2010 Accomplishments?

I said to my husband as I was going to bed last night, “I have so much to do this week! [insert list].   And next week I need to write those exams…”  And then I realized that this is almost the exact thing I’ve said EVERY WEEK for the last…I have no idea how many months.  Life is just busy.  To centralize my To Do Lists, I’ve started using the Intuition app on my iPhone, and I’ve made categories for all the different stuff I need to get done, including writing.  It’s not quite as gratifying to tap a button and see a line cross of that item as it is to cross it off on paper, but it’s keeping me organized.

I’m moving forward on Devil’s Eye, and barring unforeseen complications, I expect to have a first draft finished in 3 weeks (2 if I really hoof it, but I’m not holding my breath).  Which then leaves me with approximately 3 months (less probably a week of revisions to DE) to write Edge of Shadow, the novella follow-up to Forsaken By Shadow, which follows one of the other escapees from Fort Hurley. It’s slated to come in a little bit longer than FBS, around 40k, best I remember (I haven’t opened the outline since I started DE).  It is next on the docket simply because of all the potential projects floating around in my brain, it stands the best chance of actually being finished and ready for distribution in time for Christmas when half the world gets a new Kindle.  It’s a purely marketing decision as to what comes next.  And, okay, it’s a frantic last ditch effort to say “I did something this year!” because I feel very much like my goals have been massively derailed.

Pot thinks I’m being unreasonably hard on myself, and I probably am.  I just feel like I haven’t accomplished all that much.  At least until she made me start listing it.  I finished FBS, released and promoted it (which, let’s face it, takes time, especially the first time when you’re still learning).  I’ve continued to grow my internet footprint and maintain my blogging and Twitter following.  I will have written and released a novelette (Devil’s Eye) as a freebie which is more promo.  I’ve helped found the Indie Book Collective (launching September 13th!  More on that later).  I’ve written two college classes from scratch (no small feat on top of other jobs).  I’ve (mostly) maintained a regular food blog at Pots and Plots, which involves a great deal of planning, cooking, picture taking and editing, post writing etc.  I took over EVERYTHING from March until July while hubby healed up from a broken leg.

So okay, yeah, I did stuff.  Not necessarily all the stuff I wanted, but I did stuff.  Nobody can call me a slacker, least of all myself. All of which is a round about way of getting at the fact that what I am motivated to work on next has nothing to do with my Mirus world, and I’m trying to decide whether I’m going to stick to the plan or not worry about getting anything else beyond Devil’s Eye out this year and just, well, play for a while.  The book that I’m itching to work on is a YA that I had slated for next year, working title Red.  I haven’t outlined it yet, and only last week figured out a HUGE MAJOR important detail that affects the entire plot.  So I’m thinking that once the first draft of Devil’s Eye is off my plate and out to betas, I’ll take a week to outline it.  I’m guessing it’ll probably come in between 60-70k, which would take me 4-5 months to write.  If I started it next, it would probably (in theory) be ready for release around the same time FBS was released this year.  Late March.  See how much I live in my head and plan everything?  It’s a sickness.