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!

———-

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 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. ^_~