Merry Christmas!

Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.
— Thomas S. Monson

Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows.
— Edwin Osgood Grover

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.
— Eric Severeid

Hope everyone is having a good Christmas (or whatever it is you celebrate).

I usually look at the week between Christmas and New Year’s as my time for looking back on the year behind me and figuring out a game plan for the year ahead. The fact that this post falls on Christmas Day is unfortunate, but it doesn’t change the content.

So let’s start by taking a quick look at my goals from last year:
1. Finishing – start tackling my pile of unfinished books and short stories, one at a time.
2. Selling – start submitting more of my work for publication.
3. Writing – start every day with a timed writing, set aside time for other writing as well.
4. Learning – put a little effort into learning something new every day.

Doesn’t seem too unreasonable, does it? But how did I do . . . that, is the question.

1. Finishing. Well . . . I finished Magical Mayhem, so there’s that. But I would not say that one out of eleventy billion books/stories qualifies as a success.

2. Selling. I made a token attempt at the beginning of last year, but that fizzled out pretty quickly. I think I need to come up with some kind of system. Like, dedicate one morning a week where that’s all I do – look for markets and submit stuff.

3. Writing. Writing should go without saying, but in this case it was at the very least writing every day. I made a strong start with this, doing what I called my three-minute words. I’d pick a word at random and then free write for three minutes. This worked really well until I turned these random words into a serial. And when it ended, I started a new serial but I wasn’t using random words so I wasn’t writing every day. So I guess this would be a half win.

4. Learning. Well, this was a big, fat fail. I paid for a bunch of classes, but never did them. There was no set time to start them, so hopefully they can still be used this year. I did go to the Kingston Writersfest where I participated in most of the masterclasses, so I guess it wasn’t a total failure, but I still don’t know how to use Dropbox properly.

As you can see, I didn’t do too well on my goals last year. In fact, I really sucked. And I have no good reason for it either. I guess you could say I was in the wrong head space for most of it. This isn’t always something I can change, but I am learning to live with it.

The week ahead is going to be one of reflection on how I can improve my writing habits. Maybe 2023 will be the year it sticks.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

What kind of a crazy person has time for blog posting before Christmas? Me, apparently. To be fair though, Monday’s post on the other blog was videos, and Wednesday’s was a repeat of the only Christmas poem I’ve ever written. I think I might make this a yearly tradition.

The hardest post to do was the serial installment, and it wasn’t that I didn’t have time to do it, I just wasn’t sure what happens next. So I really struggled with it, and I think it shows. I’m really not looking forward to the first meeting between Izolda and Nikolai because it’s going to be a pivotal moment in the story

This week’s distractions included the mother-in-law's funeral, visiting with out-of-town relatives, finishing up the Christmas shopping, making fudge, and the big ass storm that hit late Friday afternoon and is just beginning to dissipate today. If you’re on my Facebook page you’ll have seen the failure of my first double batch of chocolate fudge. The second batch worked well, as did the double batches of peanut butter fudge and peppermint fudge. Single batches included almond fudge, chocolate mint fudge, and caramel fudge (which never really set right, but that was okay because it tasted terrible).

Friday started out raining, but the temperature dropped rapidly and the wind picked up to gale force by mid-afternoon. Most of the town lost power, but we are fortunate enough to live in the narrow strip of town that didn’t.

NEW WORDS:
1842+159+548+612=3,161
DOWN – 110 words from last week

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts done early.

EDITING:
0 pages
Due to time constraints and social obligations, I got no editing done. However, I did think about it at least.

Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.

MARKETING:
I made no inroads in making an Amazon page (to be honest, I forgot all about it), and I’m sure it’s easier than I think it is. Nor did I start filling out the paperwork to be included in the book promotion site. I’m starting to think this is going to be something to attempt in the New Year.

Goal For Next Week:
Look into developing an author page on Amazon, work on the book promotion form.

TECH & TRAINING:
I did not look into doing anything with Dropbox. It keeps getting lost in the shuffle of the minutiae of life.

Goal For Next Week:
Start backing up files to Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I cheated a bit on the poetry post last week, I recycled an old poem. But it’s the only Christmas poem I have, so it is what it is. I’m actually thinking about posting it every Christmas, at least until I come up with a new one.

This month’s prompt for my poetry group is pretty interesting, encompassing an entire year in verse. It might behoove me to get started on it early.

Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form; work on my poemwork.

CRAFTING:
I had no time for crafting last week, not even so much as a row or two on my afghan. So, I made fudge. And whipped shortbread. Only the out-of-towners got ornaments this year, everyone else will have to settle for cookies and fudge. It is what it is (which is apparently my new motto).

Goal For Next Week:
Work on the craft migration, work on the afghan.

WHAT I’M READING:
Didn’t have a whole lot of time for reading last week, but I’m almost Unnatural Creatures, which is an anthology of stories selected by Neil Gaiman. I did read a very old romance anthology called the Night Before Christmas to get me in the Christmas spirit. The nice thing about rereading something from years ago is that only one of the stories was vaguely familiar.

Goal For Next Week:
Start making a little time to read every day.

GOAL REVIEW:

Once again I got all my blog posts done, which is really saying something considering it was the week before Christmas.

It’s not surprising that I did no editing and no marketing, because hello, Christmas. Plus there was some family chaos and shopping to do and fudge to make.

I did not do a new poetry form, but I did get a post up.

No crafting, Christmas or otherwise. I’m really hoping to start the great craft migration this week, but I’ve got a bunch of stuff going on this week, so we’ll have to see. At the very least I’d like to see how far I can get on the afghan.

The mother-in-law’s funeral was not all that dramatic, but there was a lot of drama both before and after. I tell you, it’s a shame I don’t write for the soaps, I’d have fodder for years.

Last week wasn’t as stressful as I expected it to be, but on the other hand, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. I’m grateful we pretty much finished our shopping on Thursday, because the storm was pretty epic.

Here’s hoping for a happy and healthy New Year.