Writing Progress
Anything that documents my writing process.
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January 2022 Fly-By Status Report ā So we’re still in a pandemic, okay…I kinda wish it would snow…I need a cup of tea before I can start editing…
Well hi! Smiley day to ya! Why yes, I have been watching a lot of Critical Role lately, and no, I’m not procrastinating, why? Why would you even say that? I’m hurt. My new writing deadline to submit to an editor is April, which evens out to editing roughly a chapter a day if I play my cards right. But as I get closer to the end and I’m staring at a bunch of loose threads, I don’t think I’m gonna always be able to measure by chapter, there will be lots of jumping around and organizing data to make sure I finish everything up as neatly as possible. Which…
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September 2021 Fly-By Status Report ā The State of the Art
Ahoy there! Just swinging by to update you on what’s been going on since my last report. View this post on Instagram A post shared by PuellaDocta's Minlandia (@myminlandia) The Etsy shop sales went slowly this summer, even as I was investigating other selling avenues that haven’t panned out yet, so I decided to take a break until Dragon Con got closer. I’ll come back to Dragon Con a little bit later in the post, but if you haven’t followed Sunlit Nook on Instagram or Facebook you totally should! I’m taking a break from MomoCon this year. Because of COVID Delta shenaniganery they decided to postpone til winter, and I…
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January/February 2021 Fly-By Status Report ā 2021 Vision
Well, looks like I totally blew past my Fall/Winter 2020 Status Report. I think because nothing really changed in the goal department for 6 months! What even did I want to do *consults last post*…OH YEAH apparently I got rid of my agenda thing cuz it was boring. Good idea. So here’s what I’ve been up to, and what I hope to achieve! The Etsy shop is doing pretty well! Still not making a ton, but I am making a little money from it, and I’m having fun, so that’s all that matters! I’ve been doodling more with my Wacom tablet, and I designed the shrinky dink Japanese heart jewelry…
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January-March 2020 Fly-By Status Report ā Creating in a Time of Coronavirus
Hello everyone! I’m sitting on my couch, where I do most of my work & editing, and I’m here with my cats and Wervyn, and despite the coronavirus spreading outside, with this social distancing we’re in introvert heaven! But I was having a lot of anxiety for the last couple of weeks; in addition to not knowing if I was going to have enough groceries, my church office coworkers and I were scrambling to get everything together for live-streaming Sunday services, which was mad hectic. But I’m taking off work till April 1, and we have enough food, so I’m feeling a lot better already! And with the open schedule,…
- About the Author, Blog, Love Letters, My Creations, Reflections, Slice of Life, Traditional Art, Writing Progress
September/October 2019 Fly-By Status Report ā My First Tattoo Experience! (Iām a Grown-Up Hobbit, Part 2)
Posting a month late, twice in one year? Hey, come on, I always have a good reason! This time, I was waiting til a very specific wound healed so I could get a good photo. That is, I took my temporary tattoo idea I mentioned in my January Fly-By Status Report, and made it permanent! I couldn’t shake my desire for one, even though I had some reservations, but finally decided I should just go for it! So I got my first real tattoo the year of my 33rd birthday after all! (If you’re confused or feel like you’re missing context, read the post here.) So what does the tattoo…
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May 2019 Fly-By Status Report ā Same Old, Same Old
Well, it’s blog o’clock again! I feel like I have so much going on right now that I don’t want to stop and analyze what has and hasn’t gotten done! But I’ll do my best, in the name of tracking progress! I honestly felt like I’ve been floundering; since I returned from a trip and got sick, I haven’t been doing great with my SMART goals. I always seem to have something big that makes me lose momentum, and it takes me forever to get back into the swing of things. ? MomoCon is fast approaching, and for once this year it isn’t stressing me out because I’m not the…
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January/February 2019 Fly-By Status Report ā I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit (I’ll explain)
In December last year, I turned 33! Sure, cool number and everything, multple of 11 and whatnot, but it’s also a special age for Tolkien nerds like me. Because in the Middle-earth universe, when a hobbit turns 33, it means they’re considered an adult. And to celebrate, I designed my own temporary tattoo and bought a whole sheet of them! (I’m still not keen on getting something that hurts, that will never go away and that will only blur over time on my skin.) I made a post about it on Instagram discussing its significance to me: View this post on Instagram …
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September 2018 Fly-By Status Report ā VLOG (Happy Early Talk Like A Pirate Day!)
Doing my tri-yearly update as a live vlog just to shake things up! And HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY a day early! Things I talked about (which will open in a new browser window): 0:42 – Star Wars Party vlog status 1:31 – Gardening 2:07 – Camp Flix 2:21 – MomoCon 2:40 – Writer’s Group & Critique Help 3:34 – CrossCode Let’s Play Series – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ankDi… 4:02 – Dragon Con & The State of Vlogging 4:48 – Pitch Wars, Editing My Novel, Writing Schedule & December Writing Hiatus 6:09 – Things I’m Planning to Do & Stuff I Have Done 6:26 – Ukulele & Singing 6:40 – New Twitch…
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May 2018 Fly-By Status Report ā 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…
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Camp NaNoWriMo 2018!
I always think about it every year, but haven’t done much NaNoWriMo of any kind recently, until a few days ago, aĀ good writer friend of mine said she was wondering if I’d be doing Camp this year, because she was eager for an accountability partner. And I originally said no, until remembered that I haven’t gotten NEARLY as much writing done as I’d hoped to, because of work, and MomoCon prep and more work (I swear, I have the worst memory of how much time all this stuff takes). And because of this I’ve had a spike in situational depression because by the time my work day was over…
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January 2018 Fly-By Status Report ā I joined a writer’s group!
Greetings, readers! Nice to see you on the other end of Christmas & New Years! Finally. Dang, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to put my thoughts and hopes for this year in blog post form yet, til now, when January is ALMOST OVER! (I’m curious, who actually reads these updates, or are they pretty much just for me? If you do, leave a comment and say hi!) Right now I’m typing to the dulcet sounds of workmen trimming the giant tree in my front yard (buzz saws and thuds on my roof), and now that I finally got WordPress to upload images again (ugghh),Ā it’s time for myĀ January…
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NaNoEdMo Vlogs Almost Halfway Through!
If you haven’t watched my daily vlog series–happening this month on my editing process of Draft 6 of Sign of the Redwing–they’re not very long, so they’re easy to catch up on! ^_^
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September 2017 Fly-By Status Report ā I have con crud, but summer was great!
Good day and well-met! I’m feeling geeky, I just got back from Dragon Con and bought a whole USB of the Brobdingnagian Bards’ music, so that’s what I’ll be listening to, and eating pumpkin chili while we get our roof replaced as I fight off a cold and make millions of phone callsĀ ?Ā (“Oh, is that all?” I can hear you saying through the computer.) SO, how was the last three months? Busy, yet surprisingly chill! One gigantic highlight was seeing the total solar eclipse, which I made a vlog of, and you should totally watch it! As for writing, I’ve had a lot of success breaking things down into smaller…
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May 2017 Fly-By Status Report ā Just Keep Swimming!
It’s time for another Fly-By Status report! And I’m up to my waist in MomoCon directing duties. But omg, we’re already a third into 2017! Dang, where does the time go? And I feel like I have very few brain cells to even process this blog post with everything going on right now. However, one of my part-time jobs just ended, so I have more time to do everything else I’ve been too busy to work on (in theory). SO, did I achieve my goals for the past 4 months? Long Term Doing some hardcore outlining and rewriting the style ofĀ my YA fantasy novelĀ Sign of the Redwing in preparation forĀ an…
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Jan. 2017 Fly-By Status Report ā My Favorite Time of the Year
Merry Christmas and Happy 2017! I’m still over here celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, doing a lot of nothing, and baking ^_^ But it’s that time again to think about all the things I want to do next year that I didn’t do this year. I’m pretty enthused for a fresh start! Last year about this time, I wrote my 2016 New Years resolutions on a red Starbucks cup. Lots of good intentions, but the ones that really, truly happened and stuck wereĀ landingĀ my perfect job situation, as well as taking significant and progressive steps to getting more physically and spiritually healthy <3 Of course, there’s always more to…
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Sept. 2016 Fly-By Status Report ā Super-Charged Summer
*careens into blog, hair flying, adjusting glasses* Whew! Hey guys! How was your summer? Mine was great, and relentlessly busy, including 4 trips in 4 months, getting an additional part-time job, and being in a play! Which, in addition to regular life stuff, means I had no extra mental space for blogging! I know it’s the last day of September, and I want to get my tri-annual update in to keep myself honest. So let’s see how much I got done that I wanted to do. Here’s my Summer Agenda 2016 plans from my home page. If itās crossed out, it means itās finished, or Iāve edited the original plan,…
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May 2016 Fly-By Status Report – I GOT A REAL JOB!
Yes, you read thatĀ right: IĀ GOT A REAL JOB! The ultimate happy dance! |Ā via GIPHY It’s a part-time administrative and communication assistant job, which is only a few hours a week, and a few minutes away from my house (YAAAAAY), so hopefully that means I can structure my life around that to get some stability for my creative work! I start today, and I’m really excited to see how it goes! Also, hi, I haven’t seen you since Easter! I’ve been super busy working, arting, volunteering, story researching…in fact, that’s why I decided to do tri-yearlyĀ status reports. I figure, if I haven’t bloggedĀ or vlogged in a while, I want to make…
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Post-Hiatus! Draft 6 Edit Process in review
Well, that was a lovely hiatus, but I figured I’d come back š It’s been four months, after all! It was such a beautiful morning when I started writing this post, I had to wander into my yard and take some photos of daffodils glowing in the early, rising sun. It so beautifully represented a fresh start to an exciting new year, hence the flower picture for this post’s header. A lot has happened during my hiatus, even in the past few days (some good, some frustrating) but I’m happy to report that despite various time sucks and fluctuating motivation, my writing hiatus was very successful! Regardless of what I…
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WRITING UPDATE in the time of Hiatus
HAPPY 2016!!!! The last two months have been stuffed with writing and celebrating. After successfully winning NaNoWriMo in November, I edited one of the short stories I wrote during that month, and submitted it to theĀ Writerās Digest Short Short Story Contest, right before my 30th birthday in December! I’m 2-3 for my writing goals! I printed out Draft 5 of my Sign of the Sparrow novelĀ on Dec. 30, and I’m currently editing it to give to my editor friend in March! Editing is so hard. So much to weave in and yet streamline. One thing at a time. Need a hot drink. #author #amediting #amwritingfantasy ā Call Me Christina (@puelladocta)…
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The Status of the Writing & Hiatus Notice
Hey guys! I’ll just start this out by saying that from November 1 to February 1, I’m not going to be forcing myself to make aĀ blog or vlogĀ entry every month, unless the mood strikes or I feel like posting an update on my work. I have a lot of writing stuff on my plate coming up! November is NaNoWriMo, and during December (besides Christmas and birthday) and January I’m going to be editing Sign of the Sparrow and preparing my query letter for hardcore submitting. I’ve only queried two agents, and got rejected by both, and I wantĀ to make up for lost time. —EDITED 10/27/15—Also, I’ll be submitting one of…
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Dear Awkward August
Dear August, Do you know how freaking awkwardĀ you are? Especially this year, you just feel really, reallyĀ awkward. I have nothing against you, August, at all. Some of my favorite people have birthdays this month! But being theĀ plannerĀ that I am, I sometimes find myself impatient for the next thing: the next big holiday or event, the next trip, or the next phase of a project. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, it’s just how my mind naturally tends to process, but as a result I’ve really been trying to make myself stop and enjoy the time I’m in at the moment. It’s a very intentional thing and isn’t always easy. So,…
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Summer in Review & Looking Ahead
AT LAST, a post! This is what I’ve been up to, and why I’ve been so busy! BG music: āPorch Swing Daysā by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) LINKS to cool stuff: Follow my writing progress: http://puelladocta.com/writings/ Art portfolio coming soon! Cosplay Comission coming soon! FinnyPuppet’s tumblr: http://finnypuppet.tumblr.com/ Dragon*Con Tolkien Track site: http://middleearth.dragoncon.org/ Check out the movie my group made at Camp Flix this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQNdDqCAoYI Original Maleficent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p78C3dmLI_c&feature=youtu.be AWA cut of Maleficent video coming soon!
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BACK UP YOUR WORK, a lament {UPDATED}
Come all my dear computer lovers And take a warning how you work If you don’t save your efforts elsewhere It will be there, and then it’s gone. I wish I’d known before I’d lost it Time I had left, my files to move For when it died, without a warning It left me here in grief to moan. Inspired by Jim Moray’s “Fair and Tender Lovers.” On Valentine’s Day, I opened my laptop, signed in, the screen was on for a few seconds, and no sooner had I plugged in my headphones, it completely turned off. No blue screen, no pop up error warnings, just black. With a whirr…
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2015 Writing Plans!!!
I’ve got my writing projects all planned out for the year! For those of you who don’t want to watch the video, here’s the run-down: January 1 – 31: Plan out entire Lottie/Tales of Thoglan Series (ToTS) February 1 – March 13: Finish revisions on ToTS Book 1 March 16 – May 15: Start 1st draft of ToTS Book 2 (90-120 thou. words) May 18 – August 18: Start researching/writing myths and fairy tales for retold anthologies August 24 – September 30: Write Draft 2 of ToTS Book 2 October 1 – 31: Work on anthologies again November 1 – 30: Write ToTS Book 3 during NaNoWriMo December 1 –…
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NaNoWriMo, Thankful, and Christmas AdvenTea
I update you on my most recent things, go over some of the biggest things I’m thankful for, and announce an excited string of Christmas videos, and it involves tea! Thanks to an awesome present from my father-in-law, I’m doing a tea advent calendar on my Youtube Channel. I’m posting them in a playlist, which you’ll find below. Enjoy!
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Interview by M.G. Boal
I’m so honored that my favorite author cousin M.G. Boal interviewed me on his blog! He asks me about my plans for this year’s NaNoWriMo, as well as my success tactics for new NaNo-ers. Here’s an excerpt: M: Welcome! As you and I know, National Novel Writing Month is coming up in 3 days. So in honor of that, I thought Iād ask if thereās anything you can tell me about your planned novel. C: Uh, well, itās sort of a magical, steampunky story, set in Victorian London. An orphan girl named Mindie wants to work with flowers more than anything else in the world, because her family did before…
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Keeping my writing alive, even though I’m busy!
I lament at the lack of writing and editing I've done recently, but I share in 3 steps how I plan to change that, and how you can too. I again sing the praises of National Novel Writing Month, and share my list of editing plans. Click the blog header to read more.
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Confessions of an Insecure Author* (Post #200!)
*I know, pretty much all you authors out there are. š So, come commiserate with me. So,Ā LaborĀ DayĀ weekend was a roller coaster for my writing emotions. For the first part of the weekend, we spent some time with friends at a beautiful farm house inn. I went to sleep to the sounds of thunder storms or barking farm dogs (kept there to chase off coyotes) and woke up to the misty mornings of sweet, quiet open space, punctuatedĀ by rooster calls. We ate breakfast in the common room with the other guests, and I met a fellow tea lover and tea pot collector at the hot drink bar, who told me she’s…
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Vlogs that I forgot to post on here
Remember how I used to have a Youtube video importing pluginĀ that stopped importing my vlogs a number of months ago? Yeah. That was fun. As I’m updating my site I have to go back, delete the random vlogs I don’t really want on here (they’ll still be up on my Youtube channel) and re-embed the ones I do want, cuz I just got sick of the plugin. SO, in honor of Throwback Thursday, I’m posting some of these older ones from this year and the end of last year, which I really like a lot, but never made it here. They’re posted from most to least recent. Do enjoy!
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My Writing Process (Blog Tour)
Thanks to the adorable and very talented Sarah Shotts, I’ve been tagged to participate in The Great Blog Tour, aiming to make a web of authors that stretches as wide as the internet is long! I’m so honored to be included, and I’m excited to talk about my writing process (and to show off some cool pictures I took for the question headers)!Ā So, shall we begin? ā¢~~~ā¢~~~ā¢~~~ā¢~~~ā¢ Since late middle school/early high school, I’ve been building my own fantasy world filled with characters, which has grown and changed throughout the years, as I have. I worked on it tirelessly, until college, only pausing to focus on my studies, with just…
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House, Agents and NaNoWriMo
I give you a quick glimpse of the front of my new place, and share recent writing news…what little of it there is right now š
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Changes and Challenges
Dear Readers, I’m so sorry that my busy schedule has consumed my life and only allows me time for quick tweets and occasional Vines. Those on social networks will already know exactly why. We bought a house! It’s beautiful and it even has a studio building in the back that we plan to use for storage and I’ll use it for a writing, artsy retreat once I get it inhabitable, but my life has now been consumed with all the logistical details of home ownership, leaving me very little mental energy for things oft thrown to the back burner (including fixing up the bugs on this site). I at least…
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Captive Vlogging (Finally!)
When Panger decides to take a nap on me, I finally get back into vlogging after a 3-month hiatus š
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VEDA 2013 – Day #29: Winning!
Finished my Camp NaNoWriMo novel a day early! W00t! Now I am tired.
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VEDA 2013 – Day #24: Pushing Past the Boredom
Why do I feel bored writing my NaNo novel?
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VEDA 2013 – Day #19: Worldbuilding & Ideas (Podcast)
Second and last in the series of old podcasts getting posted to Youtube for posterity!
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VEDA 2013 – Day #18: Can You Ever Stop Being a Writer? (Podcast)
Happy Amateur Radio Day! Finally posting the first of two podcasts I recorded in 2010, which I want to put on here for posterity since the podcast seriously fell out of use.
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VEDA 2013 – Day #14: Giving Myself a Pep Talk…Rant…Thing
*sings* Da da da-da-da Day four-teen! I’m actually not exhausted so I’m able to ramble for a while AND still carry the topic with gusto without too many pauses!
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VEDA 2013 – Day 7: Deliberation vs. Discovery
Planning your writing projects is always good, but writing is a process of discovery. Easy to forget ^_^
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VEDA 2013 – Day 4: Agents and Tiny Chocolate Bunnies
Playing with tiny chocolate bunnies is more fun than shopping my book around.
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VEDA 2013 – Day 3: Hurting My Characters
I run errands, get frustrated at “The Name of the Wind” (but that just means IT’S REALLY GOOD!!!), make goat noises, mishear lyrics, and talk about how hard it is for me to heap hardships upon my characters.
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VEDA 2013 – Day 2: In Which Much Writing Occurs
I love being ahead of the curve! We’re also reading a really mathy book. And the cat is adorable.
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Two Weekends of Awesome! (And Writing Advice from Maureen Johnson & Stephanie Perkins)
Since I don’t yet have a smart phone, which makes it really hard to live tweet, I need to play a lot of catch up with the cool things that have happened lately! And since I myself have a hard time reading long blogs, I’m going to try to make it short. If you don’t care and want to skip to the writing advice, there ya go. This past weekend I worked MomoCon! A yearly tradition now, but this year I got to do social media for the entire con, posting to Facebook and more often Twitter about all the cool events. This allowed me to go where regular con-goers…
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With a Little Help From Nostalgia
ast night, right before bed, I found myself in that cozy, soft realm between sleep and awake. During that time for me, walls tend to come down. Thankfully the lights were still on and my hubby was next to me playing a mindless game on my iPod, so I found myself talking about what was on my heart: my writing. It hasn’t been going to plan lately. Of course, man makes his plans in vain, but I’ve been trying to write, really I have. It always gets brushed off with the chores of the day. Plus, the revolving computer wallpaper of disapproving actors and writers telling me I should be…
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Hiding
I can’t stay in bed all day because I’m overwhelmed with life. Also finally trying to climb on the HD bandwagon.
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Agents, Writings, and Other Stuff
Wherein I discuss hearing back from the agent I talked to at the writing conference, I talk about how much I’ve written on Book 2, and some potpourri.
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Making Good
All right! After a few weeks to start getting a few of my health/house maintenance resolutions in order, this week I’m starting Phase 2 of the plan: adding in 4 hours of writing and 2 hours of freelance work a day on top of that. This entry is short to keep me on the move today, and once it is posted will serve to keep me accountable to myself. This means REALLY starting to think of everything I want to get done as a full-time job, even though I’m my own boss, and can be a very lax one at that. But this is exactly what I need, a schedule…
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Happy 2013! (and 2012 Year in Review)
I think back on all the progress I’ve made this past year and share my plans for the new year! And show off the t-shirts I got for birthday and Christmas.
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I WON NANOWRIMO!
Yaaaay I won! I’ve been posting my victory all over Twitter, FB, G+ and Tumblr pages, and I just wanted to post something here. I’ve tried doing National Novel Writing Month for years, but I’ve always been too busy and never got very far. Also, I wasn’t going in all the way. I wanted to continue work on my novels I’d already started, and just write all new stuff for it. But it just never worked somehow, But this year, this year I decided I was tired of my old novels and decided to give my brain a break by writing anything I wanted. That was the magical decision, because…
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Best Anniversary Gift Ever
My husband got me the most wonderful anniversary present a writer could ever dream of! Oh, and vote š
