Retrospective and Looking Ahead

In my mind, these two things are combined right now, so that’s how they’re going to come out on paper.

Writing

I attended the Oregon Coast Professional Fiction Writers Workshop, and as dramatic as it sounds, it changed my life. I’m a different writer for it, and I’m grateful for that.

I wrote 160,365 words this year on fiction. This was the first full year I’d kept track of my word count, so I have nothing to compare this figure with. It looks impressive, but doesn’t break down as well as I’d like. My biggest month was March, with 41,229, thanks to OCW. My smallest months were January (hm…packing for an international move, dealing with an injured husband, running a major SCA event, then moving to the US and putting a bid on a house. Yeah, I can accept that.), September (vacation in VA, and then depressed about leaving Sarah. Understandable, but not good excuses overall.), and October (Great Western War, plus…who knows. Bad.), all at less than 5000 words.

I’ve started two romances, my first since What Beck’ning Ghost in the early 90s (which is making the rounds again now that paranormals are hot). Neither are finished (but see those goals!). I re-started Jewel Tones and stalled on it again. I’m trying too hard to make it perfect.

My files are in a bit of disarray, but I have 18-20 stories in circulation right now (more than I’ve ever had), in fantasy, mystery, romance, and erotica (first year for mystery, and first in a long time for romance). The way I track responses doesn’t make counting easy, but suffice to say that for the most part, stories get fired back out within a few days of being rejected.

I completed at least 16 new stories. I wasn’t good about keeping the list current, and there are a few more that aren’t on there, I’m sure. Last year I completed only 6, and mailed only 3 new ones. It looks like I mailed at least 12. Two were trunked (one was the first mystery I’ve ever written, at OCW, and it was lame; the other was a flash fic that I’ll probably use the basic idea for in a longer story).

I sold seven stories, more than I’ve ever sold in one year. All were semi-pro sales, I think. Six were erotica. Hmm… Two other stories, sold previously, saw print, and not all of this year’s sales are in print yet.

On to goals. Right now my daily minimum wordcount is 500, and I’m sticking to that through January, whereupon I’ll bump it up. I hope to do more than that on any given day, but the low goal means that I’m more apt to sit down and get that minimum done on days when I’m busy or tired or travelling. I’m more interested in regular production than amazing daily counts right now. If I take more than a day off, I really lose momentum, and it becomes harder and harder to get back into a project.

I plan to finish BH in January (we’re going to Portland for six days, and on three of those days Ken will be working, and I intend to write a _lot_ those days). I’ll then do another pass through and clean up all the [insert this here] and [??] and [switch bedrooms around] notes, and get it out to beta readers. Then I want to finish AETW well before the end of March, when Sarah should be visiting and we’re going to attempt to write _A Little Night Music_ (a Blaze) in a week. I also have quite a few stories that need rewriting so I can send them out; I’m not sure whether I’m going to take a week of between novels to work on them, or take a day each week, or what. I have more romance novel ideas, but also want to get back to work on JT, so I’ll make some decisions in April about what comes next.


Health/Personal

I lost 15 pounds this year, thanks to moving back to CA and healthy fast food and so forth. I’d like to lose at least another 15 in 2003. I’ve been eating healthier, but could still stand a lot of improvement, so that’s a goal. I was good at exercising for about 4 months thanks to the spiffy exercise machine, but once I started chiropractic work I stopped using the machine because it involved my shoulder. My shoulder’s ready to start that again. I need to remember that I can also walk, dance, etc. And I need to remember that not all exercise has to involve putting on workout clothes and stretching and getting sweaty and showering. Marching in place for 10-15 minutes while watching TV counts. Doing some slow ab work while watching TV counts. Vacuuming counts.

I way raised by stoics (“don’t complain”) and still have a hard time accepting that when something’s not feeling right, I can go to the doctor. Chiropractic work has changed my life. I’m no longer in chronic pain; I no longer get sinus headaches. I had my first gyn checkup in four years (thanks to the UK’s practise of checking every three years—I got my “you’re due” note a few weeks before we left) and abnormal cells were found and removed, making me very, very glad I’m back. I had another minor surgery to remove an annoying bit, and I learned that the fluttering in my chest, which I’d feared was asthma, was my esophagus. I’m on acid-reflux meds and sailing along fine now.

I’ve cut down to one caffeinated beverage/day and am quite happy with decaf tea. I started out the year drinking a good amount of water, but I’ve faltered in later months, so need to step that up.

Two other small goals for 2003: floss regularly, and wash my face before bed.


House

We bought a house! and it’s wonderful. We didn’t make our goals for renovations, for a variety of reasons, but we’re still moving ahead. Because of the library and the SCA wardrobe not being done, we have a lot of “stuff” that doesn’t have a home, and sometimes the place feels cluttered. However, Ken and I had a good talk about maintenance and small things we need to be doing regularly to keep things neat and clean. Daily things like dishes and making the bed and putting away clothes and recycling junk mail. Weekly things like vacuuming and scrubbing toilets. Etc. We’ve already started this, and it’s working.


SCA

I decided not to go for a major job here this year, and although I’m disappointed, I know it was the right decision based on how my life is right now.

We started the year off with a bang by running Drachenwald Coronation in Caerphilly Castle. We then moved back to Caid and promptly found ourselves on the staff of Great Western War, which we’ll be doing again this year. We’re also jointly the local Avant Courier. We made some garb, and I’d like to finish more garb projects in 2003 (especially finish the ones that have been started and are languishing, before I make new stuff). I want to continue to help out at whatever level the opportunity presents itself, whether it be serving at the upcoming Twelfth Night feast or copy editing BoD documents at the Society level.


Other

No e-mail (unless it’s information-only) shall remain unanswered for more than 1 month. I’ve gotten better at keeping up on mail, but want to get even more efficient, because a crowded In Box bugs me.

I’d like to (finally!) start our website (but work on this will be done _only_ after writing!)

I’d like to do more craft stuff, which I think will happen naturally once the solar is set up with my drafting table.

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(#) With a flourish to Glen Burtnik for the title of this entry.