Happy New Year! A sneak peek into my goals for 2019

How has a year gone by already? It seems like just a month ago that we were talking about resolutions and goals and now we’re doing it again.

If you’ve followed me for very long, you’ll know that I don’t personally do resolutions. I do goals. Every single month. But I also do them for the year. So how did I do last year? (You can read the whole post here).

Piano

I didn’t do very well with these goals. I was able to perfect some hymn arrangements, but not the other two songs. I never made enough time for piano practice which is something I aim to change this year.

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December 2018 Goals

It snowed! It’s so pretty out here. Of course, it’s supposed to be 37 degrees tomorrow which is actually yesterday from when this posts, but anyway.

How was your November? Mine was busy, but great! Our upstairs bedroom is making progress. The closet is fully finished and we have the bedroom close to ready. All it needs is sanding, painting, and organizing. I have an app on my phone that can create a floor plan, so I have the rough idea of how I want to arrange it.

November 2018 Goals

Who here can truly believe that October is over? I know I can’t. It seems like yesterday that it had started.

BUT, I got a ton done this October and I’m super excited to see what November brings.

• Get LHAR ready for publication including a cover reveal and small blog tour (Done! Except I didn’t do the cover reveal with a tour, just by myself)
• Finish Christmas story edits and send to proofreaders (DONE!)
• ROA edits #3 and send to content editor (Done! Now to go through said edits)
• Get upstairs bedroom ready to paint (Not done)
• Work on Un Sospiro (I have totally neglected this song for far too long and now it’s time to get the Christmas music out. Oh well.)
• Exercise at least 3 times per week (DONE! At least mostly, I think.)
• Outline Soldiers of the West #1 (DONE!!!!!!! And I get to write it now!)

October 2018 Goals

It’s fall!!!!! I love fall. The crunchy leaves, the cool air, getting to wear my new comfy hoodie sweatshirt. It’s all wonderful. It’s also much more pleasant to take walks in cool weather than hot and humid weather. Oh, and my birthday is in the fall. As is my husband’s, so that could be one extra reason I suppose. 😉 What is your favorite season of the year?

Okay, so now that my autumn lovin’ is over, let’s get on to some goals! I did an okay job with my goals. I definitely bombed some of those. Life tends to do that to a person I suppose. But anyway, here’s an update on my September goals:

September 2018 Goals

Tomorrow it will have been a year. One year since I married the love of my life. Time flies very quickly, doesn’t it? My August was busy, but very good! I got a lot of work done both in the house and also on my books.

• Go through HLM proofreader edits and send to formatters DONE! And proof copy ordered!
• LHaR edit #4 and send to proofreaders Done!
• Edit #1 of Christmas stories, send to beta-readers, and then edit #2 Done!
• Finish writing The Haven of Rest Done! And I can’t wait to work on editing it.
  
• Work on book covers with Perry I ended up needing to find a new cover designer, but we have the book covers almost figured out! Be watching for a cover reveal soon.
• Work on novella release Done!
• Polish up the first 4 pages of Un Sospiro and start working on pages 5 and 6 This is one thing I didn’t get much done on. I have the first 4 pages fairly well polished and started working on page 5, but not much with page 6.
• Exercise at least 3 times per week Done!

September Goals

And for this month, I have a slightly shorter list, but some of these things will take some time.

• LHAR final edits and send to formatter
• Work on Orphans of the West blog tour
• Christmas story edits #3-5
• ROA edits #3-4
• Get upstairs bedroom ready to paint
• Work on pages 6 and 7 of Un Sospiro
• Exercise at least 3 times per week

What are your goals this month?

August 2018 Goals

Happy August! Summer is almost over. Of course, here in Wisconsin, August is usually the most consistently hot of the summer, but I’m curious to see what this one is like since the other months have been so weird.

How was your July? Mine was pretty busy. If you are a newsletter subscriber, you’ll have seen this picture before, but I thought I would share it with the rest of you, too.

It was a busy, but fun month. And I wrote an average of more than 1,000 words each day! Which means my total for the month went over my goal of 25,000 words by over 6,000 words! It’s been a great month of me trying to be more consistent and intentional in my writing. Doing these blog posts has been a great help to me.

What else did I accomplish? Well, here’s the list I made at the beginning of July and how well I did with each.

• Edits #2 and #3 of Lo, How a Rose (Done!)
  
• Finish writing rough draft of Christmas story collection (Done by July 17th)
• If those stories don’t reach my 25,000 word goal, start writing The Haven of Rest (Done, and 2/3rd through – as it stands, I think this might be the shortest of the series)
  
• Continue working on Un Sospiro and get past the 4th page (Mostly done, I got past the 4th page, but it’s not polished up yet)
• Finish beta-reading Bitter Winter (Done! And it’s really good!)
  
• Continue WWI research (Done, though not as much as I should have)
• Stay cool!! (Done! The last week or so, I’ve even had to wear hoodies to stay warm. Like I said, it’s been a weird year weather-wise)

August Goals

• Go through HLM proofreader edits and send to formatters
• LHaR edit #4 and send to proofreaders
• Edit #1 of Christmas stories, send to beta-readers, and then edit #2
• Finish writing The Haven of Rest
• Work on book covers with Perry
• Work on novella release
• Polish up the first 4 pages of Un Sospiro and start working on pages 5 and 6
• Exercise at least 3 times per week

I’d love to help encourage you in your goals. Feel free to comment here with them, or email them to me using the contact form. Have a great month!

 

July 2018 Goals

How is your summer going? As I write this, we’re in the middle of a two-day heat wave with a heat advisory. I’m happy I can be inside all day. There are some days I really appreciate my job.

I managed to do almost all of my goals.

• Outline Cinderella retelling Done! Plus doing another outline!
• Start hardcore research for WWI Done!
• Finish Rock of Ages draft 1, edit and prep to send to beta-readers Done! And sent it to the beta-readers
• Finish editing He Leadeth Me and send to proofreaders Done!
• Start figuring out Christmas story ideas for Christmas collection (optional) Done!
• Perfect the songs in the new piano book Not done, but I had a reason for it. My wrists hurt too much to play songs with lots of octaves, so I started working on Un Sospiro by Liszt instead.
• Finish reading and review at least 3 books Done!

As for my goals for July, they are a little more simple since I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo again.

July Goals

• Edits #2 and #3 of Lo, How a Rose
• Finish writing rough draft of Christmas story collection
• If those stories don’t reach my 25,000 word goal, start writing The Haven of Rest
• Continue working on Un Sospiro and get past the 4th page
• Finish beta-reading Bitter Winter
• Continue WWI research
• Stay cool!!

Do you have any goals for July?

June 2018 (and a cover reveal!)

Is it just me or did May just completely fly by without hardly touching the ground? I cannot believe we are already into June. What’s even more unbelievable is that Bill and I will have been married 9 months tomorrow. How can time have gone by so fast?

Anyway, enough about that. This post is about goals, so I should probably get to those. I got almost all of the goals done. Here’s the complete list:

May 2018 Goals

Happy May! A month ago, I said that April in Wisconsin could mean either temperatures of 70 or we could get snow. Well, we got both. Over 30″ of snow this month, including one weekend snowstorm where we got about 20″! Then yesterday, the temps got to 77 degrees! Talk about crazy weather.

My goals for April were:

• Finish Lo, How a Rose (Tales of the East #2) Done!
• Start and finish Rock of Ages (Tales of the East #3) Almost done!
• Finish Trust and Obey edits #2-4 and send to proofreaders Mostly done!
• Send Rachel’s blog tour info and promote it Done!
• Get audiobooks ready for publication and set publication date Done!

May Goals

• Finish editing Trust and Obey and send to proofreaders
• Finish writing Rock of Ages
• Start editing Lo, How a Rose and send to beta-readers
• Finish 2 edits of He Leadeth Me
• Audiobook Release

What goals do you have for this month?

 

April 2018 Goals

Happy April! Spring is just about here. Of course, in Wisconsin, that can mean just about anything. We might have more snow yet sometime this month, or it might get up to 70 degrees (Fahrenheit).

All in all, March was a good month for me. I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would with my goals, but I did do some other things instead. Instead of the HLM and T&O edits, I got the house a bit more organized. There is still some organizing to do, but I feel good about how much I was able to do.

How was your month? What is the weather like where you are?

• Continue work on compilations (done!)
• Rewrite Tales of the East #2 (the new #2) (Partially done. 13,000+ words have been written; about 2/3rds through)
• Finish HLM edits #2 and #3 (Decided not to do this)
• Finish T&O edits #2 and #3 (Decided not to do this)
• Pick recital pieces and perfect them (done!)

April Goals

• Finish Lo, How a Rose (Tales of the East #2)
• Start and finish Rock of Ages (Tales of the East #3)
• Finish Trust and Obey edits #2-4 and send to proofreaders
• Send Rachel’s blog tour info and promote it
• Get audiobooks ready for publication and set publication date

Do you have any goals for April? I’d love to hear them.