Happy New Year

More to celebrate coming soon. :D

So, the new year has begun and we are six days into it.  I could say I was busy as an excuse for not posting before now, but that wouldn’t be true.  Yes, I am working.  But not full-time.  As long as I’m in school, I’ll be working part-time hours just to have the extra study time.

In all honesty, I haven’t posted since November, maybe October.  Not because of work or seeking work,but because I have not felt like writing anything.  I barely managed to get through NaNoWriMo and most of that was due to the fact that I was doing a lot of writing in English Comp and my teacher was cheering me on in class as well as encouraging me to help others.  He’s an English major and thought I did well in my writing and better in my editing.

The primary reason for not writing or posting is simply stress over how I was going to meet bills and the huge amount of worry I was under.  Thankfully, I’m back with Wal-Mart as a cashier, now, so there’s income and they are doing well to give me my days off together when they can and as many hours as possible while working around my class schedule and Colin’s therapy day.

Between classes and work, finding time to write hasn’t been easy, but I do have time, just no weekends to go write-ins or much else.  Thankfully, the stress and worry about the bills, especially rent, is lifting.  All I need now is for tax time to roll around so I can use the refund to get my rent caught up again and the power bill current.  Then, maybe, I get the medical stuff took care of though I may do a fund-raiser type thing to help with that.  I've a few sites in mind which are reputable.

With the worst stress lowered, I feel like writing, but now I need to reacquaint myself with the characters and plots.  Which starts the whole process over again.  *flails*

So, I am setting myself a couple of goals for the year since I didn't sign up for #Writemotivation this month.

Holy Mackerel! That’s more than two goals!

1) Finish current edits on SoNL and get at least one round of beta/critiques done on the full manuscript.  stretch goal: two to three rounds of beta/critiques.

2) Finish editing on Test of Ascension and one round of beta/critique.  (18+ if interested in this one)  stretch goal: three rounds of beta/critique and submission to Smashwords or other site for publication under my net name.

3) Finish rough draft of Black Friday 2.  stretch goal: finish rough draft and one round of edits (not counting the spell and grammar check)

4) Finish edits/rewrite of Black Friday (book one).  stretch goal: finish edits/rewrite and submit for republication.

5) Lose 20 pounds and stick to some kind of exercise program.  stretch goal: Lose 50 pounds and stick to an exercise program.

6) Be more active in Colin and Adam’s lives.  stretch goal: Take the boys on a real vacation we will all enjoy.

7) Get all bills current or eliminated completely.  stretch goal: Have all bills gone, except for power, rent, cable, etc, etc, etc, by the end of July, or very close to gone by then.

8) Post more often even when depression sends me to bed more often than what I should.

We’ll see how well I keep to these throughout the year.