Happy Ending of a Bad Week

I did not have a good week. Multiple things went awry for me.  A few long stories which are not worth repeating. I will just push on.

Here is that list of goals for April, May, and June. Green highlight is goal accomplished (for the week at least), yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted. A Smiley face marks a goal completely done for the Round. If I didn’t give it any color, it’s because I couldn’t really work on that goal for whatever reason, and I just didn’t want to drag in another color. 

A. WRITING

J 1. Finish a final edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.”  Done, on April 5, but really? When is the editing ever done?

J 2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. Tweaked that query and first chapter and emailed it May 16 to the third agent on my list.    

3. Write eight chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.” Still going slow, but making progress. Up to 3,374 words and worked on chapter three.  

J 4. Write a piece to submit to the Guidepost Magazine Writers Contest (deadline June 10).  It’s written, edited and emailed off to the Contest people. 

5. Write three posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. I had decided to cut back to twice a week, as I decided it’s more important to have a life. I posted twice this week, and also reposted an article I wrote back in February, so that hits this goal.

 

B. REACHING

J 1. Continue sending that proposal / query to each next agent on my list. As mentioned above, I emailed another query to another agent on May 16. (Current agent tally - submitted to 3, rejected by 2.)  

J 2. Submit the polished piece to Guidepost’s Contest. Emailed it on June 5.    

J 3. Submit a poem I wrote a while back to the next issue of Voices on the Wind Poetry Journal (deadline April 20). Submitted, accepted and published!      

4. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. Sent a “hello” to all of my new LinkedIn contacts. That was pretty painless.  

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. I’m still a week behind, so am working on it.     

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.  I’ve been reading an entry each day, even if I am still two weeks behind by date.  

3. Finish reading three other books. Read two books and am 70% finished with the third.    

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake. Most days I have been doing pretty good.

b. Cut way back on my sweets intake. Again, this is a mixed bag, and unfortunately usually a mixed bag of chocolates.  

J  c. Do whatever my specialist says to do that is going to heal my heel.  I’ve decided I am done with this goal. I did the best I could, and I will have to live with the occasional pain and other inconveniences.     

2. Home fires

J a. Clean out my mom’s papers. Finished up with the lawyer on Friday to sign the final papers. Whew! 

b. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet.

J c. Plant my garden. Flowers are planted, vegetable garden is planted.      

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not started.

J b. Host two merchandise sales. Have had three of them – all successful – since the first of April.    

J c. Return to Kenya this Spring! As you already know!

d. Had a meeting yesterday, which was productive.

After the meeting of the nonprofit yesterday, I ran to a friend’s wedding. Didn’t stay long but had a good time. Here we are, my three friends I worked with nearly 20 years ago,  so I guess my bad week at least had a happy ending.