#writemotivation Late Update Week 3

I know this is awesomely late this week.  The way things are looking, I am going to have to keep my lists short until I can balance my new job, writing, and home.  As it sits now, work and home are cutting deep into my writing time.

Selling insurance is not very easy to do.  We have several no cost items to help us get into the door, but once inside, getting people to go through the whole presentation becomes the challenge.  Most just want the no cost stuff (it isn't free.  Huge difference), and don't want anything more.  But, I do get several who will allow me to show them what we have to offer to help fill in the gaps in their existing insurance.

Mostly, I need to work on my presentation so I am asking for anyone who lives in NE OK to volunteer to sit through a full presentation.  Who knows, you find what I show worth buying, but there is no pressure to buy.  I only show the need for buying that first policy or getting additional insurance.

If I am to succeed, I have to practice, practice, practice.  Anyone with kids or a mortgage, please, let me practice with you.

Other than work, I have three restaurant reviews to go over.  One is a brand new place right around the corner from my apartment and the other two are very well established.

On to the goal check!

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahlg

oode/

1) Write two chapters to “Black Friday 2″. (Two chapters a month sound reasonable enough to keep this one around)

I have written part of chapter 12.  This one is coming from Nick and Nahana's POV and what they see while gathering wood in the building storm.  So, YAY, progress!

2) Work on "Dark Crystal" contest submission

Still a no-go on this one.  Barely times for my other WIP, so I'm crossing this off for now.  We'll see how things look come NaNo time.

3) Word on edits/revisions for the last half of SoNL

I have started on this one.  Only a few paragraphs into the second half of the book.

4) Keep trying to exercise twice a week

There is a lot of walking involved in this job, so, this is a definite yes.  Not to mention, I walk Colin part way, most days, to school.

5) Work on edits for “Black Friday” for republication.

Nothing done on this one, yet.

6) Study the craft of writing.

Been reading up on it this week!

7) Get art and items prepared for August Elks Swap in Pryor.

It'll be, at the very earliest, November before I can get to an Elk Swap Meet.  Bills come first, then my little hobby items can be stocked up.  I'll let you know when I have soaps and lotions ready for sale, or sampling.

#writemotivation June Wrap-Up and July's Goal's

June was a month I'd rather not remember.  Instead of writing or considering writing things, I was going over the different type of life and health insurance, provisions, exclusions, and riders and what they can do to change the basic policy, and trying to learn all the regs, rules, and statutes of the insurance license.  More time was spent on that than anything else and I've one art commission that is suffering because of it.

So, my goals for July are slightly modified.  Again.  *sigh*

Coming to this blog during the month of July will be a few interviews.  Don't expect me to do these often.  I'll be introducing two sites which were created to help the Indie Author and I'll be interviewing a new author on the Indie scene.

Later on this month, I'll be part of a blog hop that will focus on a character from one of my books.  I'm debating if it should be Karina or Sabrina since I've worked with these the most lately.  I'm leaning toward Karina since she's been neglected lately due to my focus on SoNL.  We'll see when the time comes.

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahlgoode/

June Goals

1) Set SoNL aside until feedback from critiques and betas are in on the first half of the novel

This one was done though I wanted to go in and make more revisions to chapters nine to eleven.  The suspense and hooks in those three needed to be tightened up further and more ideas popped into my head to build up the tension further between Jason and Sabrina.  D-O-N-E!

2) Focus on Black Friday 2. Get at least two chapters written.

Not a lot of focus was given to this one, but I did do some work on it.  In the space of a couple of hours, on Sunday, I wrote two chapters coming from Takesha's POV.  Karina and Marcus were up on the roof to find the holes to be patched up there as well as survey the surrounding area.  Nick and Nahana were off gathering wood and kindling for a fire.  Neither could have given anything specific and there were things which could be used to build the story further and why there's tension building among certain members of the group.  It also opened up a chance to have something happen.  This one is complete!  YAY!

Black Friday, the first book will also be worked on during this month.  Since Xlibris no longer has it on their site, I'll clean it up and tighten up the story before putting it on Smashwords as a republication.  I'm going to have to sit down and list the different names I used then decide which will stay and which will be dropped.  More than likely, new scenes will be added to help deal with the ones I keep and fill out the story better.

3) Keep up the job search. For interviews minimum for the month of June

This is the one that was modified to study for the State Insurance License exam and pass.  I passed one part.  I need to pass the other part then I will start training.  I can call this one partially complete.

4) Exercise twice a week. (I mean it this time!)

Um... Yeah, I did this one, just not with any real exertion.  But, it was done.

One down, one to go! Time to celebrate the first win!

July Goals

1) Set SoNL aside until feedback from critiques and betas are in on the first half of the novel

I don't know why this one is still there, but it'll serve as a reminder until feedback is in.  Don't count this as an Official Goal for July.

2) Focus on Black Friday 2. Get at least two chapters written.

I should be able to manage two more chapters for the month.  We'll see if it happens.

3) Was keep up Job Search.  Now, it is Pass the second half of the State Exam. 

The exam date is the 5th.  I should pass it this time around.  At least it is only the 116 question test instead of both of them.

4)  Get at least 10K on a submission for the Dark Crystal prequel for a contest for Dark Crystal.

Dark Crystal has a contest for all writers to create a prequel to the movie The Dark Crystal.  They've provided all the information on all the lands, people, and a few ideas to use.  I decided to call this one "The Sundering" and will be following a female Vampra tribe Gelfling who is searching for truth behind the mysterious disappearances from not just her tribe but the others as well.

5) Exercise twice a week.

I walked about a mile today with Colin while we were out taking care of the shopping.  The best thing about this trip is the traffic was in our favor and it wasn't busy everywhere we went.  Today is the 1st, Wal-Mart should have been swamped with the welfare crowd.

How's everything going for all of you?  Hope you enjoy your 4th as much as what I will!

Some Good News!

Some may know I had another attempt at the state licensing exam today.  Well, guess what!  I passed half of it.  The most important part of it to be exact.  *does the Happy Dance*

Woo!

One down, one to go! Time to celebrate the first win!

But, they want me to take one more go at the other part.  That one, the 116 question half, was the one I failed by at least one, maybe two questions.  I made a 66.9%, which is so close, I could taste that passing grade.

Tonight, I am giving myself a brain break and going to work some onBlack Friday 2.  You know, try to get at least one chapter written tonight, or a chapter completed.  I forget if the last one was finished or not.  >.<  Sad, I know, but it has been a while since I looked at it last.

Tomorrow, I need to go to the office and do some quiet study on the areas I didn’t do so well and review the rest.  What caught me this time was the provisions, exclusions, and riders pertaining to life and health insurance.  I’m better those that go along with health insurance mostly since I could only review that topic before heading off to the exam today.  Life products (life insurance of all kinds) I need to review to make sure that information is fresh in my mind.

I’ll set up the new exam date tomorrow, then I’ll set about reviewing material and taking a few more notes.

To celebrate passing the most important part of the exam, mom took me out for some super, extra wonderful, soup at our favorite noodle house  in the world.  After my coach at work, she was the first to know about it.  She’s happy, and so am I.  We’ll do something else when I pass the other part.

More to celebrate coming soon. 

Midweek Thoughts and #writemotivation Goals

It has been a while since I did a midweek post.  All sorts of things, including my mental well-being, got in the way of making my appointed posts.  Facebook is one of those things which got in the way with its shiny time consuming games.  I really should trim those back again.  A few more appeared out of the aether again to tempt me into spending more time away from writing and studying again.

You heard correctly, I said studying.  The studying I was supposed to do to earn my insurance license.  That exam was for today.  No, I did not pass.  I failed miserably, but they did do a break down so I know where to focus my studying for the next exam.  Underwriting got me the most and the rest was how they worded the questions and the lists answers.  I know the material, but sadly, my normal study habits were lacking a couple of things which help a lot.  The good news is I can keep trying until I pass and I WILL pass.  Eventually.

Once I pass the exam, I'll have a job.  So, tomorrow is a brain break to get myself back into the groove for the exam again.  Also, tomorrow is therapy day for my son so there's not a lot of time to give the attention to the eight chapters on Underwriting, life insurance, medical insurance, and the state regulations and such.  I will be bringing one of the chapters with me to read just to help pass the time instead of playing games on my smart phone.

I don't know if anyone else has seen the news release that Amazon is setting up a fanfic section of their Kindle release books.  When I first heard it, I thought... Why?  Why would someone want to make it possible for an unknown who loves to write fanfic (there are precious few who can actually write well enough to be worth publishing.  One of the girls in my NanO group is proof of that).  Then, I got a peek at the rules Amazon wants the would-be authors to follow. 

Now, anyone with a lick of sense will know that this is a bad idea if a big corporation is involved.  Amazon wants people to write in the worlds they have licenced.  To make matters worse, in the terms of use, they will screw over the person who has written the fanfic by taking ownership of the copyright, whether the characters are their own within that world or not.  Now, the would-be author would get royalties, but the original author gets a tidy percentage of that.

My thoughts on that?  A big resounding NO!  Capitol N Capitol O.  NO.  If that isn't screwing someone over just to get more stuff written in a particular world, I don't know what is.  The co-ml for my city's Nano group put it best in her post The Future of Fanfiction.  Rebekah couldn't have put it better.  Me?  I sound like I'm on a rant.

It's a good thing and it's a bad thing.  Either way, I am taking no part of it.  What fanfiction I write will either remain on my hard drive or published with proper credit on my forums, OR, if I am lucky enough to get permission to use their world and characters, I'll publish it on SmashWords or someplace similar.  I will not go for shady shenanigans like Amazon is trying to pull.

Enough of the semi-rant, on to the goals!

Header image and thumbnail photograph by Hugh Lee and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sahlgoode/

1) Get a job or at the very least attend five interviews for a job.

Only three interviews this month, but, there's still a week to get the other two in.  But, I do have a job, sort of.  I say sort of because I need to pass the state exam for Life and Health insurance.  I'll keep retaking until I pass.

2) Edit/revise five chapters of Society of Night and Lies.

There weren't quite five chapters left before I sent the fir 11 chapters out to the beta readers.  I'm still kind of toying with chapter 11 now because a great idea has popped into my brain on how to put more tension into the plot.

3) Write two chapters of Black Friday 2.

I haven't touched this one, yet.  Too many other things took precedence.  I'll be working on this one shortly.  Might get one chapter done before the 31st.

4) Exercise twice a week.

Ummmm... not quite there, but I am working on it.  Got one day down for this week.  The rest will come soon enough.

How has your week been?

Don't forget to donate to your favorite disaster relief fund!  People in Moore, OK, and elsewhere need your help.