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!

———-

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 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 45

Ladies and gentlement, we are a week and a half into National Novel Writing Month, and I am exhibiting signs of writing insanity and breakdown! I am getting constant comments from coworkers on how I can possibly write so much by hand and not be in horrible pain. And then, on “Double Up” day (when you are encouraged to double your word count for the day), I wrote so much that I genuinely was in a great deal of pain (luckily it felt better by the next morning). Today my pen started to act up, and upon examination I had run it completely dry…the same pen that I had pulled fresh from the pack less than five days prior! And now I’m getting into the giddy multiple-personality stage of the game, wherein one voice is screaming at me about how horrible the story is, and the other is screaming that editing is for December. My GOD, do I love NaNoWriMo!

But I digress. Let’s get this accountability nonsense out of the way, shall we?

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

Let’s not mince words here, people. This goal means nothing to me at the moment. How can I think about weight loss when I’m trying to HANDwrite almost 2000 words per day (whilst simultaneously working 12 hours a day)? I can’t, that’s how! Then again, all this writing has been distracting me from eating maybe there’s something to be had there…

Anyway, the real important thing is that the meds my doctor gave me seem to be helping quite a bit. There’s still an anxiousness factor that I can’t seem to get past, but hopefully as time goes on and I have fewer issues, the anxiousness will abate. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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

Man, I have been ALL over Twitter this week. I’m just sayin’. Mostly that’s been because I’ve been hanging out and chatting with the #NaNoWriMo crowd, but that’s all good. It’s been keeping me (somewhat) sane through all the writing sprints.

In future news, I have my first ever Influenster Vox Box waiting for me when I get home next week, and I should also have my second ever BzzAgent campaign box waiting for me by then as well, so look forward to some fun! The Vox Box has a game for my daughter to play, so that should be tons of fun!

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

Nope, still not tired of reporting the completion of this goal. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

On an unrelated note, buy my book! 😀

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Obviously I’ve gone a little wacky this week, and it’s mostly the symptom of this goal, exaccerbated by NaNoWriMo. I have been writing like the wind, killing my wrist, and putting together a manuscript that I really hope I will be able to make something off in the months following NaNoWriMo. If I were able to write by laptop (since I’m out at work I am severely limited in what I can accomplish) I would probably have twice the word count, but I am happy to report that as of your reading this I have already written 18,598 words for NaNoWriMo so far. Now, not all of those words were this week, but if you tack on the words I wrote for recent blog posts it makes this week’s total 16,723. And remember, the overwhelming majority of that was BY HAND. I’m going to be crippled by the time I get home to my laptop, but I’ll have one hell of a notebook to bring with me.

And with that all said, I need to lay my head down for a moment and “rest my eyes”. If you hear snoring, don’t worry, it’s just, um…the gears in my head turning. Yeah, let’s go with that.

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!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 42

Man. Just, yeah….man. By the time you guys read this I hope I will have managed to have a really good night’s sleep, because at the time of writing it I am so exhausted that I literally started falling asleep while I was eating my lunch. Literally. While eating.

Unfortunately I am (once again) writing this post from the Halifax airport, as my flights were amazingly screwed up for the fourth time in the past five months. It wasn’t anyone’s fault (there was a malfunction in one of the engines on the plane I was taking out of Calgary, and the delay caused me to miss my layover to get home), but it doesn’t make the situation any less tiring and frustrating. But I’ll try not to let my fatigue affect this post. Starting now. 😛

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

Last week I told you that I’d been having stomach problems again. This week I’m going to tell you that I’ve probably lost some weight, but not for a good reason. Since my stomach problems started last week I’ve been having an awful hard time getting a decent amount of food into me. It’s like my body has decided it has an aversion to eating. I could be starving half to death, but as soon as I start trying to put food in my mouth it’s like my body flips around and says, “Wooooahh, buddy. What do you think you’re doing there?” Clearly this is not a good thing, even if I did lose a couple of pounds as a result. Luckily I’m going to see my doctor later today, so hopefully something will come of that. I’m pretty much ready to offer him an ultimatum, because going to and from work every day during my shift has become an exercise in surviving cruel and unusual punishment.

Also, I’d like to add, it is definitely some kind of inhuman torture to make people spend two hours a day sitting on a bus that doesn’t have a toilet. People in charge of the buses at work; you know who you are, and you’re evil.

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

Things slowed down a little this week, mostly because I’ve been tired, and partly because I didn’t want to overdo marketing the book. So there’s not much to report.

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

Still done! I can totally screw up the other three goals, but you can’t take this one away from me! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

This week was definitely better than the past two, mostly because I’ve been rushing to prepare the blog for NaNoWriMo time. Also, as of the writing of this post I’ve been sitting in the airport for six hours, so I had to pass the time somehow. Anyway, what with the planning and scheduling and so on and so forth, I managed to end up with 8519 words this week. My total for the year still isn’t even half of the total goal, and I’m definitely suspecting that I’m not going to finish this goal again this year, but I do also have high hopes for NaNo, so we shall see.

Until next time!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 41

Has it been a week already? This is actually quite unusual, but I feel like my shift is going by super-fast, which is awesome because I could really use my own bed and some baby snuggles right now. But I digress: it has, in fact, been a week, so here we are again!

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

I can not attest to any kind of weight loss this week, but I can talk about my health which, let’s just say, hasn’t been the greatest. My stomach problems began acting up quite violently a few days ago, and it was not a fun time. Because of this I have renewed motivation to start taking care of my health much more-so than I have been doing. At the very least, I have to start paying more attention to what I eat, although I’m not 100% convinced that my intake is what causes my stomach problems. I also plan to go see my family doctor as soon as I get home because I’m officially convinced that the meds I’ve been taking are useless and I’d very much like to try something different that might not be quite so useless.

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

Things have been a little quieter on this front the past week because I’ve actually been pretty busy (see above comment about how the shift is going by super-fast). Mostly I’ve been promoting the book and looking into more reliable ways to promote the book. That said, if you’re a book reviewer and you might be interested in giving my zombie novel a go, please contact me! It’s surprisingly difficult to find reviewers who will do e-books. *raised eyebrow*

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

DONE! 😀

Also, check it out… I added a “Buy My Book!” tab on the top banner. 🙂

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

My plan to write a bunch of blog stuff in advance didn’t go too far this week because, again, I was actually pretty busy. I did manage to write about 2000 words, which isn’t much, but is still something. I also came up with a plan for how I’m going to manage to blog through November while doing NaNoWriMo and I think it’s going to work just fine and take a bit of the stress off. So look forward to finding out about that!

For now, I’ve got more important things to concern myself with, such as curling up in bed and dreaming about selling a million books. ^_~

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 40

It’s that time of the week again, and while I don’t have much to report on the other three goals, those of you who saw my post on Monday know that there’s big news on one of them! So let’s just get right down to it…

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

Well, I can tell you that before I flew back out West two days ago I was holding steady at 4 lbs lost, and I’m highly doubtful that I’m going to lose six more in the twelve weeks I have left in this year. But I guess we shall see. I haven’t been eating too poorly of late, but I haven’t been devoting any time to my health either because, to be blunt, I’ve been focusing on other things that are more important to me right now. That’s a good excuse, right? Well, maybe not, but that’s what I’m going with anyway.

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

There has been a definite bump in my social media activity this week, for reasons that shall be discussed in a moment. Aside from the obvious, though, I also recently received an opportunity from BzzAgent because of my social media activity, which is pretty cool. If you’re curious about it, check out this vid and keep your eyes open for my campaign contributions over the next few days!

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

This is the big news, in case you missed it! This goal is 100% complete! Nowhere to Hide is now published and available for sale on Amazon, Kindle, and the CreateSpace.com e-store!

Check out the physical copy on Amazon.com to get a $1 discount off the cover price of $9.99. If you’d prefer the cheaper e-book version, remember that you don’t need to have a Kindle device to get it! You just need to download the free Kindle app on your iOS or Android device, and then you can order the e-book for $2.99.

If you do decide to pick up the book, please remember to return to Amazon or Kindle afterward and leave a review! Promotion is very important and I’m at the most difficult stage of that right now, so any help is deeply appreciated.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

The past week was another slow one because I was focused on the whole self-publishing thing. I ended the week with approximately 2000 words. But the good news is that now that Nowhere to Hide is done, I can once again focus on writing new stuff. So with NaNoWriMo coming up in less than a month, my plan moving forward is to get as much blogging planned out as possible between now and Halloween, and then totally kill NaNo with my second novel, which will be the first in a fantasy YA series. Wish me luck!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 39

Oh man…peeps, I am so disorganized this week that I almost forgot to write this post, and then I had to look up which week I’m on. So this is going to be a quick recap of the past week. Starting….now!

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

I have no idea where I am on this one this week. I haven’t weighed myself, I’ve been eating neither better nor worse, and my stomach has been fairly stoic in general. I don’t even really know what to report other than that I’m still alive and kicking, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

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

The social media world fell apart on me this week as I attempted to squeeze a bunch of important stuff into a short period of time. If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a few tweets about editing and the like, but that was probably it. I’ve got two new YouTube videos that I’ve yet to format and post, and I’ve been all but invisible on other platforms. Here’s to fixing that in the following week!

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

Finally, some good news to report! After struggling to get through my manuscript as quickly (and yet as thoroughly) as possible during the weekend, I finally managed to totally, 100%, for realsies this time, complete the absolute last copy of the novel file. Thank goodness I did that run-through too, because there were TONS of invisible typos. But that’s neither here nor there. What’s really important is that the file was uploaded to CreateSpace, everything checked out, and I am currently waiting on the edge of my seat for my physical proof copy to show up! As soon as I get that and confirm that everything prints fine, the book will finally be for sale! AHHHHHH!!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

One of these days I’m going to catch up on this one, I swear, but it won’t be today. I can tell you for sure that I wrote about 1000 words last week, but I can’t recall if there was anything aside from those 1000. I’ll catch up on it later…what’s really important right now is the whole completed novel thing. XD

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 38

I’m home! I’m home! Oh man, it is so nice to be home!

Don’t get me wrong; I actually don’t mind my work at all. But man, is it ever nice to have little-missy-snuggles, and a shower with decent water pressure, and a bed that smells right, and reasonably-fast internet, and the company of someone who makes me coffee and makes me laugh all day long.

(I had a long shift…give me this moment to glow.)

ANYway…

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

So I finally did a weigh-in this morning, and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’ve lost five pounds from what was the highest weight I’ve ever reached, so that’s pretty great. On the other hand, that five pounds brings me back down to where I started at the beginning of the year, so for the purposes of this goal I technically haven’t lost anything. But, I’m in a good mood, so I choose to take this as a win. That five pounds is almost entirely attributed to cutting soft drinks out of my diet, too. I haven’t been able to find the time to exercise (especially when I’m out at work doing my 15-hour days), but I have been able to restrict soft drinks to only certain foods (come on…you can’t drink water with pizza), and it’s made a huge difference.

On the “becoming healthier” side of things, my guts have been bothering me again, so that’s no good. But, the medic out on my work site offered me something called a “stomach protector” to test out while I’m on my days off, so we’ll see how that goes. I think the biggest thing is figuring out what my triggers are, but unfortunately that’s been more difficult than it sounds, especially since a food that I have no trouble eating one day will make me sick as a dog the next. My stomach likes to screw with me.

Also, mini-rant: when I went to see a gastroenterologist about these issues, he found nothing of any real concern, and concluded that my only problem was anxiety, which I’m tell you now actually really frustrated me, because here’s the thing… I agree that anxiety is an issue – it’s definitely the one trigger that I’m certain of – but anxiety did not cause my stomach problems. Stomach problems caused my anxiety. I bring this up now because I met a new coworker this past shift who has the exact same kinds of stomach problems and got the exact same explanation from his doctor. So I’d just like to say to the gut-doctor’s of the world: having major stomach problems is a very anxious situation, so please keep that in mind before telling people that their earth-shaking cramps and intestinal distress are effectively all in their minds.

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

I’m going to make a confession: I’m obsessed with stats. I check my blog stats about a dozen times a day, and probably once a day I check all of my social networks to see if I’ve gained or lost any followers. Doing so actually makes it difficult to really see how well you’re doing, because tend to focus on the little things, like the Twitter user that stopped following you today, or the fact that what you thought was a well-written blog post got no likes or comments. But when you force yourself to look at the big picture things become a little more clear. Since January I’ve gained about a hundred followers on this blog, which is about a 50% increase. In the past several months I’ve doubled my Twitter followers. I’ve dramatically increased my LinkedIn network over the past year and have actually been getting blog hits as a result. I’ve only had my Facebook Fan Page for a few months, but it has over 100 followers. All in all, I have to tell myself that I must be doing okay, because I’m in a much nicer spot today than I was on January 1st.

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

Yes, I’m still in super-excitement mode on this goal! Last week I got some final notes back from my beta-reader, and I’ve made a couple of small changes based on those thoughts. I also reformatted the manuscript to a nicer-looking font, justified everything, and took some online advice for what kinds of margins to utilize. I now have a properly formatted, nice-looking file, and all I have to do is go through it one more time to scour for hidden typos. As soon as I’m finished with that, I’ll submit the file, wait the 24 hours it takes CreateSpace to approve the file (thanks for being so quick, CS!) and officially order my proof copies! And then I’ll twiddle my thumbs for approximately 5 business days, getting ever-more-anxious to see the end result. Wish me luck!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

I haven’t been doing a very good job of reporting on this goal lately, and I’m going to continue that trend today. Rest assured that I have been keeping track, but my word-counts are scribbled on bits of paper that are tucked in a notebook that’s still packed in my carry-on suitcase, and I just don’t feel like going through all that right now. I will tell you that I wrote somewhere in the ballpark of about 3000 words toward blog posts this past week, which should bring me up around 200,000 words total. That’s not even halfway, and we’re almost in October, but as I mentioned before I have every intention of absolutely murdering NaNoWriMo this year, so hopefully that will help.

Now, with all that said, if you don’t mind I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the wondrous world that is my own house. Weeeeee!