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.

My Favorite Things Tag

A new friend of mine tagged me in a post this tag post! It sounds super fun, too. And if you haven’t read anything from the Dino’s Digest blog, you definitely want to do so. That Dino is super hilarious!

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to and thank the person who tagged you.

2. Link back to and thank the blogger who created the tag.

3. List and picture seven of your favorite things.

4. Tag seven people—or as many as you can remember without straining your brain.

5. Use the picture above.

6. List the seven rules.

7. Have fun!

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I always feel better when I list some of my favorite things, so here they are. Since I’m not good with poetry, I’m not even going to try to make it musical or rhyming enough to sing along with the song. As tempting as that is. (Note: These are listed in the order I think of them, not necessarily in the order I like them best).

1. My husband. He’s cute, funny, annoying, and quite sweet when he tries to be (sometimes when he isn’t trying, too). And we just celebrated 13 months of married life!

2. Dark Chocolate with Nuts. This is one of my favorite snacks. I doesn’t matter if the chocolate is covering the nuts or you eat a chocolate chip and a nut together, or even if it’s a chocolate square heated up with some peanut butter and stirred together. It all tastes delicious!

3. Fall. It’s my favorite season of the year. The crunchy leaves, cool air, beautiful colors and the promise of winter (a tie for my second favorite season).

4. Writing. This should be a no-brainer guess for anyone who has read much on this blog. I love writing so much I made it my full-time job. And now I’m teaching writing part-time as well! And volunteering my time on two other websites where I help other writers. That’s just a taste of how much I love writing. Apparently I can’t get enough of it.

5. Helping people. This is probably one of my weaknesses actually, too. I tend to help other people more than I probably should. Which means I either stress myself out by doing too much or don’t get something else done that I should be doing.

6. Music. Whether playing piano, flute, or listening to music, I just love it. Specific kinds, though, since I’m a bit picky.

7. Family. I love my family whether my immediate family or now my in-laws as well.

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And there you have it. What are your 7 favorite things? I’m not going to tag anyone specific, but rather say if you have a blog and are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

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?

Sunshine Blogger Award

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I think I’ve done it before, but the questions are always different, so it’s fun each time. I hope you enjoy reading it.

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First off, I want to thank  Madeleine at The Introverted Raconteur for the tag a couple weeks ago. It was fun to read her post.

Now onto the questions!!!

Madeleine asked some tough, but fun questions. Here they are with my answers.

1. What are two superpowers you wish you had? (one practical and one extremely ridiculous!) My practical superpower would be real eyes in the back of my head so I can keep tabs on whomever I need to. The not-so-practical superpower would be invisibility. I’ve always thought it would be fun to be a fly on the wall in some meetings or something, so invisibility is about the closest I could get to that.
2. Are you currently writing a book? Share a little about it! No, I am not currently writing a book. I am currently writing one book and editing four others. Since I’m not ready to talk about the one I’m writing I’ll talk about the one I’m editing that is closest to publication. He Leadeth Me is the fourth and last in the Orphans of the West Series. It is about Gage Wilhelm and what he does after receiving the deed to his father’s farm. One of my beta-readers loved one of the relationships especially since it had some extra ups and downs many don’t have in books.
3. What is one piece of poetry that, when you read it, you go “oh my word that is me!”? Um, well, basically the only poetry I’ve read is the book of Psalms. And there are a few that make me feel that way, but especially Psalm 4:1: “Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; be gracious to me and hear my prayer.” There have been times when I felt that way.
4. What/who inspired you to start writing? That was so long ago, I really don’t know for sure. My mom, maybe?
5. Weirdest quote from a project of yours? These is only “weird” because it’s between two sisters:”Em, I know you are mad at me, but I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for years now.”
   Emmie turned around and glared at her. “Did you ever think that I changed my phone number for that very reason?”
6. Is there a book universe that you totally would visit, if possible? Ilyon from Jaye L. Knight’s Ilyon Chronicles series, but only after things get resolved. 😉
   
7. What is your most prized possession? Why? I would have to say my wedding ring because of the symbolism it holds as well as the fact that it means I am married to the most wonderful man on earth!
8. Who in your life has been the most influential when it comes to your faith journey? I would have to say my mom is. She was my schoolteacher throughout my life and she brought in the Bible in so many places, it was impossible NOT to grow.
9. What is the best movie you’ve ever seen? What did you love about it? Unidentified by Five and Two Pictures. I love it because of all the varying viewpoints they bring into the storyline while still keeping it Christian. I think the best part of the movie, though, is the fact that the main character is a struggling Christian. Someone who ends up not being sure he was ever truly saved to begin with.
10. What is the best piece of advice for writers you’ve heard? Stick with it. There will always be tough times in writing and especially editing. But if you stick with it, eventually you will reap the rewards for your effort.
11. What would you describe your writing style like? I’m going to steal my mom’s description of my writing style. It’s somewhere between Janette Oke and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

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!

 

Christmas in July, part two

Good morning, blog readers! I’m excited to talk to you again today. I know I’ve posted quite a bit this month. It’s unusual, but it’s been fun. Today, though, I have some exciting news! Not only do I have a mega-sale going on specially for the Christmas in July event, but I also have a book announcement to make! First, the sale.

Book Review: How I had Fun Writing 10 Novels in 13 Months: And How You Can Too by Sarah Addison-Fox

Title: How I had Fun Writing 10 Novels in 13 Months: And How You Can Too
Written By: Sarah Addison-Fox
Genre: Writing Helps/Non-fiction
Recommended Ages: Any

Introduction:

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?