Feb Challenge Wrap-Up

This post is going to have to be short as I really need to get started writing today, but I met my writing goals for Feb, but I didn't submit a story. The Challenge Master really liked the short I gave him to edit, but deemed the title bad & much work needed. So, I'm busting my butt to get that polished & to him by tomorrow night.

I met my reading goals and for the month of Feb I read:

Engaging the Enemy - Elizabeth Moon
Command Decisions - Elizabeth Moon
Victory Conditions - Elizabeth Moon
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Moon Flights - Elizabeth Moon

I finally got the office & garden pics taken, so I'll post on those soon.

Challenge Weekend Wrap Up, etc.

I met my goals for Days 54-56. I’m still editing my story, and I am almost done w/ my book.

I just watched the Hangover. Damn. If you need to unwind or just laugh, then check this movie out.

Okay, back to reading.

Something New

I know I've got the gardening blog to post, but I've come to an important decision about something I've been debating about in the recent days. I've decided I'm going to track my Challenge progress here as well as my troubles and tribulations with it. Kirk never had it so good. By posting publicly, I'm really forcing myself to man up (so to speak). I'll try to keep the bitching and moaning to a minimum, but overall I think this will help me. I've been keeping my struggles and joy in my head and that place is already overcrowded.  

So far I'm on day 53, but I forgot to record day 52's progress. So for both days I ended up writing flash pieces, which I didn't mean to, but that's how they came out. I'm still going to stick to short stories, but if it's really supposed to be flash, I won't force it.

I'm kicking around a few ideas for my next short. I like the world I've been focusing on, and I still feel like there's more to tell. I'm leaning towards writing a third short about the characters then I can kind of wrap up what I've started with them. For now anyway.

Even though I'll be posting Challenge updates here, I'll still post about other happenings. I started this blog to see if blogging was for me and help me articulate my thoughts about my own writing. However, I think things would get pretty boring if all I did was talk about my writing, so I'll have a variety of things going on.

I'm a big fan of Paperback Writer, and she has some great blogging ideas like Top Tens and parodies that I'll throw in every now and then. Thank you PBW!

Okay, garden post tomorrow, I promise. I feel crappy, so I'm calling it.

Photo courtesy of Clh288

Header Pic

I forgot to mention that the header pic from this blog is mine. I took it a few years ago on my way home from Fantasy Fest. It was freakin' early in the morning as my friend and I were leaving the Keys and we were both exhausted. Something about this the broken bridge and dark clouds with patches of blue struck me. I leaned out the window & snapped this shot.

For a long time I wasn't happy with the concrete guard rail and that little bit of road, but now I like it. They are just as important as the sky and water and the picture wouldn't be the same without them.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I know I still have to post the garden pics, but I was in a rush today. I promised my man I'd have the short done (decent) for him to look at. He made a joke that I'd have it done by 11 tonight. I said I'd like to have it done before that.

And I did.

I can't tell you how thrilled (relieved) I am to have done that. As a reward I ate a caramel delight.

Tomorrow I'll post the garden stuff.

Happy V-day!

Today was awesome. We played in cow manure (& mushroom manure too), got the garden started, hit Lowe's & got a few more cedar beds & some more compost & grilled (burgers for lunch, wings for dinner w/ my sauce). Awesome! My man also got me a beautiful climbing rose bush.

Today also rocked because I finished editing Act I of my story, finished my 10th book for the challenge & am so far at 33K+ words for this year.

As you can tell, I'm putting the office off for a few days because of the garden. I've got to get back to editing, but I'll have pics of my garden progress up tomorrow. My man is letting me use his camera for all my picture taking needs.

Hope everyone had a great day!

Valuable Lessons

Don't you just hate it when you make a great plan & then it all goes to hell?

I had every intention of posting about my office cleaning efforts, but a major wrench flew out of nowhere and hit me in the head.

True, it was probably a bad idea to set up the first blog for a night I worked. Bad move. Today, I was getting ready to photograph the before shots of my office when I made an unpleasant discovery. My camera is pretty much dead. Not the batteries, the camera itself. I'm not talking about a crappy camera either. I love my camera. It took awesome pics. Granted, I've had it for about 7 years, but the film camera I had before that was my grandmother's & it lasted around 10-15 years. I really expected more out of a digital camera, but maybe that was stupid of me.

I can't afford a new camera now, so I think I'm going to have to borrow my boyfriend's. I should probably as him about that. His is an amazing camera. I pretty much know how to point and click. Focusing, the different lenses & all the extras are beyond me. I was also hoping to do some posts about our garden renovation project, so it really looks like his camera is going to get some use.

Hopefully I'll get the office pics up within the next few days & then the garden pics. Florida is experiencing weather anomalies (it's cold for FL), so we'll see how long it takes me to do the garden. I'm really excited to get started, but that's a different post.

Currently Reading: Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon

Thank You Jenny Cruise/You're Evil Jenny Cruise

So, you might be wondering what's up with the blog title. Well, I was surfing the interwebs & came across this post of Jenny Cruise's. I really need to clean my office & her approach really inspired me. At the same time, I have been putting off cleaning my office because it hasn't seemed like a priority, which is really stupid considering that's where I should be writing/editing/etc., & it is also my craft/relaxation room. Yeah, my priorities are screwed, I mean ascew.

So, I am going to try the 15 minutes a night approach. I don't think my office is as bad as hers (she posted pics), but it does need some work. Plus, I never hung my pictures & stuff after the last time I cleaned. I have some really awesome art & my new Dr. Horrible calander that I've got to get up. Now that I think about it, I'd like to move my challenge calander up there as well. I think it will motivate me more.

I also want to get a better chair (I'm using a green plastic patio chair) & my ext drive set up. Wow, there's a lot I need to do other than cleaning. So tonight I shall make a list for cleaning, decorating, and anything else I can think of. Tomorrow, I'll take some pics of the office & post 'em. There's still some xmas stuff hanging around, so maybe I'll start with that.

Like I said, I love you Jenny Cruise, but damn, you are evil.

Test

Just testing something with the format.

Some Stuff

So, I have to work tomorrow, but I wanted to meet my blogging goal this week. Yay me.

Even though I’m really only blogging to an audience of one, I figured I should get a few details out of the way. I work at my local library, and I love it. It really is a great job for me. People ask me what books, music, movies, and TV shows are good, and I get paid to tell them my opinion. Pretty damn cool.

Yeah, there’s a lot of other work involved, and while some patrons are cool, some really suck. But, in the end, I get to talk about things I like, work with some really cool people, and I have some really amazing stories. Anyway, I have to be there at 8:30 am. Luckily, we close at 5pm tomorrow, so I won’t have to work late.

January Stats

I wrote a total of 3 short stories this month for a total of 25,382 words. The goal was 19,250 words.

I worked on editing 2 shorts, and got one in good enough condition to have read, but I didn't get it submitted yesterday. The Challenge Master gave me a few extra days to clean it up and submit since he won't be able to read it until today or tomorrow. I'm a little disapointed that I didn't get the story submitted, but it's a learning process, and I'm still figuring out how to manage my time.

I read a total of 7 books this month. Books read in January include:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Trading in Danger (Vatta's War) by Elizabeth Moon
Marque and Reprisal (Vatta's War) by Elizabeth Moon
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Overall, I'm pretty damn pleased. Writing everyday, though tough, was much easier than editing. One thing I'm working on today is setting up a real schedule. That should help. Hopefully I can keep up the momenum for February. I'll blog later w/ Feb's goals.

So I Lied

Yeah, I seem to suck at this blogging thing. Well, I'm challenging myself to do two blogs a week for two weeks. I will set aside 5-10 minutes for it. I really think that's reasonable. It's a much more attainable goal than others that I've set for myself in the pass. Why do I set myself up to fail? I know we all do it, but why? Is it because failure is easier to deal with/justify than success?

Okay, I wasn't trying to get on a philosophical bender. Really.

My boyfriend challanged me to write this year. He actually created this whole Challenge, complete with daily word goals, and end of the year quota, and submission goals. In addition the writing, there's the reading. 1 fiction book a week. Last year I read roughly 37 books (a few I stopped because I just didn't have the time or I really loathed them). This year, I have to read 50 books.

I've been at The Challenge now for nearly a month. I've written 22,509 total this month. I have three short stories completed, one of which I'm polishing up to get it out the door by 1/31. I've also read 6 books this month.

Currently, I'm reading Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton by Martin van Creveld (yes it's non-fiction, but it's for research purposes) and Green Angel by Alice Hoffman. I have until Sunday to finish one of those books, and I highly doubt it will be Supplying War.

My 5 minutes are up. Back to work. Wish me luck.