Category Archives: Milestones

NaNoWriMo: 11.11.11

Over in NaNo Land, there is a challenge for today. 11,111 words and/or 11 hours of writing time. I’m going with – what ever comes first. 50 minutes in and I have accomplished 1144 words which is impressive for me. 11,111 words seem extremely far-fetched and a somewhat asinine accomplishment for me but I’m going to try. Not only would it help me catch up, it would put me slightly ahead. On the upside, my cold – which has kept me rather sidelined – is starting to let up thus making word count easier to achieve.

At the end of my 50 minute crazy word sprint action, Anubis decided to come visit. I have an aromatherapy candle burning on the desk – the scent is suppose to help clear the mind and inspire creativity (it seems to help) – and Anubis jumped up on the desk then sniffed the flame. That’s right. He sniffed the flame. He backed off and ran away so fast that he was just a blur of ink and claws. (He’s fine. I think he lightly burned the tip of a whisker but he’ll recover.) Has my four year old cat never seen fire before? It baffles the mind. It ranks right up there with yesterday with a four foot tall stuffed duck had his hair standing on end. He was running around and hissing like the duck was alive and invading the territory. My cat – afraid of stuffed animals and sniffer of fire.

I should get back to the other writing even though I’ve been pretty much writing everything and anything but what I set out to originally write. I’ve only put down 1200 words or so toward Reaper’s Moon and another 1000 to Midnight Red. Twisted Fortunes has picked up a respectable 2000 words and The Yoder Girl picked up 500 words this morning. The rest of my current 13,334 word count has gone toward A Hundred Flames, general poetry and the tarot-inspired poetry project.


Release Day and Birthday!

Today is the official release day for The Heart of Autumn. Super excited about it because it is has been a long time coming. Poetry doesn’t typically get published all that often by larger publishing houses and self-publishing use to have really bad rap. Nowadays it can be far more lucrative to self-publish so here I am with my first full-length chapbook. Publishing in magazines, newspapers and eZines were fantastic goals but they don’t quite compare to the sheer awesomeness that is the book.

The Heart of Autumn Paperbacks

To make the day more fantastic or more odd – can’t decide which – it is my 30th birthday. Is this where I pictured myself to be at 30? Not so much. Truthfully, I had hoped to have the book sooner and I figured I’d be in a different place socially & personally. Still, I’m shocked to be 30. Where does the time go? There are times where I feel older and then there are those plethora of moments where I think I’m 16-17 although I shudder in horror at my years as a teenager. Those growing pains were harsh as one will discover in the poetry books, The Tears of Spring and The Breath of Summer, coming out in 2012.

I find myself pondering my goals for this next year of life. Goals are always a wonderful thing even if sticking to them is an entirely different situation. I’m confident I can stick to the goals I have so far:

  • Publish The Soul of Winter, The Tears of Spring, and The Breath of Summer
  • Finish and publish Reaper’s Moon, possibly submit it to some publishing houses first
  • Finish and publish Twisted Fortunes
  • Finish and publish Midnight Red
  • Put together another chapbook of more current works
  • Continue to grow my editing business
  • Continue on the ever rocky path to my weight loss goal
  • Downsize the contents of my home

For gifts this year, I actually got some gift gifts from an unexpected place, Devin O’Branagan. Over the past 9-10 months, Devin has become a close friend but still, wasn’t expecting gifts from anyone really. She gave me a copy of Pretty Souls by Julie Particka and a statue of the Goddess Iemanjá that came all the way from Brazil. This year’s other gifts were funds for 2 dental surgeries from my mom and I bought myself a whole heap of books from the three local Borders stores. So sad that Borders has met its demise but I am ecstatic for cheap books. Still I managed to spend way more than I should have. I bought at least 60 books so that should get me through 3 months of reading. Finally publishing a chapbook is a big gift too.

Dental surgery last Thursday and lingering pain aside, it is has been a pretty nice birthday.


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