Where have I been?

Dang, it was August when I last posted. Fireborn’s release.

Usually I’d be in #ROW80 and posting away, but these past few months have been crazy. I want to jump back in, but there hasn’t been enough time. I hope to get back into it in the new year, or later this quarter if things slow down a bit.

Oh my God, check out what I’ve got on tap:

Writing: Been trying to carve out time to finish the 2nd round edits of my secret project. I have it on this quarter’s schedule. Just need to, um, do it. I also have Oubliette’s final 15k (if I can hold myself to it) and Reaper Girl #3, tentatively titled Immortal. I am also writing a short story for an anthology, due on the 15th. I’m about 3k in.

Freelance stuff: I just got 2 new clients. I am having a blast. I am doing work that I enjoy, and I work with such wonderful people. I am truly blessed. I have been very busy with work and am still trying to figure out a good routine. I am so glad I decided to go this route for a career. Being home has taken off a lot of the pressure I was under before, and I can plan my time and my day the way I want it. And I’m making money, and I’m happy, and I’m so glad I kept the faith. 🙂

I am trying out a new system of planning. It’s a quarterly system. Writer Sarra Cannon recently opened up a 3-day bootcamp to learn her methods. And wow, even though I’m a bit behind, this is already doing me so much good! I can’t even believe it. I will continue to do this in the new year for sure!

Well, that’s my little update for now.

TL;DR I’m still alive, just busy!

 

Year of No Fear: 2014 Manifesto – June Progress Report

Here we are again with another Year of No Fear Progress Report! I did some things in June, and I’m proud to say that I’m feeling pretty good about them.

Here’s how the month shook out:

Photography/New place: Went to the Clinton River Park with my hubby and took some awesome pictures! And, it was a new place, so it counts under my “Go to new places” thing.

Gratitude: Just started a Gratitude Journal at http://soulfearless.wordpress.com . (Ahem. I also need to update it, oops!)

Erotica: Made some progress on Awaken Me.

Diet: Integrating more veggies into meals. Also initiated a new rule: 1 low-calorie meal per week to start, and at some point, I’ll add at least one more. Trying to watch my portions.

Self-portraits: Lots of ideas. Just need to implement them.

Grave Touched Rewrite/Flamebound Revision: 46k into the Grave Touched Rewrite and going strong; I have a possible new direction for Flamebound which might prove to be better. I’m starting to get excited about it again which is cool.

A bit lean this month. I meant to try to write some more poetry, but it just didn’t happen. Still working on that. Life’s been kind of crazy lately, so once things calm down a bit, I should be able to focus on this stuff better.

#ROW80 Check-in the Twentieth – busy busy busy

I can’t believe I have no new words to report! Well, exactly I have new words, just not on Grave Touched. I worked on a short story for the Turtleduck Press Freebie Rotation. Short stories used to be almost impossible for me to write. I’m such a longwinded writer! So for a very, very long time, I avoided it at all costs. So I wrote poetry for the TDP Freebies and all was well.

Then I was required to write a short story for one of our TDP Anthologies. Yikes! Luckily, I’d come up with an idea and was able to write pretty much to the correct wordcount (the story in question is Stasis, in our Seasons Eternal Anthology, BTW. It’s about a world with seasons that don’t ever change). And I realized, hey, maybe it’s not impossible!

Then I took Holly Lisle’s Flash Fiction class. What a challenge. Writing flash felt like writing haiku! But I worked on it and was able to write 7 flash stories. Seven! And I ended up self-pubbing In Flames, my own flash anthology, last August (and it’s freeeeeeee).

So, over the past two days, I’ve written a grand total of 2,600 words. I had a bit of trouble with the ending, the how of it, but I believe I’ve worked it out. It just needs to be edited and/or tweaked, but it’s done. I’m pretty happy with it.

So how come I’m not writing poetry? Well…my poetry muse has kinda been in hiding. I get flashes of stuff occasionally, but haven’t found anything strong enough to sit down and develop. According to my Year of No Fear Manifesto, I’m supposed to be writing poetry. But the year is still young and I’m sure something will come to me. (I did look over some drafts of poems I wrote for the various TDP freebies, some of which I’d abandoned, so looking at them again may spark some ideas).

I’ve also been really, really busy this weekend. Some of my weekends are, unfortunately. I spent most of yesterday reformatting both my poetry chapbooks because I realized I’d forgotten to include a copyright page! Granted, I was just starting out then, so it’s an easy mistake to make. So I have proofs coming soon. And our internet was a bit touchy so every time I made some progress, it’d hang up somewhere. And then came the backups. I have a backup program that does it automatically, but I am severely paranoid (or is it OCD?) about having multiple backups everywhere: on CD, on a thumb drive (this stays in my purse at all times), backup drive, Dropbox, email…yeah, kinda wacky but let me tell you, I’ve had computers die suddenly on me with 10+ years of writing on them, and I haven’t *knock on cyberwood* lost a SINGLE thing yet. So it’s working!

Today alone has been nuts, too. Went to watch the hubby bowl, took a nap (because I was up at 8am on a weekend day! Yikes!), came home, did some housework, cleaned the fish tank, and now I’m here typing this up. I’m not even sure if I’ll get to writing today. I hope so!

Not doing stats as they are identical to the last check-in.

Getting down to the wire now!