Tag: Milestones

Meme created by Erin Penn

The year is 2022, and it has been a long two years. 

Taxes have ran long – like really long, for several years. Basically I’ve done three years of taxes in two years. Then I had to job hunt to qualify for the unemployment bonus, and unlike every other time I went looking for a real job when I hungered for one, this time, burnt out and just wanting a break after taxes, I actually found one in 2020 and started working for the post office on the weekends for all those packages people have been ordering. The result is lots of work and no free time.

The writing has suffered.

Editing, not as much, but not much is getting done either. I did some amazing editing in 2020, but everyone’s creative juices have been drained (including my own) dealing with the uncertainty of COVID life so very little was edited in 2021. Due to pipeline processes, the 2020 editing arrived in 2021 as published books. I need to update my book list to show the amazing authors I’ve worked with. I’m hoping to get back into the editing game again in 2022, but we shall see.

This year will be a digging out year. Cleaning house, keeping up with the bills, and, maybe, shaking enough of the tax and package delivery slog off to write a bit. I’m not going to set up resolutions this year, or beat myself up for failure if unsuccessful.

The big goal will be a simple 500 words per day and/or catching up with a blog posting per day. This post is the start. Hopefully not the end.

May the year bring accomplishment and contentment to one and all.

Meme created by Erin Penn

Happy New Year! 2020, can you believe it?

Time for those New Year Resolutions and Reviews. I started all of this way back on November 11, 2011. Some years have been better than others, but I’ve become more consistent every year. Even so, I’ve left a lot of Unfinished Objects in my wake. It’s gotten so bad I focused on UFOs for NaNoWriMo and hit 50,000 words in 2019 – and still didn’t actually FINISH anything.

This is the year to Finish Things. It’s the year of the Metal Rat (starting January 25) – ambition, persistence, determination, luck, wealth, and cleverness. I will keep up, and I will finish things I start in this auspicious year.

First, the website/blog, which is more an ongoing than finishable item. It keeps me honest, keeps me coming back.

The production schedule for 2020 shall be:

1. Sunday – A flash story. Week 1 will be expanding an old flash, Week 2 will be my old D&D stories until they are gone, Week 3 will be a Text Flash, and Week 4 a Visual Flash. Months with a 5th Sunday will have long flashes.
2. Tuesday – Will continue the cycle of Book Reviews, Editing Rants, Author Spotlights, and Writing Exercises. With the 5th Tuesday being my arts when I remember to take pictures.
3. Thursday – Links to other people and information. Still working my way through Magical Words the first week, pictures and quotes the second week, Geeking Science the third week, and Other Cool Blogs the fourth week. Random commentary happens the fifth week.

Second, is the new Patreon and Vlog. Again, this is an ongoing activity.

1. Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/ErinPenn) levels each have an Early Access and an Exclusive Access bonus.
2. Patreon Master ($1 or more a month) gets the fiction posts one week early, which means I have to have them prepped a week earlier that I think. They also get a monthly exclusive post from the present work in progress (WIP) or a flash expansion. These will NOT be published on the website. – That is an extra 1,000 words to do a month – a great encouragement to keep a WIP active at all times. (Especially since the Patreon Nobel gets an ADDITIONAL 1,000 words of the WIP every month.)
3. Patreon Knight ($3 or more) get to see the Editing Rant EARLY and they also get an EXCLUSIVE quarterly Q&A video to answer any of questions asked by patreons.
4. Patreon Nobel and Royals get access to books as they are released, which means I need to have books released.

So quick recap for First and Second to think about what I am getting into:

Four flashes a month with an additional nine posts per month (total 13), a video per month, another video per quarter, and 2,000 words from a WIP in two separate postings separate from the blog.

Right, so what else do I want to add to that?

Not a newsletter. John Hartness and others swear by them, but it just doesn’t feel right to me at this time. Maybe I’ll try it again another year. 

Conventions? With my present commitment playing politics, 2020 is not the year to commit to additional conventions. SAGA by Falstaff and ConCarolinas is all I am willing to commit to at this time on the writing side of things. (And an additional eight, so far, for politics, ugh. – Vote. It’s important. Vote Local, Vote State, Vote Federal. Every step, every year.)

Anthologies/Short Story submissions. I entered two short stories last year and got both published. But I never seem to get my act together for the anthologies. With the addition of the Vlog this year, I think I will let these slide this year. Three will hover around on my list, but I am going to not beat myself up if I don’t make it.

And that leaves, ta-da, actual books. Guess I should write something which can make money, huh? I got a stack in my UFO pile: The Small Courages of Giants, Write Good, Cons of Romance, First Officer, The Autumn Tree, …

So Third, clear at least two UFOs from my pile. I want more that that. I would like a book every quarter. That will be a bonus, the third book.

And this will all be done by Fourth, BIC every day I can. 500 words of sellable (WIP) material and 500 words of other material.

Thanks everyone for your support. 

May you have a great new year and travel well.

Working hard on getting a good website before ConCarolinas.

Goal – website before June 2016 (for ConCarolinas)

Milestone – have a website!