July Goals

Last week got away from me. There were the end of month/beginning of month duties I normally have plus extra coverage for time off here and there. We all love our extra long holiday weekends, but there is a price to pay for them.

I didn't do well on my goals last month. That is probably an understatement. I did manage to write 20 more pages of D&D and do a lot of research. I also joined the new Sunday group (UGWP) so that I can get better at giving and receiving critiques. It's a bit more work for me, but I think it will be worth it. I also cleaned out the blue room so I can finally organize it as a writing room. That should help, too. There's something about having a signal that says, "It's time to work now."

So, since I didn't make my wimpy goals last month, I'm setting harder ones this month. It seems to work for Jenny, Ali and Deb when they do it.

For July:

--Outline changes for HM. There are a lot and I need to know how I'm going to weave them into what is already there.
--Revise first 3 chapters of HM. My chapters are fairly short so this isn't that much of a stretch.
--Write 25 pages of D&D rough. I am dropping my expectations here. My focus seems to be turning back to HM right now.
--Complete UGWP critiques. I have read all the submissions. I just need to write up summaries for all of them.
--Research 6 yoga positions. I want to be more specific about the research I am doing.
--Research 2 massage techniques. Ditto.

That should keep me busy.

It Has To Be Said

It's a good thing the boss is out of town for a wedding. The last two days all Deb has done is listen to her new GBS album. Every time I go past her office, I can hear it playing. And she's staring off into space with a goofy expression on her face.

And we all know that next week she's going to be complaining that she didn't have any time to write this month. Two days! I mean, they are a good band, but come on.

I don't get some people.

Summer Reading

I have been buying more mysteries over the past few weeks. Even though I haven't read all of the ones I bought last year. Now I have been reading more recently. And some of the ones I bought were overdue. Like Beth's book, some by Maggie Sefton and the first Diane Mott Davidson--all Colorado mystery authors.

But it bothered me that I was spending more money on books, even though many were from Hooked on Books, the used book store near work. Then it hit me.

Summer reading. That's what I did every summer as a kid. I wasn't particularly athletic. Living in the country meant that often there weren't many kids around to play with. So I read. A lot. Now that it's June, my brain kicks into reading overdrive. So it's okay, even understandable, that I would make sure I have a lot of reading on hand.

Is there a particular time of year when you tend to read more or less? Why do you think that is? And when you do get in reading "overdrive", what do you like to read?

Not Too Bad

I received the last of my verbal critiques on Sunday. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. That's not to say that all the feedback was positive. Far from it. But with each negative comment came a good suggestion on how to fix it. There were differences of opinion. Pretty typical.

My next step is to read through the written comments on the pages. I may have time this weekend. Then I'll digest everything, decide what I'm going to change and what to leave alone then start revisions next month.

Thank you to Ali, Deb, Fleur, Jenny, John, Mary and Nicole for their time and comments. You do rock.

Goals

I didn't make my goal of 50 pages for D&D this month. I made it to 29, which isn't bad. I think part of the reason may be the nervous anticipation of my first critique tonight. I know it's probably silly, but I almost feel like I need to wait until I get feedback on HM before proceeding with D&D. Maybe not silly since they are the same genre. If what I did in HM doesn't work for it as a cozy mystery, I am probably doing the same things wrong in D&D.

Goals for June:

--Get feedback on HM
--Write 50 pages of D&D once I process HM feedback
--Leave HM alone for the month
--Continue research

Not Slacking

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been much to report on my progress with D&D. There are new pages, but not a lot. A scene here or there in between tasks at work. Not like with the beginning of HM when I generated page after page. Of course, that was during NaNoWriMo. Maybe I should pretend it's November. Might help.

Using Ali's idea of listing what I have accomplished, I see that I haven't exactly been idle. Research seems to be at the top of the list right now. That's not a bad thing. A lot of different things happen at spas that I don't know much about. I need to find out the way those things work so I don't sound like an idiot when I write about them. I have even more research to do about migrant workers for the jewelry series.

The blue bedroom seems to have collected a lot of junk since last year. Saturday was a clearing out day. One step closer to being a lilac writing room. I moved the Spooky's food dish out to the kitchen, but she doesn't like the relocation. I'm giving her a week to get used to it. If she doesn't, I will have to find a Plan B.

Even though it feels like May is just about over, I have almost two weeks to accomplish more. I may get to my page count goal yet.

Bead Weaving

Friday evening was Mary's jewelry party. Imagine two rooms filled with beautiful beaded jewelry. Women wandered back and forth, picking up one thing then another. Five, six, seven times through and I know I missed things that I would have loved. As it was I purchased two necklace/earring sets and two necklaces.

The second part of the evening was the bead weaving lesson. I learned a few things I have been doing wrong. A couple pieces can stay as they are, but one or two will be changed. I picked a moderately complicated piece to use as a template. Mary's clear instructions and drawn pattern helped a lot. Although I was slow, it did make it through with only minor problems. I'll post a picture when I get a chance to take one. And I feel like I can better figure out how to duplicate other pieces I liked.

I now have the fever to do more beading this month. I may have to make time to do that.