Quarterly Goals - Where Am I Headed?

Oh look, a post almost 4 hours late. On brand.

We have reached another 5th Wednesday! These are the days in which I share my goals for the quarter and see how I fared with the ones from the previous quarter. It looks like in June, I mentioned that September of 2020 was also a quarterly goals post, and so I could see how I did after a year. Let's see:

My first major goal was to get back into the swing of things. Result: Eh.

Yeah, about that swing. On the bright side, I've been more active on social media to draw attention to Fractured Princess. Trying to do the whole brand thing is not really my thing, and the Instagram Promo Bots comment more than my actual followers, but I suppose it's a start. Writing-wise, I'm really excited about where The Shattered Chronicles is going, but I once again have to figure out all the letters between Point A and Point Z.

Reading-wise, I'm reading N.K. Jemisin's The City We Became right now, and I am loving it! I read "The City Born Great" when she put that out, and it starts off the book with a little twist to get the big story rolling. Here is the cool cover art and the blurb.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

This story is Nora's love letter to New York, and I wish I loved Dover that much. haha I can't wait to see what happens, and if I'm lucky, this will get me back into the reading habit! Monster Pulse, one of the web comics I've been reading for over 10 years just ended recently (sob), so I've started another one that I actually started reading years ago and forgot. So, I guess I can't say I haven't been reading; I've been consistent with the web comics. I'm actually reading 4 right now: The Undeath of Me, White Noise, Love Not Found, and Sleepless Domain. Some others that I was reading have sadly fallen off due to either life happening or website issues, but I hope to see some of them return in the future.

My second major goal was to find a job I really want to do. Result: Eh??

So, as I was looking through LinkedIn daily and trying to sift through what were real job postings (we just can't get away from bots anywhere!), I thought to myself, "It would be nice if there was a website where we could post what we do, and people reach out to us instead of the other way around." Then, I remembered Fiverr. It was staring me in the face this whole time! I used Fiverr to get in touch with a cartographer for my book, and people post their "gigs" there to gain work. Whereas I've tried other places where you have to still look through jobs and present yourself over and over to clients, the clients come to you on Fiverr. So, I created a seller account there for proofreading and editing, which I love to do! Now, I just need clients. I also took a few weeks to proofread my Managing Editor's first book, and he said he would recommend me to the publisher for gigs. That would be a big step in the direction I want to go. I had a freelance proofreading job way back after I graduated college, and doing it again felt so good. I wish there were more jobs like that online.

All that said, I'm back in the office full-time, no telecommuting, although I probably could've asked to. I just thought if I don't have to be home, I shouldn't. Curse my work ethic (although I am posting this at work right now). Plus, there is a lot of archiving that I'm now responsible for, so I have to be here to work on filing. Blah.

My goals for the next three months are to just continue making progress on all I'm getting back into. I think starting vague can be helpful sometimes. Less chance of disappointment.

See you in October!

January Review

 

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Well, here I was thinking it was the 3rd Wednesday in January and contemplating if I wanted to put in a blog every other week instead of weekly, aaaand it's the 4th Wednesday. I've failed. But that's okay! Now I get to review the month, what I read, what I wrote, what this month has been like.

This week, I read "Emergency Skin" by N.K. Jemisin, It is Book #3 in the Forward Collection, and I forgot that it wasn't a collection by itself but part of one. That said, I need to go back and at least preview the other stories.

This one is in kind of in 2nd person? It's more like dialogue. Someone's talking to "you" as you're moving along, but then real dialogue starts. You never hear what you're saying, just the responses. It was very interesting, and in this day and age, when I realized what was actually happening in the story, it was very timely. I especially love the last few lines. Please read it.

I started writing in one of my romances. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I do remember saying once that I want to revamp fan fictions I wrote but into standard contemporary fictions. I'm really excited about this one. It's emotionally charged, and I get to play with writing songs for it, which I did the first time, too.

I also started looking over my NA urban fantasy. There are some things I need to change, and it might be shorter than I expect it to be. I'll see how it goes. As for my sequel to Fractured Princess, I need to look through that again, too. FP itself is next in line for editing, so that will have to come first. I've already talked to the editor about a few things, so while the book won't totally change, there will be a couple of significant tweaks in the re-release. I'm excited about it.

This weekend, DVPit is having a virtual convention. Registration might still be open, so if you are a marginalized writer, I suggest peeking over there if you have time. The website is: https://www.dvpit.com/dvcon.

Enjoy the rest of January!

IWSG: I Entered DVPit Again

Happy October! Fall is my favorite season, so I'm happy it's here. And with a new month comes our Insecure Writer's Support Group, a chance for us writers to share our insecurities with each other! Feel free to join in at www.insecurewriterssuportgroup.com. There you can visit the Sensei, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the co-hosts for the month, and other insecure writers.

For me, I entered DVPit again. It's been a year since I first pitched my manuscript through this Twitter pitch contest for marginalized writers. I had so many hits from agents and editors that I didn't know what to do with myself. Unfortunately, I rushed through revisions that I was in the middle of and queried a manuscript that wasn't ready. So despite actually getting one full request on my query, I still came up with no offers.

Since then, I received a full edit letter from Jodi Meadows, won a query critique from Laura Pohl, and went through a grueling critique group over the summer. You would think that with the work I've put in this year, I'd feel ready, but when I saw those likes comes in this time, I just remember last year and get so nervous. I didn't even get as many likes as I did last year (had my one tweet not had comps, I probably would have had even less). I'm trying to convince myself that things will work out this time, but I'm not really sure.

Hope someone else is feeling more confident than I do! Or not, let me know.

IWSG: New Schedule Progress and DVPit Day!



Brought to us by Alex J. Cavanaugh-sensei
and the Insecure Writer's Support Group.

Happy Hump Day!

I can't believe October is here. Anyone else failing on their Goodreads challenge this year? I feel like if I buckle down during November, I can catch up. Maybe do NaNoReadMo' lol. I'm so corny.

Anyway, I changed my blogging schedule last month, and I'm really enjoying it. I was even thinking to myself, "Do I post a blog yet? Do I do it now? Yay, I get to post what I'm reading!" And that's what I needed: to be excited about blogging again.

Today also is the second go-round for the DVPit contest for marginalized voices! I hope I'll have a chance to throw a couple of pitches out there. I read a very inspiring article about my hero, Issa Rae, and she said one of her goals is to show black people just being ordinary, and I love that. That's one of my goals, too. People need to see black people and other marginalized groups just plain living in stories, and that is what I plan to do in my books.

Now, the IWSG question for the month: When do you know if your story is ready?

Oh man, are WE supposed to know that? lol Um...well, I guess for most, when you have beta readers and critique partners tell you. For those of us not that lucky with maintaining either, I feel like it might be hit or miss. Overall, I'm relying mostly on myself, which is tough, but that's life sometimes.