Goals and Aspirations in Review – May 2017

I know that I say this every month, but I seriously feel as though May swept out from under me in a few short moments. I have no idea where the time keeps going on me, and it’s more than a little bit frightening for a number of reasons.

So with that pleasant thought in mind, let’s go ahead and delve into what happened throughout the month of May 2017:

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Goal #1. WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE.
I was hoping that May would be a more fruitful month when it came to writing, but as mentioned, the month just flew away from me. It’s amazing how I can go four…five…eight..ten days in a row without writing and not even realize that it happened. I did, however, manage to have a few decent days throughout the month, and amazingly, it was all fiction aside from a single day of blog-writing. Throughout the month I managed to write a combined total of 7054 words, which isn’t my best month so far this year, but not bad, all things considered. Here’s hoping to have a better month in June, though!

Mini-Goal #1.a. Publish more erotic fairy tales.
I’m glad that I didn’t remove this mini-goal in April because I actually made some headway in May! Not only did I complete and publish a second erotic fairy tale, but I also wrote, completed, and published the first in a second series of more supernatural erotic stories. Success! None of the stories are selling particularly well, but it certainly doesn’t hurt me to have them sitting there, just waiting to be found and purchased!

Mini-Goal #1.b. Start writing blog posts again.
I’m not going to spend much time on this one because, to be perfectly blunt, I barely posted any blog posts this month, and they were basically all just sharing videos, so there’s not much to talk about.

Mini-Goal #1.c. Find ways to promote the book(s).
Still working on this one. Still taking suggestions too! This is definitely going to be the worst goal of the year, I’m thinking.

#2. Get healthier.
This is, of course, an ongoing challenge, but I don’t think I did half bad throughout the month of May. I’ve been taking a lot of baby steps. One is dedicating myself to more walking, which we’ll talk about in a moment. Another has been trying to eat better, which is a struggle, no doubt, but I’ve been doing better. I’ve been drinking a lot more water, having fruit-and-yogurt smoothies for breakfast (Jason’s even been drinking them too!) and working hard to eat smaller portions and restrict the amount of junk food I have. I regularly have bad days when I end up gorging on chocolate, but, like I said…baby steps.

Mini-Goal #2.a. Walk/run 10k 8k steps per day.
Well, would you look at this! I can actually report some modicum of success for this goal this month! No, I didn’t walk 8k steps each day throughout May, but I did manage it for 18 of the 31 days, and on top of that, I managed to do an average of 8276 steps per day! That’s the best I’ve done so far this year, so I’m pretty pleased with myself, I must say. Here’s hoping that, by the end of the year I’ll have managed to actually work my way up to 10k per day!

Mini-Goal #2.b. Take daily “me time”.
As I keep explaining, this is a difficult one to keep track of, but I would say May was probably a pretty decent month for this one. I’ve found myself getting used to spending a few minutes a day playing a phone game or watching an episode of one of the shows I love that Jason doesn’t. It’s little stuff, but it helps to keep the stress down a bit.

#3. Work on my online presence – specifically, YouTube.
Another ongoing battle, of course. It’s difficult to quantify how much or how little success I had in May because between time slipping away and my brain being a little bit fuddled this past month, well…you get it. That said, I know for a fact that my subscribers, followers, and so on  have all gone up – if only a little – in the past month, so I’m going to go ahead and say it’s going well enough. 

Mini-Goal #3.a. Learn to respond immediately.
I have a lot of ups and downs with this goal, as I’ve mentioned before, but I believe I’ve been doing a lot better. My weak point seems to be emails, because they always seem to come while I’m out and too busy to respond, but I’m getting much better with the social media stuff, and I’m learning to juggle multiple conversations at once for sure. So put one in the plus column for me!

Mini-Goal #3.b. Focus more on daily social media.
There have been hiccups, but I’m doing a lot better on this one as well. I’m much better with tweets and Facebook than Instagram and Snapchat, but I’m definitely doing a lot better, and I hope it’s helping with the media presence!

Mini-Goal #3.c. Come up with new video ideas.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….never mind. Just…never mind.

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So that was May! How was your month? Did you get anything accomplished? Do anything cool? Please feel free to share!

Goals and Aspirations in Review – February 2017

February is the shortest month in the year, so one would be forgiven for feeling as though it just up and disappeared in a breath and a blink. Therefore I won’t spend too much time talking about how I swear to puppies it was February 1st just yesterday. Instead, let’s jump right into the details. How did February go for me?

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#1. WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE.
I hate that I’m having to admit this again, but February was an even worse month than January for writing. Looking back at last month’s post I realize that I didn’t even give you guys any numbers, so I’ll rectify that now. In January, during my epic, EPIC writer’s block episode, I wrote a grand total of 4396 words, most of them for a handful of blog posts. During February, I wrote a grand total of 1468 words, ALL of them for a handful of blog posts. That could hardly be more pathetic if I was actively attempting to be pathetic.

THAT SAID…I’m giving myself a bit of a pass for this month, because it’s not like I wasn’t doing anything. I spent a large portion of the month going through final edits for “The Other World: Book One”. I took all the notes from my beta-readers, fixed a number of typos and small issues, and began a final read to make minor changes where I felt they were needed. Because of this work I am currently only a couple of chapters away from having a completed manuscript, and as soon as my cover artist has his bit ready, I’ll be prepared to upload everything to CreateSpace and order my personal copy to ensure that everything looks good.

So yeah, I’m gonna let myself off for this one. JUST for this month, I swear.

Mini-Goal #1.a. Publish more erotic fairy tales.
This mini-goal has been put on a temporary hold, in part because of that huge stint of writer’s block in January and in part because of everything I just previously wrote. I haven’t got back around to finishing the current story I’m working on because I’ve been focusing my energy instead on “The Other World”, which I consider to be much more important. Be assured, however, that I’m very close to finishing another of these tales, and I’m confident that I’ll have half a dozen or so up by the end of the year. *fingers crossed*

Mini-Goal #1.b. Start writing blog posts again.
No excuses for this one; it simply hasn’t been happening. I do still want to start writing blog posts again, but for now, since I’ve got more important stuff I’ve been working on, I’m just worrying about catching up on sharing my YouTube videos. Once I’ve actually got to a point where I’m sharing the videos as they’re being posted, there will be lots of empty days available where I can possibly start writing actual posts again. *fingers crossed again*

Mini-Goal #1.c. Find ways to promote the book.
This is not going well. Someone help. Please. Seriously. I have no idea what to do.

In all seriousness though, I am at a bit of a loss. I can’t afford to spend money on things like advertisements and the like, and other options I’ve found aren’t currently available to me (I’ve been patiently waiting to be able to do a Goodreads E-Book giveaway, but it’s still only an option for those in the US). Any suggestions would seriously be deeply appreciated.

#2. Get healthier.
Um…what? Why do I do these things to myself? lol Okay, okay, I’ve been trying, I have, but more in little stints than reasonable leaps. I’ve been trying to drink more water, although I can’t cut out the coffee and tea without passing out multiple times a day, and I’ve been attempting to eat more fruit and veggies, but god DAMN candy is so tempting. 😀 I’m not complaining or making excuses, I swear, I’m just…not very good at being healthy. lol I’m trying though, I promise. I really am. I’m even starting a 30-day program this month that basically trains you to be able to do long stints of push-ups, squats, crunches, and lunges. Wish me luck!

Mini-Goal #2.a. Walk/run 10k 8k steps per day.
If you read last-month’s post, you’ll know that I’ve lowered this particular goal from 10k steps to 8k, as suggested to me by my saucy, saucy FitBit. Unfortunately it seems as though lowering the goal has only served to create a situation in which I lower my output as well. Throughout February I only had four days on which I hit the 8k goal, and my overall average for the month was only 6635 steps per day. That’s sad, really.

Now, in my defense, there were a few days on which my steps were not recorded properly because my stupid FitBit has been dying a lot quicker lately for some reason, and occasionally I won’t notice that it’s conked-out until I’ve lost half a day’s steps. But even considering that, I doubt my true average was any higher than 7000 steps, which is still frustrating. So with that said, this month I’m going to do my best to take an actual walk each day, even if it’s only 15 minutes of going up and down my street. I have got to get those numbers up before I become a completely sedentary blob.

Mini-Goal #2.b. Take daily “me time”.
I’m actually wondering why I bothered to include this as a mini-goal, since I’m not actively attempting to record anything for it. I have nothing to report, really, other than that I think I probably succeeded for the most part? I’ve had several nice baths, some solo shopping, and usually I spend at least a few minutes a day just laying down and watching a couple of YouTube videos, so I think we’re pretty good with this one.

#3. Work on my online presence – specifically, YouTube.
This is another one that’s hard to quantify, particularly through February, because there was a lot going on, some stuff to catch up on, people to talk with, packages to send, and so on and so forth. We didn’t film and upload as many videos as I’m sure Jason would have liked us to, but I don’t think it was as bad as all that, considering a number of different factors. That said, I’m still working on a few things, and if I could get my mood under control it would be a lot easier to focus on this goal in the future.

Mini-Goal #3.a. Learn to respond immediately.
This is one for which I can honestly say that I’m getting a lot better. There are still the occasional times when I’m out shopping or driving and can’t get back to someone immediately, but I’ve been putting a lot of focus into making sure I get back to people asap before I forget about them. I’m regularly responding to emails, personal messages, YouTube comments, and so on as soon as I catch wind of the opportunity, and I’m happy with the progress. Now if only the people I’m talking to could manage the same courtesy. ^_~

Mini-Goal #3.b. Focus more on daily social media.
I’m still working on this one, but I’m definitely getting better. I’ve been focusing mostly on Twitter, but also trying to throw a few extra things on Instagram here and there. Facebook is still slow because, honestly, having a Facebook Fan Page is a little extraneous when all your followers have you on the more active social media outlets as well, but I’ve been trying to throw some extra fun stuff in the Basement Geeks group as a way of socializing more. Still a bit behind on SnapChat though. I just can’t get really INTO that one. 😛 

Mini-Goal #3.c. Come up with new video ideas.
And last but not least…you know what? I’m not even going to try to bullshit you guys on this one. I have absolutely not been coming up with new video ideas. I’ve been focused too much on the other fifty things going on. So let’s just not even bother. I’ll try harder in the future. 😛

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So that was my February, and honestly, as I was writing this post I realized that it wasn’t all that great, but I’m okay with that. February had a lot of issues, but I still managed to get a fair bit done, and it has served to steel my nerves for March. I’ve got plans and determination, and I’m confident that next month’s post is going to be a much more positive one, so I’m going to focus on that. 🙂

How was your February? 😀

April 2016 Goals in Review

Well, I literally just said that I was going to stop regular posts in order to focus on actual novel-writing, but it’s been a few days since April ended so I guess I’ll get the goals stuff out of the way. 🙂

Goal #1. Take good care of myself, specifically by walking 10,000 steps a day and taking at least 15 minutes per day to do something fun/relaxing.

Well, this one definitely could have been better, but it also could have been worse, so I’ll take that for what it is. As far as steps go, there were only 9 days during which I surpassed the 10,000 mark, and my average daily steps was only 8253, but that was actually better than March, so there’s improvement for sure. I blame my inability to at least hit the average on the fact that I spent several days of my shift doing paperwork in the office, and another several days working night shift, which isn’t exactly an active time. All in all, I feel half-decent about the average, although the 10-k days count is pretty pathetic.

As for my 15-minutes-per-day…I counted 25 days during which I manage to hold to that tiny level of relaxation. I’m not sure what happened the other 5 days, but I scribbled “EPIC FAIL” in my planner several times, so I’m assuming those were not good days. 😛

On a related note, now that the weather is starting to turn around, I’m thinking about starting up the “Zombies! Run!” program again. I’d feel really good about myself if I could ever actually manage to get all the way through the 12-week program. >.>

Goal #2. Build readership/viewership by putting more focus and energy into my blog posts, shooting fun and different YouTube videos, and putting more effort into self-promotion.

One thing that I can definitely say for sure is that I’ve been spending a lot of time shooting videos and interacting with my viewers, and the hubby has been working hard to make the YouTube channel fun and interesting. It seems to be going well because I started the year with just around 1000 subscribers, and now I’m inching toward 1700. Go Team Tracey’s Basement!

Self-promoting in terms of writing is another story entirely. I don’t even want to talk about it because it’s just pathetic. That said, this is part of the reason I’m quitting (regularly-scheduled) blogging, so I’ll be removing the “focus and energy into my blog posts) part from this goal for the remainder of the year.

Goal #3. Write as much as I can, including writing an entire novel from start to finish.

And here’s the BIG reason for the change to my blogging habits. This month I wrote 7307 words toward the blog, 1607 words in my personal journal, and 11,369 words toward various non-fiction stuff (including things such as answering the questions for Authors Answer, scripting for YouTube videos, and so on). That’s a total of 20,283 words for the month, which isn’t all that shabby, but it’s pathetic when you consider that precisely ZERO of those words were fiction. I’m a novelist, for the love of puppies, and I wrote ZERO fictional words over the course of an entire MONTH. That’s beyond sad, and it’s why I’m going to be blogging significantly less from now on. Having a platform is one thing, but if you’ve got no books to sell because the platform is all you focus on…well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it?

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So there you have it. Not a particularly great month for many aspects, but I feel good about the future. Let’s try and see that May is much better, shall we?

Totally-Probable Goals for 2015

Well, ladies and gents, this is it: it’s officially 2015. Where the heck did 2014 go? I honestly have no idea. I really feel like it was just yesterday that I was making my list of goals for 2014, and now here I am making new ones for 2015. I must be getting old or something, because time…man.

Anyway, let’s look at happier things than time flying out beneath me. First of all, if you saw my “Year in Review” post yesterday you’d have seen that I had approximately 35,000 views last year. At first that didn’t seem like a very large number to me, but then I looked at previous years and realized that the most views I’d gotten in a year before this past one was about 11,000. So that means that my view base has more than tripled in one year! Not too shabby, I’d say. However, something that I noticed when comparing my stats with some of my fellow bloggers’ is that while I have more views than several of them, almost all of them have significantly more comments than me. This makes me wonder if there’s something about the way I write, the topics I choose, or some other factor that makes people not want to bother interacting with my posts, and that’s something that I’d really like to work on. So if anyone has any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, please let me know! Interaction is important. 🙂

So with that out of the way, what about the coming year? Well, I’ve learned a few things from last year that I plan to apply to the coming year. First and foremost, I am not making any goals pertaining to weight loss. Screw you, diet industry. And it’s not that I don’t think I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I’m just sick and tired of setting myself up for failure. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how I feel about my weight, it is not the most important issue in my mind, not by a long shot. Therefore making a goal like that, I may as well just admit today that it’s not going to be accomplished. Hands down, when my options are to exercise, to write, to sleep, to spend time with my family, to play games, or to work on the blog/social media/etc, exercise will always be the absolute last choice. There’s no denying that. So from here on out, no goals about weight loss. Weight loss would be awesome, but I’m not holding myself to a goal like that any more.

Second of all, in the past two years I’ve made my list of goals and then reported on them on a weekly basis: my “Accountability” posts. I’m not going to do that anymore. About midway through 2014 I began to realize that those posts were more or less a way for me to have a really easy writing day every week, and that they weren’t contributing anything to the blog. Yes, occasionally I got some interaction on those posts from readers, but I think I would have gotten just as much interaction had they been monthly posts instead of weekly ones. So from here on out, my “Accountability” posts will be an end-of-month report instead of a weekly whine-fest. (Oh yeah, I’m going to try to work on the whining too…lol)

Third, sometime over the course of the next month (before I return to work), I’m going to try and straighten up the blog a bit and create an actual author page. I like the blog the way it is and I don’t really want to change it, but I think that as a published author I should have at least one page that just says who I am and promotes the book. Something a little more professional-looking, yes? Maybe with a couple of widgets so that you can still connect to my forms of social media via that page. We’ll see how it turns out. 😉

And finally, I guess it’s time to talk about the actual goals. So what are my goals for 2015?

Goal #1: Take care of myself more.
I may not be making any goals about weight loss, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make a goal pertaining to my physical and mental well-being. This is a very broad goal, but basically boils down to the fact that I want to work on thinking about myself more often. I’ve already started the trend by taking the time to pamper myself with things like a manicure, or an extra-long shower while wearing a mud mask. Little things to help relax, you know? But I’d also like to work on other little things, like forcing myself to relax and read/play games/watch shows more often, getting up and moving every now and then, and maybe even eating a little better (although that one will always be a huge stretch for me). Basically, this is an all-encompassing goal for the betterment of my personal lifestyle. Wish me luck.

Goal #2: Continue to build my readership/viewership.
Last year this goal was to “work hard on my author platform”. This is basically the same idea, except I’m not really calling it an “author platform” anymore. I’m preferring to think of it as a “me platform”. Yes, the biggest part of my online presence is meant to be “author” me, but there’s really no sense in pigeonholing myself like that. If people find me through Instagram because of a cute pic I posted, that’s awesome. If people find me because they stumbled across one of my unboxing videos on YouTube, that’s awesome. Any way that people come to me is great; it’s not just about directing them to the blog. Ultimately, of course, the goal is to connect with as many people as possible in hopes that they will one day become the readers of my books, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to be chasing after them with a jpeg of the “Nowhere to Hide” cover, screaming for them to buy. No, I want people to find me whichever way they can, and hopefully that will eventually lead to more books sold. If not, hey, it’ll still be pretty awesome just to be viewed.

Goal #3: Write. Write a lot.
I seriously considered setting myself another specific word count goal this year, but I eventually decided against it. You know why? Similarly to the weight loss goals, it just sets me up for failure. I don’t need a specific word count to strive toward; all having one does is make me panic as I steadily realize that I’m running out of time. So this year I’m just focusing on the writing. I’m going to try for 500-1000 words per day, but I’m not going to panic if I don’t accomplish that. Just as long as I’m writing. And I will still keep track, but only because I’ll be interested to see what the final numbers work out to. Hopefully this last goal will lead to the publishing of another book this year, but again, I’m not going to hold myself to it because I don’t want to rush and stress myself out. All things in good time.

So those are my goals for 2015. Take care of myself, keep building the blog/YouTube channel/various other social media outlets, and write like I mean it. I think they’re pretty good ones, ones that will keep me grounded this coming year without stressing me out.

What do you think? Have you made any goals for 2015? How are you planning to go about achieving them? Please share! We can support each other. ^_~

Accountability Wednesdays: The LAST ONE!

Guys…guys…guys…can you believe that it’s almost the end of 2014? Like, seriously. I’m wigging out a bit.

And with that, you may have noticed that the next two Wednesdays are Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, which means that I definitely will not be writing accountability posts. Therefore this is going to be the last one! I’ll include other stats and whatnot into my “2015 Goals” post when I write it, but as far as 2014 is concerned this is the last of the accountability. Woo! I actually feel a bit liberated. So let’s get this over with!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

This was not a good year for this goal. There were a lot of excuses (good and bad), a lot of roadblocks, and a lot of reasons to spend my time on anything other than exercising. In the end, not only did I not lose ten pounds, but I actually gained several. As of this date I’m weighing in at about 2 lbs higher than what I began with in January.

The upside of that is that, strangely, I feel a lot more comfortable in my skin now than I did at the beginning of the year. I have my trouble spots, I have my little bits that bother me, but all in all I’m happy with the way I look, which I think is much better than actually losing the weight.

In addition to that we have the health issues, which are slowly coming under control. I had a lot of tests done on my gastrointestinal track and was eventually given a medication that helps to stop the stomach spasms that plague me whenever I travel. Then I was later given a medication for the anxiety that no one really realized I had until I mentioned to my doctor that I was the kid who threw up on the first day of school every year. Said prescription is not something that I can take every day forever (the effects weaken as you take it too much), but at least it’s available for me when I need it, and knowing that it helps proves that it’s a treatable condition. Two thumbs up to that.

So all in all, I guess it was a good year for this goal. My original intentions for the goal were not realized, but I came out of it happier and healthier, if in different ways.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’m on the fence about the success of this goal. I definitely took a couple of steps in the direction by joining Self-Publisher’s Showcase, tweeting more often, and finally recently giving in to Instagram, but I don’t know that the results have been so great. Over the course of the year I think I gained something like 80 new followers on the blog, maybe 50 new followers on Twitter, and a whopping 10 subscribers on YouTube, and while that’s great, it doesn’t feel like a lot compared to the amount of work I put in. Then again, I have a full-time job, so maybe the work I put in just feels like more than it really was.

In the end, things have been pretty good, but I hope to expand upon this goal in the future by looking to gain more followers on all mediums, as well as more readers now that I’ve got something for sale for them to read.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

You all know how this goal went! Though it was stressful at times and I definitely wanted to give up more than once, I managed to slog through the editing process not once, but twice, and with the help of my wonderful beta-reader I think I wound up with a much better novel than I started with. I then scoured the depths of the internet to learn how to properly format a manuscript for self-publishing purposes, designed my own cover with the use of a photo taken by my very own father, and painstakingly slapped it all together on Create Space until the result looked correct. Then I ordered the first ever print copy of my first ever completed novel and just about cried on camera as I did an unboxing video of it.

Of course it hasn’t all be unicorn rides and fluffy kitten snuggles since then. I’ve sold approximately 30 print copies (mostly to family), and approximately 15 e-book copies (mostly to NaNoWriMo friends), and I gave away almost 200 e-book copies for free on Halloween, so all total I’ve made something like $60 or $70 on this book thus far. Marketing yourself is a difficult business, especially because you have to be careful not to be annoying, and zombie novels are not for everyone, so I’ve got a long road ahead of me. But in the end, I’m just so happy to have actually done it, to be able to say that I am a published author and that my book is available on Amazon and Kindle. That is super-cool, and it just motivates me to write more, to publish more, and to prove that I can be a professional fiction writer while also working a day job to support my family. Boo-ya.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Well I’ve been very positive in this post up to now, but there’s not a lot good I can say about this goal. At the beginning of the year I reduced my previous year’s goal by half, thinking that surely I would be able to handle it, but there were many road-blocks in my way.

Now, mind you, most of those road-blocks were completely reasonable ones. For instance I spent several months putting writing aside in favor of editing so that I could publish the novel. I also had a hard go at NaNoWriMo this year because I was working and thus only able to do my daily writing by hand. In addition to those blocks the length of my blog posts went down this year as I struggled to schedule stuff in advance so that I could work on more important things. All in all, it just turned out to be a pretty stressful year for writing. But the good news is that I did manage to keep up with the blog, only missing three or four scheduled days the entire year, and I’m also coming out of the end of 2014 with a very-nearly completed first draft of Book One of my upcoming “Other World” series. So that is definitely something!

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In the end, the year was full of ups and downs, as is wont to happen, but it was a pretty good one overall. I have my (relative) health, my small group of followers, my awesome self-published book, and the makings of more books coming into the new year with me. I think all of that deserves a celebration, so I’m going to spend the last two weeks of this year not worrying about anything except Christmas and having an awesome time with my family. How does that sound? ^_~

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 49

Is it Wednesday already? Yay! That means that I only have five more days of work, six days until I’m home, and fifteen days until Christmas! Woo hoo!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

Let’s go ahead right now and skip the weight loss part since we all know that ain’t happening and that I can’t report anything right now anyway.

On the health side, however, things are looking up. My stomach has been surprisingly calm, and taking meds for anxiety has made me realize how many things were actually making me anxious. It’s not a strong medication, like the kinds that make you super-docile and zombie-like, but I find myself realizing throughout the day that stupid times that usually get me worked up are just totally bypassing my radar. I see this as a good thing.

Goal #2. Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

It definitely hasn’t been my busiest week ever, but it has been a decent one for sure. I’ve been blogging, tweeting, sharing fun stuff on Facebook, and lately I’ve gotten into Instagram. I will never in a million years be the kind of person who Instagrams their food, but I needed the account in order to complete some of my Influenster and BzzAgent campaign tasks, so I figured I may as well have some fun with it while I’m at it. Check it out if you’re interested.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Still done!

In related news, guys, I totally want to put on a Kindle Countdown Deal on “Nowhere to Hide” for Christmas, but I’m blocked from setting it up because I accidentally reset some settings and now I have to wait 30 days before I can put on any deals. Arg! But hey, if you’ve got a reader on your gift-giving list you can always buy them a hard-copy of the book! It’d be like giving me a Christmas present too!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

I’m gonna be honest with you guys: I’m pretty depressed about this goal. Last year I aimed for a million words and didn’t quite reach half of that. This year I aimed for half a million and I don’t think I’m even going to hit 300,000. I’m regressing! On the upside, I did publish a book this year, but I am disappointed in myself for writing so little. Next year must be better.

That said, I don’t have an exact number, but I wrote somewhere in the ballpark of 4000 words this week.

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 48

While reading this week’s accountability post, I ask you to remember that I threw a 4-year-old’s birthday party last weekend. That should earn me some amount of sympathy, right? Puh-lease?

Shown above: the only calm, quiet moment during the whole thing.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I don’t know why I even bother to keep talking about weight, so I’m not going to. Ha!

On the health side of things, however, I’m not feeling too bad. I kinda feel like I’m one step away from being a druggie, but with the help of a prescription to reduce stomach spasms, another prescription to help prevent anxiety attacks, and a combination of vitamins and fiber supplements, I haven’t been feeling half bad. I’ll give it a few more weeks before I make any assumptions, though.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Things have been a little quiet lately since I’ve been pretty busy, and to be honest I’ve been spending more time on BzzAgent and Influenster campaigns than working on my author platform. I hope to rectify that in the New Year, but if I’m even more honest I probably won’t be too diligent for the remainder of December. Hey, everyone needs a break sometimes, right?

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

You know what makes a great Christmas gift? A completed self-published novel, for which there is a link in the menu bar of this page. I’m just sayin’.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Would you be surprised if I told you that I don’t have a number for you? It’s kinda my thing now, not having numbers.

The long and the short of it is that I didn’t do much writing last week, and I gave up on NaNoWriMo at about 32,000 words. I probably could have finished, if I’d really out my nose to the grindstone, but doing so would have contributed to a very stressful week, and I really don’t need that right now. So I decided to take it easy instead. But fear not…I’m still working on the book, and I plan to make it next year’s goal to get it edited and in print. So it’s not all a loss. 🙂

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 47

My good people, how are you today? I have to be honest with you, I’m still trying to wake up, and there’s a reason for that, but more on that later. First I have to quickly correct a mistake. Remember the other day when I posted a bunch of random stuff that I had gotten behind on? Well I missed one. Arg! So now I’m backtracking to let you know about a little interview I did for a fellow blogger who does “NaNo Spotlight” posts every year during NaNoWriMo time. My spotlight can be found here, over at the Kelworth Files, so please check it out, and if you have the time check out some of the other spotlights as well!

Now on with all the other nonsense!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall

Okay, so it’s been a really long time since I actually bothered to weigh myself so that I could make a proper report, so I literally just stepped on the scale for the purpose of this post. Then I had to go through my archives to remind myself of where I started, and now I can report to you that I am still approximately 40% in the wrong direction. I mentioned before that over the course of several months I actually gained ten pounds rather than lose any, and now I’ve lost about six of those pounds, which still leaves me in the wrong side of the column. The upside of that is that for whatever reason, I actually feel like I look better later. Don’t ask me what’s up with that. Maybe I’ve just gotten so lazy that I’m convincing myself to change my mind, but I honestly have been feeling pretty happy with my appearance. Whatevs.

On the health side of things, the reason I feel so tired as I’m writing this is because I’m trying out yet another new medication. The prescription I got last month has been helping, but there are still other issues that need to be resolved, and so I’m trying out a new med that my doctor thinks will be helpful, but that so far makes my mornings feel like my brain is moving through molasses. Wish me luck with that.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’ve gone a little downhill this week when it comes to the author platform side of things, because I’ve been busy with lots of life stuff, and when I do get a moment on the computer I’ve been using that time to do YouTube videos and bang off quick additions to my BzzAgent and Influenster campaigns. I’m hoping for things to even out a little next week, once my daughter’s birthday party is over and I have significantly less to worry about.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Done and done, and still not getting tired of saying it.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Oh MAN is this goal not going to happen. In fact, it’s not even going to come close! But I’m okay with that. I’ve come to terms.

Here’s the deal… Right off the bat, I spent a great portion of the year working on goal number 3, which was really important and I’m not the least bit sorry about that. But then I also had several periods throughout the year during which I did very quick, simple blog entries so that I could focus on other, more important things, so I lost a lot of words there as well. And then came NaNo. I’m really proud of the 30,000 words that I managed to handwrite in those first two weeks, but the end of the month came to a complete standstill. I had way too much (again, more important) stuff to worry about, and so as of today, with less than five days of NaNo left, I’m only up to about 33,000 words. Could I finish if I really wanted to? Probably, yes. But I’d have to lose a ton of sleep and gain a ton of stress as a result, because, again…more important stuff to do. So it is with a heavy heart (and yet, lighter shoulders) that I admit defeat to NaNo this year, for the second time in a row. But don’t worry…I plan to continue working on the manuscript and expect to have it done by the end of December, so I can start editing in the New Year.

But the 500,000 words thing? Not gonna happen. Just letting you know.

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 44

My friends, it is officially snowing out on the Alberta oil sands. Wish me luck surviving the winter.

On the upside of things, I have a couple of good things to report today.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

As per usual, since I’m out West right now I can’t report on the weight part of the equation. I can tell you, however, that my first day on my new stomach meds has been a success. I imagine it’s still too early to tell for sure, but they do seem to do exactly what they’re meant to do, which is to stop stomach spasms. The nervousness that I feel as a result of dealing with my stomach issues is still there, but the ability to calm myself down and relax in general seems to have greatly increased. I’m not holding my breath just yet, but I’m hoping that by this time next week I’ll be able to report further success, and believe me when I say that successful use of medication will greatly increase my physical and mental health.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’d like to say that I’ve been more active this past week, but it would definitely be a lie. Mostly I’ve just been to busy with everything else. I can, however, report that I’ve been having moderate success thus far being a part of Self-Publisher’s Showcase, and I seem to be amassing a decent number of new followers on various platforms as of late. So if you’re new and you’re reading right now, thanks for coming! I hope you’ll stick around!

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Still complete! No one can take this goal away from me! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Also, last week’s Halloween-Day-Free-Ebook-Offer was a pretty nice success. I didn’t make any money from it, of course, but hopefully a few of the people who jumped on the free download will see fit to review the book and help me out a ton (hint…hint…).

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Unfortunately, as I am wont to do, I forgot to write down my word count for the week before I travelled out West. Also unfortunately, the first two days of NaNoWriMo were a bit of a flop, since they were my last days home and I was a little more interested in spending them with my family. However, I can tell you that I wrote somewhere in the range of 7000 words this past week, and 2000 of those words were yesterday alone. I’m really hoping to be able to keep up that trend in the coming week. If I can write 2000 words a day for six or seven more days I should be able to catch up on the words I lost on the first two days of NaNo.

Which reminds me, I should be writing right now. Ciao!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 43

My friends, my friends, it has been a busy week. I don’t know how I always do this to myself, but it seems like I spend every two weeks at home doing even more work than I do during my two weeks at work. >.>

So, in honor of the fact that I’ve still got a ton of stuff to do, let’s make this a quick one, okay?

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

Okay, so about the weight-loss thing. Technically, I’ve lost about 6 pounds. But more technically, I gained 10 pounds before I lost those 6. So, in a very real sense, I’m 4 pounds in the hole. On the plus-side of things, I don’t really understand how it works, but I’ve been significantly more confident in my appearance lately. Despite actually weighing more than when I started this goal, I’ve been finding that I look thinner. Hey…whatever works right?

On the health side of things, I’ve been a little frustrated. I mentioned last week that I was going to see my doctor again because my guts have been on a rampage. Well, as it turns out my general practitioner completely agrees with the assessment the gastroenterologist made, which is basically that this is just the way my guts are and I’m going to have to learn to deal with it. He sent me out of his office with an order to start using psyllium fiber daily (basically, Metamucil), to avoid coffee at all costs, and he was “kind” enough to give me a prescription for something that is basically meant to stop stomach spasms, but has to be taken an hour before you expect the spasms to start, and causes drowsiness, so it can’t be taken all the time. Yay. I feel so much better now.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I have to admit that I’ve been slacking on this one lately, but there are a few things to report. For one thing, I’ve joined up with the Self-Publisher’s Showcase, an awesome service to help self-published authors promote themselves. They help to promote self-published books, the authors themselves, and also do fun things like interviews and book reviews and the like. So far we have my author page, but there will be more upcoming in the future, so keep your eyes out!

In addition to that, I’ve been focusing some of my energy on my current BzzAgent campaign, for which there will be a YouTube video posted in the near future. I want to do well on this campaign because BzzAgent is an awesome site that sends you free stuff in return for talking about the product on social media, and who doesn’t love free stuff?

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

I never get sick of letting you guys know that this goal is complete! I’m so happy with myself, you have no idea. lol

Also, for those of you who are kind enough to be reading this post, this is an advanced notice: on Halloween Day, all day, the e-book version of Nowhere to Hide will be FREE. Yeah, you heard it right…FREE! So check it out on Amazon or Kindle…even if you already have the physical book it can’t hurt to grab a FREE e-copy as well! And a reminder too: if you download the book (or if you already have it), please return to Amazon and write a review! It really helps a ton! ❤

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

This goal slowed down again this week as I’ve been sewing my daughter’s Halloween costume, preparing for her birthday party, taking her skating/to school/to playgroup/etc, doing random chores and the like, trying to get my house clean, and so on and so on. But I did still manage to work in 1655 words, so that’s something at least. The good news is that come this weekend it will be officially NaNoWriMo time, so I expect to have something much more significant to report next week.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have one more of Raven’s boots to sew up before my daughter can wear her costume to playgroup tomorrow. Ciao!