Shall We Make a Fresh Start?

In June of 2012, I stumbled across the blog Round of Words in 80 Days. It was about the same time as I was trying to decide if I wanted to start a second blog. I’d been posting to The Dino Chronicles since the spring of 2010, but that blog was mostly about my adventures in life, both the past and present. I thought I should write a blog just about my adventures in writing. And so I started this one.

Since that time, I’ve been trying to write here on Sundays and Wednesdays, sharing my writing goals and the successes I have had with them. I’ve posted that progress to the ROW80 Linky-thing. Starting today, I believe officially, Kait Nolan, the founder of ROW80 has changed the guidelines and we will be posting our blogs (or other writerly items) to the ROW80 Facebook page instead of to the Linky-thing on her blog.

In light of that, I’m changing the way I post to this blog as well. I am going to continue (to the best of my ability) to post my goals and progress on Sundays. On Wednesdays (or maybe Tuesdays or even Thursdays), if I have the muse, I will post helpful hints for writers and readers, such as writing tips (as if I were the pro on that!) or book reviews. Anything I find or am inspired to write about writing.

All that being said, what are my current goals?

From now until the end of the year, I hope to:

1)      Finish writing my current novel, “The Big House” (working title only, I’m sure that will change as soon as a better title strikes me).

2)      Continue researching publishers for my first novel “Where the Sky Meets the Sand”. I submitted it to one publisher earlier this week (super-yeah!), but I shouldn’t put all my eggs in that basket. If (and when!) I get a rejection, I want to have another home waiting in the wings.

3)      Do some editing on my two memoirs. Neither one has so much as a working title (loser!), so let’s just name them: “Pat’s Story” (that’s benign enough, the story of my sister’s battle with cancer) and “Two More Trips To Africa” (about my second and third trips to Kenya).

4)      Continue posting to my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles” three times a week.

5)      Finalize the next trip to Kenya for my daughter’s nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers. It’s still up in the air if I will be going back in the spring as the team leader, or if my daughter is. That has to be decided by the end of the year.

6)      Get my body in shape. I had my yearly physical on Friday and even though my provider didn’t give me a you-rah-rah peptalk, I have some options. As much as I hate taking drugs, I’m going to be faithful with the ibuprofen twice a day for two weeks to see if that settles down the inflammation in most of my joints. I’m also seeing an orthopedist for my Achilles heel tendinitis. I’ll be sure to let you know what he thinks. I’m also seeing the chiropractor for my back. See what a wreck I am!!!!

Wow, I really think that is enough, don’t you? I am off from the day job this week, and of course am already booked up. But I will try to work on some of this stuff, as well as decide on what I should really try to tackle each week.

Hope to hear from lots of my fellow ROW80’ers on Facebook. I’ll check in with as many of you as I can.