#writemotivation Update Week 3

I know, I did week #2 on Sunday.  That tells you the impact the state exam had on me and missed passing it by a few questions.

There's some good news concerning the state exam; I am rescheduled for Tuesday next week.  I need to focus more on the rules, regulations, and statutes, along with the basics of the insurance license.  I pass that test, I won't have to worry too much about the other because that is part of the training.  But, it does look good if I pass both of them.

Provisions, exclusions, and riders are not an easy concept to understand when it comes to life and health insurance.  Add in taxation and you really make a hard subject difficult.  Thankfully, I know the basics of those now and just need to focus more on the provisions, riders, and exclusions.  I also need to make sure I understand the differences between Medicare, Medicare+Choice, and Long Term Care.  There's enough similarities to confuse even a genius like Hawking.

Now, to show what I haven't done for June.  >.<

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

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

I can say this is done.  I have partial feedback in now.  I need to meet up with one and go over the material.  There's a couple of subplots I need to give some 'air time' to as well as adding more suspense.  I've got to print out those posts for easier reference.

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

Same as where it was last week and the week before.  I need to study if I'm to pass the exam.

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

I guess I can honestly say this one can be crossed off.  I have the job, I just need to get over this difficult hurdle so I can begin work.  Like other specialized jobs, it is illegal to work without that license.

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

Exercise has been done, just not quite the amount I wanted.

Half way there... sort of.  :)

How are your goals coming along?

Happy Father's Day and Stuff

As the title says, I give a warm and hearty Happy Father’s Day there to all the dads and the moms who are doing double duty because the dad isn’t there for some reason.  Alive or not, our dads deserve a little recognition for what they gave us, even if the most they didwas help give us life.

My father was a good father.  Sure, he was flawed in more ways than I care to admit, but he was there.  That’s the most I can say, too.  He was there during my youth; the big male presence to make my family look ‘normal’.  It wasn’t until later, when I became more independent, that he started having more of a presence in my life.

Dave, the father of my little boy, Colin, is the kind of father I wished I had.  He’s more than just there for our son.  He’s involved in his life, teaching him things that I just don’t have the knowledge.  Colin is almost permanently attached to Dave’s hip; wanting to cuddle with him, or lay on him when he’s tired or not feeling well.  He wants to do the things his daddy can do.

My oldest son, Adam, enjoys his father’s presence.  Though I think it’s his grandfather that has been more of a father to him.  Adam lives with his grandparents in Arkansas; doing what they want him to do.  I just hope he doesn’t become too dependent on them like his father is or things will be bad for him in the future.  But, he’s a strong young man with a mind of his own and a desire to keep conflict down to a minimum in his life.  Good thing he inherited my intellect and attitude (minus the sarcasm).

These three dads deserve a day of their own.  One of them gets to enjoy my cooking, no matter how strange some of it gets.  ;)

As for the Stuff part… I’m giving my week two update for #writemotivation today.  Just to keep things short and to the point, nothing has changed.

I spent last week studying for my state licensing exam for selling life and health insurance.  The good news is I did a lot better than the last time.  The bad news… well… I failed.  This time by a few questions.  For Licensing and state rules, regs, and statutes, I got a 68%, literally one question shy of a passing grade.  For the big test which covers underwriting, life and health products, provisions, riders and exclusions, Medicare and Long Term Care, I made a 61.4%.

So very close!!!  AAAUUUGH!!! /Charlie Brown  I sat and did the math and all I needed was five questions total to make a passing grade.  I need a 70% to pass on both.  This means that I will be rescheduling tomorrow during business hours for another exam.  I’m aiming for this coming Friday and I’ll be studying as hard as I can.  I NEED to pass this exam so I can start working again.  It seems all I can get into is insurance of some kind.

In the past two weeks I’ve had Heritage, Aflac, Farmers and others sending me emails (They’ve found my resume online from Monster) wanting to schedule interviews even though I don’t have anything related to insurance on my resume except for customer service expertise and some sales.  What management experience I have is over 5 years old now.  Ah well, at least they’ll be jobs.  Something I am in need of right now.

I love my family but I need to get out of the house before I go nuts.  >.<

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.