May 2018 Fly-By Status Report – Gardening, PitMad and Pitch Wars take 2!

Hello, all! Can I just say that I freaking love late spring? It’s warm, things are growing, and down south it’s not too hot yet. We’ve also had a swath of glorious sunny, breezy days one after another, which got broken by rain JUST in time to water everything I’ve recently planted. Yeah, my coping with MomoCon stress mechanism has turned to gardening this year, as we just got some landscaping done and the time feels right.

Speaking of MomoCon, IT STARTS THIS WEEK, so I wanted to make sure I got this sucker out before it got completely shoved out of my brain.

And as I look back on the last five months, well…I’m not going to lie, I’m trying not to be down on myself for what I haven’t accomplished (which I’ll comment on below), and in retrospect to my last post, the incentive-based stuff hasn’t been working as well this year so far. But I’m still trying to be healthy and keep on my tasks in the midst of crazy life stuff. It’s discouraging that I didn’t hit many goals for this third, I’ll admit (again, see below), but I’m really trying not to beat myself up about it. Also the Star Wars vlog is still not happening because I can’t find my editing software disc, and I keep forgetting to do it on my old computer 🙁 But hopefully once MomoCon is over, I’ll have more brain space to spare for all that stuff. I’m also taking Camp Flix off this year, for more brain space. Plus, perfectionism is the thief of joy, and besides, I planted multiple garden plots and learned to play the ukulele, so I really shouldn’t be complaining!

SO, let’s see how I’ve been doing on my goals for Winter/Spring 2018. My long-term goals are still there, hovering, in the long-term category, pretty much unchanged since last time, so I don’t need to rehash them here. You can see them on the front page of this site.

Short Term

• Continue implementing my writing/editing/critique regimen and meet my Just-Get-It-Done-ASAP Draft 6 finish goal, hopefully by September 2018 (so I can take a month off to work on learning to play the piano and practice guitar more) – It’s slowed to a trickle. Thankfully I’ve gotten a few clarifying bursts of editing inspiration, and I’ve gone back to doing some on Book 2, even though it’s been SUPER slow going, but that’s all still a good thing.
• Keep bringing bits of my book to my writer’s group, and keeping the notes so I can eventually make a Draft 6.5 edit – I’m pretty bummed, because of all the mental stress recently, I haven’t had any extra energy to get out to my writer’s group and do all the reading of other people’s stuff that entails. I’m planning to get back into it this summer.
• Work on a few short stories (with photos) about my dollhouse dolls, something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time – I did a smidge of writing short stories for Camp NaNo this year, but I haven’t had those translate to anything concrete, especially not for the dollhouse project, which is a bummer.
• Finish as many craft projects as I can that I already started – A lot of my friends have been having kids, so I’ve taken on MORE projects, but thankfully they have deadlines, so most of them are done. One day I’ll get through my work pile!
• Add something to my Etsy shop, or put out at least one piece for Free Art Friday! – I have some #FAFATL I’m bringing to drop at MomoCon, so if you plan to be there or near there, watch my Instagram!

Okay, with that out of the way, here are my plans for the next few months:

Mainly, other than house organizing stuff which never ends, along with work, trying to be more mindfully healthy, and my ongoing craft and ukulele/tiny guitar obsession, I’m going to try for Pitch Wars again this year! They have a PitMad Twitter submission thing coming up in June, and the giant mentor pitch will be happening this August, so when you hear from me again, I’ll be waiting hopefully to see if I get mentored! And everything else I succeed in is gravy! See you in September!