The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford

And yet, I fee very calm.  Not crazy, just in a zen kind of mood.  I DO have a lot to do.  And I’m confident I can do it.

I’ve been gluten-free now for almost two months, and I can feel differences that I didn’t realize I would.  Things are clearer –  like a fog has lifted.  I’m not even really missing much, except bread.  I need to find a good bread recipe that doesn’t leave me chewing forever.  But I’m working on it – it’s a work in progress, just like a story.

I’m running too – I ran twice last week, and realized that I truly need to lose a bit more weight before I run on the track again.  My knees aren’t hurting, exactly, but I’m not doing them any favors by pounding on them with the track with a 285 lb body.  So for the remainder of this pass through the Couch to 5K program (I’m on Week 2, Day 2 for Monday), I’ll be running on the treadmill, working on dropping some weight.  Once I’m running the full 5K on the treadmill, I’ll switch back to the track.  April 6 is my deadline – that’s the Todd’s Trot 5k run that I’m doing for my birthday.  The goal is to run the entire thing.  Even if I finish 2 hours after everyone else.  I WILL run it!

I’m feeling more focused on my writing too.  I’ve shelved my pirate story for a while – it’s not working, and I’m thinking I’m going at it the wrong way.  So it goes back into the treasure chest to marinate, and I’m working on my ghosthunters again.  Although they’ve made a change too, which I like.  And I’m plugging along on my edits – hoping to have them out the door by the end of the month as well.

I’m reading again too.  I’m not really going to quantify, but I’m reading two interesting books right now.  One is called The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Dr. Atul Gawande.  It’s about how to use a checklist to make sure you are doing everything you need to.  It’s fascinating – he’s a surgeon, so most of his examples are medical-related, but he relates it to the real world.  I’m engrossed.

The other book I’m reading is The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly.  Not normally my type of book, but Mom let me borrow it, and I’m loving how she’s weaving the tale of a modern day woman trying to find her way in life with letters from the characters in Little Women (who are this woman’s ancestors).  It’s a good reminder to read outside my genre.  I’m going to have to find some more like this.

This got longer than I thought it would, so I’ll put my to-do list on another page.  I do still have a list, after all!

Yes, it’s a new year, and I’ve yet to post my goals for 2013.  What can I say?  I’m sure I’ll be late to my own funeral. 

But I’m definitely ready to start over.  I’m trying something new this year – doing month to month goals as opposed to definite yearly goals.  The only hard deadline I have is to get Last Rites done this month.  After that, I really have to decide what I want to go after this year.

I’m in an odd position.  Unlike a lot of my peers, I don’t want to write full-time.  I need my day job, for several reasons.  The biggest one is healthcare.  Because I live in the US, I don’t have national healthcare.  And, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a very expensive chronic illness that requires daily medication.  I need my healthcare.  And until and unless I’m pulling in a Stephen King-level income from my writing, I’m not quitting my day job. 

(Let’s be honest – I probably wouldn’t quit it even then.  Drop down to the minimum hours to keep my benefits, yes, but not quit.)

So, after January, I have to do some serious thinking as to what I want to accomplish.  But let’s get through January first.

Writing goals for January:

1. Finish edits on Last Rites and send them off.

2. Finish writing the last 4 episodes of Tales of the Scorned Lady, Season 1 and record them.

Running goals for January:

1. Running 3 times a week.

That’s it.  No more goals.  I’ll check back in with you at the end of the month to see how I’ve done.

I hate colds.  I hate colds with a fiery, cottony passion that matches the gunk in my head.  Bleah.

Other than that, life is progressing.  I passed “Convoy” in and am starting work today on the new Advent story outline.  That’s my NaNo project, so I want to get it done (the outline, that is).  I suspect the rest of the year will be finishing things and starting outlines for new stuff for next year.

The Writing To-Do list for the end of the year:

1. Finish writing Tales of the Scorned Lady, season 1and then record it (more on that in a bit)

2. Revise novella for early next year

3. Write Advent 2 and get it up on the blog

At some point, I’ll get the edits for Last Rites and have to turn those in – we’re aiming for a spring 2013 release, and I have to check with the studio, but I think we’re going to try to do a combination release party/gallery showing with a friend of mine who did some amazing art based on the first novel up here in NH.  I think we’re also going to try for a spring Con launch – I just have to look at finances and see where I can afford to go.  More on that later as well, but things are moving forward!

I’m trying to blog every day.  We’ll see how it goes (I already missed yesterday!).  I’m writing every day too – really.

For the rest of the year, here’s what I need/want to write:

Novels:

– Forgotten (Ghost Tales #1)

Novellas:

– Contemporary Romance (under pen name)

– Tales of the Scorned Lady, Season 1

Short Stories:

– A Princess, A Lizard and a Boatman

– The Lonely Child

Other Projects:

– Advent Story #2

– Podcast Tales, Season #1

– Record Horseman

I’m sure this will change, but this is what I have right now.

I haven’t posted much lately.  I haven’t really been writing, either – I’ve been stupidly busy, but that’s not an excuse.  I was listening to Nathan Lowell’s excellent #tommw podcast (http://www.nathanlowell.org/tommw/) and he talked recently about not making excuses for why he wasn’t writing – the fact that he had to stop doing that and just write already.  Which really hit home for me, because in fact, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing as well: making excuses for why I wasn’t writing rather than just sucking it up and writing.

I hurt today.  I have a treatment Tuesday, and today when my alarm went off, the first thing that I realized was how much I hurt.  My hands are so painful that I had to have my friend who sits next to me at work open the aspirin bottle.   I thought seriously of staying home and sleeping the day away, because sleeping was the only time I didn’t hurt.  But I didn’t.  I didn’t go to the gym as planned, but I got up after another hour, and went to work.  I registered my car.  I even got the trash out of the bathroom before I left (although dinner didn’t happen – just the thought of chopping anything made me want to cry), and I am currently at work.  On the way in, I listened to Nathan and realized how many excuses I had made in the past week not to do things.

Life happens.  Shit happens.  We’re all busy – and there are times when we all hurt.  I have a chronic illness, but so do millions of other people who manage to get shit done.  It’s time to, as my buddy Bob is fond of saying, “Suck it up, buttercup.”

Balticon is in a little over 4 weeks.  I have two events that I need to prep for there: the Spells and Swashbucklers launch party (pirates! rum! swag!) and the Needleworker’s Tea.  I need to find out if Dragonmoon Press has a table.  I also have to practice my lines for the podcast I’m in, and finish my garb for the event.  I have to find a site for Harper’s Retreat in September.  I have to find a house for my hubby and I to move into (luckily, the timeline on that is flexible).

I also have books to write.  I’ve got some deadlines for myself: Tales of the Scorned Lady WILL be finished by August, and the plot outline for Forgotten will be done before Balticon.  I also realized where the murder mystery needs to start, and I want that outline done for NaNo, so I can write it then.  I have a beta read to do this weekend, and I’m going to have it done.  And in the next few months, I’ll be redesigning the website (yeah, I’m still not happy with it).

Life is busy.  Life is painful.  Life happens.  I won’t let that be an excuse for me not to be writing any more.

2012 is here.  2011 has left.  While it wasn’t as bad a year for me as it was for some of my friends, I’m not sorry to see it go.  It’s a new year, and that means a chance to look at what I’ve done in the past year, and what will be happening in the future.

Looking back at my livejournal, I see I didn’t have any goals set for 2011 (or if I did, I can’t find them).  But I did accomplish a few things:

1. Finished and turned in Last Rites (Dark Horseman #3)

2. Put together Spells and Swashbucklers (the sequel to Rum and Runestones, which is getting turned in very soon)

3. Self-published Snow (a Dark Horseman Novella) at the end of December

4. Won NaNoWriMo for the first time!

Not a bad year.  I didn’t really track my number of words, but it was pretty impressive for me.

Now, to 2012.  I have goals.  And this year, this is what I will accomplish.  First, the writing goals:

1. Finish the untitled Dark Horseman Christmas story (which may become a novella, not sure).

2. Finish and sub the first Sapph novella.

3. Write the rough draft of my Secret Project Novel.

4. Finish the six-episode arc of Tales of the Scorned Lady.

5. Write the rough draft of The Strange Disappearance of Santa Claus.

6. Write 250 words of fiction every day.

7. Morning pages (over at 750words.com) every day.

Then, the health goals:

1. I will exercise 30 minutes every day, whether it be on the Wii or at the gym.  No excuses.

2. I will modify my lifestyle and the food I eat, without giving up all the foods I love.

3. I will walk/run to Rivendell by the end of the year.

Finally, the life goals:

1. I will declutter my house by December 31st, 2012.

2. I will get my finances under control by June 30th, 2012.

3. I will enjoy life more in 2012.

The last one is really important to me.  I don’t want to be just another drone – I want to live life, even if I live it on a budget.  Walks in the park cost nothing.  Reading in the sunshine costs nothing.  Sitting by a stream with a fishing pole and breathing in clean air costs nothing (don’t need a license if you don’t have hooks on your line!).

I’ll be keeping track of my books read over at Goodreads (I’m captain_hobbes over there, if you want to add me), and I’ve got a spiffy new word count spreadsheet (thank you, DC!).  No word count goals this year.  I just want to see what I can do.

I write slowly, but I will write.  Because that’s what I do.

Just got words done on Episode 2 of Tales today, because I had to finish the edits for S&S. WHICH ARE FINALLY DONE!!!!!

Starting Count: 5343
Ending Count: 5509
Net Gain: + 166
Current Word MTD count: 2257

Wow, that really sucks as a MTD word count. Seriously. Going to need to get my ass in gear here if I want to hit even 5k by month end.