#ROW80 Final Check-in 3/20/19

Oh, wow, I was actually able to post on a Wednesday! Holy crap!

Just kidding. It’s Tuesday. I wanted to get a jump on it. Since I hardly updated this round, I wanted to at least do the final check-in.

As you probably know, I am recovering from my foot surgery. This Friday will be 3 weeks, halfway through. It’s been feeling like forever, and I can’t wait to walk again. The pain isn’t too bad, but today I had to take some motrin because it was a bit worse than the past few days. It fluctuates.

The surgery more or less killed the quarter/round for me, but I was able to get a fair amount done and I am very happy that I got anything done at all. I’ve been working, but I’ve also been very tired—more so than usual. So that effected things as well.

Here’s the rundown:

~Loosely plot Immortal I kind of abandoned the How to Think Sideways stuff for the time being. I pretty much know the set up and the main plot. But not much else which is not necessarily a bad thing as I like to have mystery.
~Book ads for Gain with Pain, Reaper Girl, and Fey Touched. Put together a tracking system. Up to April on ads. Been getting some sales from the ads and newsletter swaps. I think I’m up to 30 sales this month, whereas I’d be in a huge slump at this time of the year. So, win.
~Start manifestation journal (first entry: 1/5/19)
~Put together modified Kanban board for Q1 Abandoned the Kanban journal and will be repurposing it after I’m walking again. I’m not spending much time in my bedroom (except to sleep) so I haven’t updated it at all. Will be starting with a Kanban board as soon as I can use my office again.
~Purchase Energy Oracle deck. Started strong but petered out toward the end. They aren’t feeling the same as Tarot cards, which is not a bad thing, but it’s an adjustment.
~Progress on Oubliette or finish ~1,103 words. I’m calling that progress.
~Do All The Things related to TDP Anthology (to be released sometime in Q1) ~Yes! The anthology, Love Shines Through: A Fractured World Anthology, is out now! Grab a copy here. My story, Of Poison and Promises, is a f/f story about best friends who become something more while fighting for their lives.
~Begin rewrite of Survivor. Continue working on it on Sundays. ~Never happened, but I am very close to starting.
~Catch up up on ARCs:
Go Manifest Yourself
Cure for Chaos
The Ones Who Left ~Still reading
Hell’s Hinges
Queen Takes Camelot
Alpha Legacy 1-5
~My Fair Millennial books 1 & 2 ~Started #2
~Take Sundays off work when possible ~Tried really hard to do this. Mostly worked, though, or worked a half day.
~Start back on MyFitnessPal. Log food 5x a week minimum. ~Nope, didn’t log beyond the first few days. I did lose those 8 pounds though.
~Water 5x a week 

Accountability partner: This worked out very well for me. I’m big on accountability.  My partner is really nice and talking to her every week was fun. 🙂 I missed a few Fridays due to my surgery, but as of last week we are back at it. I vote we continue this for sure. 😀

So I think I did okay, all things considered. Will definitely be back for Round 2/Q2.

Final chocolate consumption report: Chocolate cupcakes, Andes Mints, Oreos, hot chocolate, chocolate “mug” cakes, chocolate chip cookies, mini Junior Mints, Regular-sized Junior Mints, Hersey’s minis…is that enough? 😉

#ROW80 Final Check-in 3/18/18

Round 1 of #ROW80 officially ends on March 22nd, but because I will be busy on that day, I am ending a bit early.

This round went pretty well for the most part. There are things I couldn’t do due to things beyond my control. I also had a ton of freelance work, and that was wonderful, but not so good for other things. All in all, I did okay and I am happy with my progress.

I will be participating in Round 2 for sure.

So here is my final rundown:

~2nd round edits on secret project. ~Final update: still waiting for betas, but did start editing it. Finished 37 pages.
~Revisions on Fireborn ~ Update: I should be receiving them on April 1st. So nothing done this round.
~Covenant words ~Don’t have wordcounts handy at the moment. Maybe 1,000 new words? I’ve stopped working on this book due to being stuck. I am working on an older novel, Oubliette, and it’s up to 25k now.
NEW GOAL ADDED: Get to halfway point on Oubliette ~I’m at 31.9k right now; 37k would be halfway.
NEW GOAL ADDED: Get to 50k by the end of the round  ~Update: up to 57k!
~Survivor Sundays (Survivor my book, not the TV show) Have not started yet. 
~Poke at Fireborn cover?~Yes, although it’s not working as well as I’d hoped.

Non-writing stuffs:

~Read 1 book a week ~Finished Blood Fury by J.R. Ward. Finished Painless by Marty Thornley. Final update: Did this mostly, but missed a few weeks here and there.
~Water 5x a week
~Print out test roll pics in darkroom Nope. But have been pondering this.
~Poetry, maybe? Nope. 
~Housewalking 3x a week Nope. 
~And everyone’s favorite, chocolate consumption reports YES! Final report: Dark chocolate bar, mini Kitkats, and hot chocolate!

How did you do this round?

#ROW80 Final Check-in 12/17/17

Technically, the round ends on the 20th, but I will be busy with Christmas prep so I am, as usual, ending a bit early.

So, how did I do?

~Finish rewrite of Fireborn, revise it, edit it, and submit it for Dec. 1st deadline. ~ DONE. That was the priority. I get edits back on January 1st.
~Transfer Survivor outline to notecards, for reals this time ~NOT DONE. Started, but my hand started complaining so I had to stop. I will try to do this between now and the beginning of Round 1 2018 so I can maybe start writing on Sundays again.
~Participate in NanoWriMo with an amended goal of 30k (Survivor) ~ NOT DONE. Between Fireborn, freelance jobs, and helping my mom, I’ve had no extra time at all. I am still considering a “Nano” of my own at some point.
~Begin edit of Secret Project ~DONE. Editing done and it’s now with betas. Two got back with me. So far, the response has been very positive, which is encouraging.
~Decide on next project and start working on that (Covenant and When She Sleeps are the top contenders) ~DONE. I chose Covenant, and I have 1,578 words already written.
~Finish In Flames cover or hire someone to do it  ~DONE. A writer friend generously offered to make me a cover. Cover reveal soon!

Non-writing stuffs:

~Water 5x a week~DONE, with a few exceptions.
~Read 1 book a week ~DONE, for the most part.
~Chocolate consumption reports, of course! ~DONE! Lots and lots of hot chocolate, dark chocolate M&Ms, and dark chocolate minis! 

I will be participating in ROW80 next year (so weird to be saying that!) so see you all next round!

And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

#ROW80 Final Check-in Round 3

It’s that time again. I’ve been so busy, I have’t been able to do any updates for awhile. The round officially ends on 9/22, next week, but per my usual tradition I am posting my final check-in early. (Weekdays are really hard for me to update these days).

So, the round went pretty well. I got a lot done. I have been battling the trigeminal neuralgia pain and have been trying to get a handle on it, so that affected things somewhat. But despite that I am still happy for what I did get done.

Here is the rundown:

~Continue with Fireborn rewrite. DONE! I’m at 47k of a projected 60k. On track to finish for deadline. 
~Finish secret project. It is currently almost half done. NOT DONE, but damn close! I have one more section to write.
~Continue participating in Camp Nano. I have two projects I am flip-flopping between, Oubliette and When She Sleeps. Should keep me busy! DONE. I worked on both books. I finished with a total of 12k which made my goal of 10k. Final stats: When She Sleeps, 5,700 words total. Oubliette, 20k (added 8k).
~Start plotting Survivor into Scrivener (Survivor is my Nano project). NOT DONE. Ran out of time yet again.
~One glass of water 5x a week. DONE mostly. I may have missed a few here and there, but I’ve been consistent for the most part. 
~Continue with FYFB class. DONE and NOT DONE. Class was being switched over into a new program so I had to download everything I hadn’t watched or worked on. I got that part done, but nothing else, regrettably. 
~Continue with chocolate consumption reports DONE!

Chocolate consumption: chocolate cannolis, chocolate cupcakes, mint cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, marble cake. 🙂

I believe that is it. See you next round!

#ROW80 Round 2 Final Check-in

Hi, and we are here for #ROW80 again! I’m wrapping this up early because next week my husband and I will be going camping, and I will be packing and prepping and busy.

So, let’s see how I did:

~Publish Ever Touched on May 1st (on track to complete as of right now) <–DONE! So excited about this even now, a month later! 
~Add 10k to Covenant <–NOT DONE. I wrote 1,069 words though, 9k short of the goal. Just never got any momentum going. 😦 
~Start formulating a plan for Fireborn (looks like a rewrite as of right now)<–DONE. It’s definitely a rewrite, and an expansion, and I’m 20 pages in (of 40 pages). Those were pure revising, though. Have started writing a new scene.
~Drink a glass of water 5x a week <–DONE!
~Start working on FYFB class once things settle down<–NOT DONE. This also did not get off the ground. Thought about it. Will try to make this a priority in the next round.

Other things of note:

~Been building up my editing business and have secured a few new clients.
~Have written 13k of a projected 30k on my secret project
~Have loosely outlined a new novel, When She Sleeps, and have decided to make this a trilogy. Will be one of my projects for Camp Nano.
~Have made the decision to put Fey Touched in KDP Select. Its free promo days are July 21st-23rd. Been booking lots and lots of promotions.
~Been fighting a major increase of TN pain and that has really messed with my productivity and motivation. I have an appt with my neurologist on the 27th to discuss upping my medication dosage. Cross fingers that this helps!

Chocolate consumption: GF Chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, Twix ice cream bars, chocolate cake, hot chocolate. Not a lot. Need to step it up, because we all know that chocolate makes everything better, am I right?

 

 

#ROW80 Final Check-in 3/19/17

I’ve decided to do my final check-in today because I have a really busy week coming up and I am bound to forget! So, without further adieu, here it is!

~Finish Ever Touched 2nd round edits ~DONE and turned in March 1st!
~Finalize Ever Touched cover art ~In progress. Cover created, just waiting on feedback.
~Start on a blurb ~DONE! Still more work needed, but it’s a start.
~After Ever Touched is finished, start Fireborn revision ~NOT DONE. Have been thinking about this, though. 
~Add 5k to Covenant (using 8 minute writing if possible) ~NOT DONE. Issues with sleep due to eczema and general stress has killed my energy. I did write 1,349 words on it a few days ago, though, and plan on continuing with it.
~Continue FYFB class (I’m so horribly behind now, it’s not even funny!) ~NOT DONE. Once things calm down, it’s the first thing on my priority list.
~Eat healthier/lose 5 pounds ~KINDA SORTA. Lost about 3 pounds total. Trying to eat healthier.
~Restart transferring Survivor Rewrite outline to Scrivener ~NOT DONE. Just plain ran out of time.
~Exercise: housewalking 3x per week ~DONE ONLY ONCE. Really need to get serious about this in the next round.
~Water – 1 glass 5 days per week ~DONE!
~Chocolate consumption reports of course! ~DONE!

So I won some and I lost some. Not a bad round considering all the health crap I had to deal with. I’m okay with it. 🙂

Final chocolate consumption report: Triple chocolate cake last night for my early birthday party, chocolate brownie topped with chocolate ice cream and hot fudge recently, chocolate pudding, hot chocolate. The chocolate is strong in this one. 😉

How did you do?

#ROW80 Final Check-in Round 4

I’ve decided to post my last check-in today because as of tomorrow, I will be too busy to post on the 22nd.

This has been a busy round for me, and not without problems (losing revisions, my computer being in service for 11 days, being severely sleep deprived due to eczema). I think I did pretty well despite my issues. There are things I needed to let go in order to get the things I needed to get done done, which sucks. I plan to do better in the new year.

So, here’s how I did (gulp):

~Finish the Ever Touched revision.  I can do this. <–DONE and on time.
~Stay on top of FYFB class. Taking a class through Monica Leonelle. It happens to be going on at the same time as my revision, but might as well go all in. It’s three months. Should be fun. <–NOT DONE. As things got busier (revision + 2 editing jobs), I had to drop this out of necessity. Once things calm down, I’ll be catching up and hopefully staying on track.
~Make a ruling on my next project and start prepping (contenders are Fireborn, which needs a revision, Survivor, which needs a rewrite, and Death Dancer, which needs some tweaking — and may be my next Turtleduck Press release.) <–DONE! Fireborn is the next project. The second half needs to be reworked. I hope to release it in 2017.
~Drink 1 glass of water 5x a week <–DONE!
~Exercise 2x a week – <–NOT DONE. Being chained to the desk sucks. I plan to get better with this in 2017.
~Do All the Things related to anthology release (TBD — release is Nov 15th) <–DONE, (even though I lost my revisions on 21 pages and had to work like a mad thing to catch back up) and the anthology released as planned. 🙂 
~Keep up on reviews (I’m on 4 ARC teams) <–DONE, for the most part. Still slightly behind, but I’m doing okay.
~Lose 5 pounds. <–DONE, and NOT DONE. Lost 5 pounds, gained 5 pounds, and lost 3. So a total loss of 3 pounds. Still better than nothing!
~Take more pictures: infrared and normal. <–NOT DONE. Had planned on it with hubby but got sick both times. Another thing I need to pick back up in 2017.
~Post-process infrared pics from camping trip <–NOT DONE. Wanted to, but got too busy!
~Chocolate consumption report, as always! <–DONE!

Final chocolate consumption report – This round, I got addicted to Snickerdoodles and Twizzlers, so my consumption went way down.I still love chocolate, no issue there, but I found other things as well. Will keep reporting on it in 2017. 😉

So that’s it for this round. I hope you all have a great, safe holiday season and I’ll see you for round 1 in 2017! Thank you all for your support and encouragement. 🙂

#ROW80 Round 3 2016 Final Check-in

And here we are at the end, sniff! I think I did pretty well, considering the challenges that sprang up. I’ve been fighting exhaustion, and I sprained my knee, which slowed down my exercise. But apart from that, I’m pretty happy with what I got done.

Here is the final rundown:

~Finish and submit TDP short story by July 15th deadline (I’m in the home stretch now on the rough draft, so I *should* be able to do this.) <–DONE! Actually, the deadline was extended several times, but we are on track now. Everything that could be done by now has been done.
~Do All the Things related to anthology release (TDB later) <–DONE, to the extent that I could do it.
~Restart Ever Touched and finish by end of round (32k left to go) <–NOT DONE, but so close! I’m at 22k of 32k today.
~Read-through of Fireborn <–DONE!
~Reinstate Covenant/8 minutes a day writing 2 days per week <–NOT DONE! I don’t think I have it in me to do this right now. Maybe next round.
~Drink one glass of water 5x per week <–DONE!
~Exercise 3x per week <–DONE, then knee sprain, then I never quite got back into the swing.
~Experiment more with digital infrared <–DONE!
~Take more pictures! <–DONE!
~Keep up with review books (I’m on 4 ARC review teams) <–KINDA SORTA. Not perfectly, but I’m managing.
~Complete 2 author interviews <–DONE!

Chocolate consumption: I think we all know how I did there. Lots of chocolate-y goodness the entire round.

#ROW80 Round 2 Final Check-in

Well, here we are at the end of the round, and I have to say, I think I did pretty well. I was fighting some things, exhaustion and other commitments, and at times it was tough. But I am happy with what I accomplished.

Here were my goals:

~Finish rough draft of Ever Touched. <–NOT DONE. Close, but I got sidetracked by an editing job, a query letter, and a longish short story with a tight deadline. My #1 plan is to finish this next round. I’m at 88k (of 120k) so far!

~If there’s time, start planning Fireborn revision.<–NOT DONE, because Ever Touched isn’t done, but I am planning on doing a read through of the completed draft ASAP.

~Continue logging outline for Survivor into Scrivener.<–NOT DONE. Just not enough time. This will be carried over to next round, b/c my next primary project will be Survivor.

~Reinstate 8 minutes a day of a first draft again/make progress on Covenant <–DONE once. I was fighting exhaustion mostly, and wrist tendonitis, so this was just not working for me. 😦

~Make prints of the film I developed yesterday (my test roll). <–NOT DONE. Same song, second verse. I had to order in chemicals and a new safelight. Not enough energy. It’s happening SOON though!

~Experiment with digital infrared <–DONE! Check it out here!

~Plot Elysium <–DONE!

~Clean office <–Started, but not completed

~Continue #AprilLove2016 when possible <–DONE! 14 out of 30 days. Did not complete due to wrist tendonitis.  Dear Courage, Dear Inspiration, Dear Younger Me, Dear Future Me (the rest were written in a journal offline).

~Exercise 2x a week <–MOSTLY DONE, 2x and sometimes more!

~Drink 1 glass of water every day.<–MOSTLY DONE, every day except 2 every week. 

Looking forward to next round! Who’s participating?

#ROW80 Final Check-in

So here we are at the end of the round! It went by so fast! Yikes!

I think I did very well, despite having issues with fatigue. That really screwed me up for awhile, but I am feeling much better so that’s good.

Here’s the rundown. Goals for the round were:

~Finish revision of Pirouette for submission to publisher (currently on page 203 of 243, but don’t let that fool you. I have a few plot holes to fill.) ~DONE! Still waiting to hear back, so fingers crossed!
~Write synopsis (first time doing that!) ~DONE! And got some very valuable feedback and knowledge for next time.
~Submit to publisher by 1/31 ~DONE! Submitted 1/25
~Finish Fireborn first draft (Reaper Girl novella, 19k of 25k currently) ~DONE! Finished at 23k.
~Make progress on Covenant, secondary WIP ~DONE! It is up to 18k now.
~Log in planner goals + to dos every day/every month (trying something new!) ~DONE for the most part. Struggled with remembering to write everything down b/c I do most of my planning in my head. Toward the end of this round, I managed to fill in at least two weeks in a row.
~Physical activity: 15 mins 3x a week (anything that gets me moving counts!) ~HIT OR MISS HERE. Mostly done, at least twice, but some weeks were tough getting it in.
~After Pirouette revision is finished, 8 minutes of focused writing per day on a first draft of my choice (another new thing).~MOSTLY DONE, except that I struggled with exhaustion issues toward the end of this round. I added at least 5k to Covenant, so I call that a win.
~Develop test roll of b&w film ~NOT DONE. I am almost ready! I am waiting for a specific chemical to be delivered (I had to special order it). But once I get it, it’s developing time!

Other notable accomplishments:

~Added drinking 1 glass of water per day to my routine
~Added walking to my routine, weather and health permitting
~Started inputting Survivor re-outline to Scrivener
~New idea for horror novel, Elysium
~About to start experimenting with plotting
~Ever Touched up to 54k
~Got darkroom ready to go for developing/printing

That’s it! Very happy with my progress and I will see you in Round 2!