through the kitchen and laundry together, sorting through everything there. 

And now I feel lighter. Just have to get into the habit of finding proper places for things ASAP. Oh, and buy less, too. LOL. Not going to stop buying completely because we're such big collectors of many things, but the impulse buying needs to stop.

During the decluttering, I was so overwhelmed by the process that it consumed my mind entirely. I couldn't even concentrate long enough to read much. But now that most of it is done (because this will be an ongoing thing) I can get stuck into other stuff. And I did, I got back into reading. 

Speaking of other things, through all of the above, I managed to revise the short story I wrote last month. Yep. During the last few weeks, I squeezed in the second and third drafts. I even proofread the story on my Paperwhite, formatted the doc and subbed it to an anthology.

The final word count was: 4,178. 

I'm really happy that it's done, and that the story turned out pretty close to how I imagined it in my head. And since the anthology closing date is the end of the year, my goal was to have it finished and subbed before the X-Mas break. So I've crossed it off my to-do list WAY before. Yay.

At the moment I'm a little slow and plan to spend the rest of the week concentrating on reading and daydreaming. I always feel this way after finishing a project, but being December means I feel it even more. 

So there you go. I'm pretty much done with my 2018 goals. Anything I get done now is extra. LOL. I think I'll spend what's left of the year reading, planning, sorting (ideas & files) and trying to take a mental break.

Well, have a great day. And an even better weekend!

Restless Mind

Yikes.

The weeks are sure moving fast. But at the moment, I don't mind so much because after this week, hubby has a two-week break. Yay. 😊

This also means that my restless mind didn't want to get stuck into a new first draft, or revision. Not until AFTER the leave. 

It's why I can't even settle on what my next project should be. I keep wandering from one possibility to another. Eyeing possible anthologies to sub to, reading more than one book at a time, thinking about the many ideas hounding my brain... All while that pesky urban legend book I wrote last year keeps whispering inside my head because it's ready for the next draft stage.

So yeah. I'm at that point where I want to work on EVERYTHING AT THE SAME TIME. But end up working on nothing. 😰

But that's okay. This state of mind has given me the chance to get several non-writing projects out of the way. And getting a bunch of reading done is always good, too.

One of the things I FINALLY crossed off my to-do list (after being on there for most of the year) is a photo-sorting & update-USB project. Two connected very time consuming personal projects I decided to get stuck into. It took most of last week--just like I thought it would--but now it's done. 

Feels so good to have accomplished this after months of carrying it forward. 

Hey, did you guys watch the Westworld S2 finale? Wow. This show is just so amazing. I love shows (also movies & books) that  aren't linear and encourage the audience to solve mysteries and analyse information. Can't wait to see where the next season takes us.

Oh, and I'm super happy to report that since ending our yoga hiatus last month, we've been doing 2 workouts a week and it feels so good.

I seriously don't know why we paused in the first place. *scratches head*

Well, that's about it for now. Not much writing progress to report, no new words to report, no revision page counts to keep tabs of. Just me getting smaller things done before having a nice break with hubby and daughter.

See ya!

Jumbled Thoughts & Lotsa Clutter

Hey! 

I just realised that I skipped posting a little something last week. It wasn't intentional, I just wasn't in the mood because I felt a little meh last Friday. No big deal.

Then this week, when I started drafting a new post, the internet decided to stop working. We had no internet connection for OVER THREE DAYS because the NBN network had an 'outage' no one could explain. I swear this shitty internet network the government totally screwed up is the worst! We've had nothing but problems since connecting to it last year.

What I hate the most is the miscommunication, the no explanations and failure to warn customers about maintenance or problems in the area. It totally sucks. 

It randomly came back on Saturday night, but I don't trust it. I get paranoid and pissed off pretty quickly.

Anyway, enough about that. I've spent WAY too many hours being angry already.

So, what else have I been up to? Well, I've done quite a bit of reading during the last few weeks. I've got a huge TBR pile, so I wanted to get caught up on some of the books I have sitting around.

Last Sunday, we went to watch HEREDITARY and while it wasn't the scariest movie ever, I enjoyed the hell out of it. The story is so clever. Part family drama that ends in tragedy. Part ghost story, and all sorts of screwed up. Plus, I loved the ending. I love that it went THERE! 

My writing has been a little inconsistent at the moment because I'm concentrating on the biz side of things. And that's so time consuming, and slow and never-ending, but it's part of the process. And I refuse to give up.

This doesn't mean the ideas stopped coming. Actually, one of the problems I'm having is that I have too many ideas fighting for attention. I want to write all of them at the same time. And there are a few fun anthologies I wouldn't mind writing shorties for. Not to mention that my next revision project has started to whisper in my ear...

Yeah. Sometimes the clutter isn't physical. Sometimes it's totally inside my head. 😨

It's also been raining. A lot. Winter has really hit hard, which I don't like. I'm not a big winter fan, but we're trying to make the most out of it by keeping up with our two daily walks, and have even gotten back into yoga. So happy about that!

Our yoga hiatus went for too long. But now we're determined to keep up with two weekly yoga workouts whenever we can. It just feels so good to stretch out the body.

We're had a really awesome weekend and packed a thousand things into it, of course. I secretly wish it was another long one because we need an extra day to recover. LOL.

Oh, did I mention that hubby found a great Kindle Paperwhite deal and we picked it up on Saturday? Yeah, we went for a huge walk, and even found some great secondhand books in a nearby store. Bookish success!

I've got a to-do list ready for this week, so let's hope I actually cross/highlight everything off this week. There are a few things I've carried forward for over a month. 😰

Have a good one!

A Productive Week of a Different Kind

Hey!

This week was all about taking the last step towards totally completing a novel adventure I began during NaNoWriMo 2016. 

When I had a blast writing a YA horror story featuring some of my most favourite horror tropes. A story I loved telling and then put aside for a while, before rewriting and revising the hell out of it. 

It was a long ride. But making this novel the best story I could, to match what I originally envisioned, was a great experience.

Now it's done* and ready for the next step...

Plus, I'm finally determined to tackle other ideas.

I kept wondering why I wasn't ready to get stuck into a new novel or novella. Or why my head felt so cluttered and restless... until I realised that THIS story HAD to be finished before my writing brain was ready to (fully) concentrate on anything else.

Yep. Sometimes you ignore the obvious without even realising why.

*sigh*

Feels so good to have reached this point. A point I still have to reach with three other completed first drafts. But that's for another day. First I'm going to let myself get totally lost in a new story. 😀

So. What else did I do this week? I finally broke my reading slump by enjoying a few short stories and starting one of my most highly-anticipated 2018 books: The Outsider by Stephen King. So far, I'm totally intrigued!

I also enjoyed the latest Siren & The 100 eps. Both were awesome, of course. Plus I watched The Breakfast Club with my daughter because she took a sick day on Thursday. 

Aside from that, I tried not to watch much else. I wanted to give binge watching a bit of a rest. 

Oh wait, we did go to watch the very disappointing SOLO movie. OMG. This movie really is the Star Wars movie nobody asked for. It was worse than I expected: boring, tried too hard & the twist was so ridiculous it made the experience even worse. What a waste of time.

This didn't even feel like a Star Wars movie. It felt like some generic shitty SF movie trying very hard to imitate SW. 😒

The worst thing is that I could tell from the first time I watched the trailer. TBH, the only reason I went was because hubby wanted to see it. At least we had a great time shopping for cute stuff.

Anyway. That's it for now.

I know it doesn't sound like I got much done, but all the work I did isn't as easily quantified as word/page count progress. Still, it's just as rewarding.

Next week, I'm going to daydream and brainstorm and read.

Have a good one!

____________________________

* Of course, having said all this, every writer knows that stories can be rewritten, revised & edited forever... but you just gotta consider it done until the next phase of its life. And that's where I'm at.

Between Week

Last week I finished the third draft of the book I'm currently revising. So the next step is to read the draft on my Paperwhite after taking a break from it.

Only problem is that I started another Tweak/Add List last weekend. So, first thing on Monday morning I opened the doc and made the changes. Then, I was able to put it away for the rest of the week.

The story's so in my head that I needed a bit of distance.

I spent most of this week sorting my notebooks and random book piles. Plus I read a bunch of awesome non-fiction titles and wrote reviews for them. I'm really enjoying finding out about the many innovative women the patriarchy has buried through the years and unfairly left off the history books. 

It's about fucking time these strong, intelligent and brilliant women are celebrated for their many achievements!

By midweek, a surpise arrived in my Inbox. The edits for my YA horror short story came in! Have I mentioned that I had a YA story accepted and will be published in an anthology called Locker Shockers? I'm very excited.

Anyway, long story short: I got the edits done and sent them back. Yay.

I also read one of my most anticipated books ever. I finally read PRACTICAL MAGIC. And loved it. Adored the magical and gorgeous writing.

Why did it take me so long to read this book? Well, mainly because I was afraid to start it. I had such high expectations that I was secretly scared, in case I was disappointed. I haven't seen the movie so I wasn't sure what to expect, but Alice Hoffman is such an amazing author that I really wanted to check it out.

Really glad I loved it SO MUCH.

There you have it. My week was full of loads of washing, walking, review writing, stationery sorting, editing, review book checking, reading and updating. I updated quite a few files too. Phew.

Looking forward to the weekend.

Have an awesome one!

Some Kind of Goals

Welcome to my 2018 Goals edition.

If you've read any of my past blog posts, you already know that I don't do New Year's resolutions. Making resolutions has never worked for me. It's almost like the mention of that word begs to be abandoned. LMAO.

Instead, I make goals. I come up with a yearly list, but constantly make goals and put together to-do list for myself monthly, weekly, and even set daily tasks.

These are the things I would like to achieve this year:

• Continue this awesome habit of two daily walks (early morning & late afternoon)
• Read 100 books
• Get back into yoga (no pressure, just adding a workout whenever)
• Write between 200-300k words
• Play more games on my 2DS
• Finalise spooky YA horror & query
• Revise 2017 novel first drafts (3)
• Write two new novels
• (Try) to write a novella
• Keep writing short stories & sub
• Take part in NaNoWriMo 

So that's my list of goals for 2018. Like last year, it's a pretty ambitious list but I'm determined to attempt all of the above. 

Well, did you make any goals?

Revision: Week Two

Hey! How are you today?

Well, another work week is over, so it's time to post a writing update. 

You might remember that this time last week I was feeling a little wonky because I pushed myself a bit too much. That resulted in losing an output day (last Friday), but I wasn't too concerned. I took it easy last weekend, my ribs stopped hurting and when Monday rocked around, I was ready to get productive.

Here's what I wanted to do this week:

• Continue revising Haunted. (But this time aim for 12 pages/day)
• Read BREAKING & post the review
• Update photos, pics & writing files
• Keep brainstorming my next WIP

Although I'd initially wanted to get the second draft done by the end of this week, I decided to slow the pace a bit. Mostly it was so I wouldn't push myself so hard, but I also wanted to pay proper attention to the narrative.

I actually ended up doing a bit of backtracking during the week to fix certain details, and it helped strengthen the story. Gotta be happy with that. LOL.

So, this is what I ended up doing:

• Reached page 150/210 & added 4,773 words.
• Read & reviewed BREAKING by Danielle Rollins.
• Updated ALL files on laptop & ALL external devices.
• Spent a lot of time thinking about next WIP & started jotting more notes + figured out the beginning.
• Caught up on washing & other stuff.
• Went for two walks every day.

There it is. I'm really happy with how everything turned out this week. I got a lot done and am feeling really good about this story. And new things keep coming to mind... love it when I get caught up in the story like this!

Anyway, that's it for now.

I'm looking forward to taking it easy during the weekend. I might squeeze some reading in, hopefully take more notes, go for walks, and spend time with hubby.

Have a good one!

Revision: Week One

So, another week is almost over. Yikes! And this time I went in with some goals.

If you read last week's blog post, then you know that I wanted to tackle a few things this month. I like to break them down into weekly lists because it makes it easier to achieve. :)

So, this week I had three things I wanted to do:

• Start the second draft of YA Horror novel--let's call it Haunted from now on--and hopefully reach page 92
• Read library book (ONE OF US IS LYING)
• Keep brainstorming next WIP

I started the week strong and kept the momentum steady by working on revision during the day, and reading at night. But I also had a bunch of non-writerly things to do so that took up time I might have used for brainstorming/taking WIP notes.

Not to mention that I woke up feeling super wonky this morning and with a pesky pain on my (left side) ribs. I have no idea how I hurt myself, but I reckon I must have pulled a muscle or something. Like I said above, I did a lot of stuff. Plus, the NBN technicians were scheduled to come and set it up, so... that threw things out even further. 

Long story short: I took today off. Which for me means finishing the book I was reading. Of course. ;)

Anyway, this is what I achieved this week:

• Started the Haunted second draft and reached page 77/196. Added 7,373 words and I'm really enjoying getting back into the creepy life of this small town.
• Read and reviewed ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus. Even returned it to the library!
• Soooooo much washing and other real-life stuff that EXHAUSTED me.
• Went for two walks every day.

What I didn't do:

• Any brainstorming for next WIP. :(

Even though I didn't get everything on the list done, I'm still quite happy with the progress and will keep working on the revision next week. Not sure if I'll reach the end by next Friday, but I've got the rest of the month anyway.

So, that's this week's hits and misses.

BTW, Atomic Blonde was okay. It was a case of style over substance. It looked stylish and the fight scenes were awesome, but the story was weak. The characterisation too flimsy. Oh well.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend of hanging out around the house with hubby, going for walks, eating nice meals and just bumming around.

Have a good one!

Back to Work!

Yep.

This week, hubby went back to work and my daughter went back to school. I can't believe how fast our week off went! :/

Too fast, if you ask me.

BTW, what do you think of my new Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Horror Classics Series 3) mystery figure? I think she's super cool.

Anyway. Everything going back to normal meant a new to-do list for me:

• Proofread, finalise & sub the UF short story I wrote last month
• Read & review BURNING by Danielle Rollins
• Back up photos on my phone
• Do second draft of monster short story
• Start taking NaNoWriMo notes

And here's what I actually did:

• Read & reviewed BURNING by Danielle Rollins
• Proofread (twice), made final changes & subbed the UF short story (6,872w) set in Sierra's spooky world
• Removed Sept/Oct photos from phone & backed up on drives
• Dusted & reorganised (one of) my toys/collectibles shelves
• Scanned UF short story notes & updated files
• Started reading one creepy book but put it aside because I just couldn't get into it
• Switched to a different creepy book & I'm loving it!
• Started thinking/planning the story I'd like to write during NaNoWriMo next month
• Trimmed my hair
• Caught up on the washing

As you can see, I didn't get the monster story second draft done. On purpose. Mainly because the first three days of the week were so revision heavy that I didn't want to push it. Besides, I've been feeling a little sickish. This crazy hot and cold spring weather is a killer! Plus my daughter got sick last week, then hubby... so of course, it's now my turn. :(

Hopefully it doesn't stick around for long...

I'm actually happy with the progress I made this week, especially since the closing date for the antho I subbed my story to is today! Close one. LOL.

And I'm starting to get super excited about the book I want to write next month. I'm aiming for super creepy and plan to add some of my most fave creepy/spooky things. It'll be fun. (At least, I hope it will.)

Well, that's it for now.

Have an awesome weekend!