Before we get to that, here’s a photo of the Denver sky, 2008. My sky photos like this one don’t usually work, but I think this came out great. I stumbled across it looking at photos of the Denver national Mensa gathering where I met TYG.
As usual for January, I did well meeting goals — 76 percent. What surprised me is that I did much better with my writing goals than usual, probably because I really thought them out this year and tried to keep them realistic.
I completed Schedule C for my taxes (that one covers my writing income)
I finished the next to last draft of Southern Discomfort and sent it out to beta readers.
I started rewriting The Impossible Takes a Little Longer and I got two redrafts in on No One Can Slay Her.
I finally broke myself of wasting too much time on email.
I wanted to get the cover selected for the Atoms for Peace short-story collection and fix the cover problems for the Createspace Atlas Shagged. But the paying work I’m doing for Leaf squeezed that stuff out. However I did keep my goal of putting in at least 1,000 words of fiction a day, despite the paying gigs.
On the personal stuff, I got my bicycling and walking goals done by default: I have a “weather permitting” out and the weather this month really didn’t permit. Okay, technically I could go cycling in freezing weather — I’ve done it before — but l’m willing to cut myself some slack.
By meditating in the morning, before the dogs are up, I’m finally doing it regularly, though not always effectively (but that’s why I practice). I’d like to do something at the end of the day to mark the break from work but Plushie and Trixie don’t see much point in the contemplative life (“Daddy, play now! Now Daddy!”).
I think you can see why my sweet pup distracts me so.
There were several projects I’d hoped to start, such as finding where some of my English relatives are buried, but I didn’t get very far with that. The missed goal that surprised me most was not keeping the bird feeder filled — I didn’t buy bird seed one week and when the blizzard hit, the food ran out. My bad.
I don’t know how well I’ll do next month, as I have a trip to Mysticon planned and the Leaf work. I’m taking that into account setting my goals, but I fear it will slow me down for the year. But I like money and I like being a con guest, so there you are.
#SFWApro
