… and in conclusion

Back in January, I talked about my approach for this year. Basically, I wanted to keep up with my serials, focus on longer fiction, and try to tackle one major project per quarter.

I did keep up the serials (with the exception of this past month for the newsletter serial), and I released both Corn Maze Murders and Bodyguard of Lies. I made good progress on Bodyguard‘s sequel, but it won’t be ready to go for a while yet. Quarterly projects? Not so much. In fact, I didn’t get to writing any of the four that I originally thought would be this year’s projects.

I submitted a couple of short stories I hadn’t expected to, including one I wrote specifically for an anthology. Still didn’t focus on the short fiction, but I decided it has its place.

So my plan for the year didn’t work out terribly well. However, I’m still pleased with what I got done, and I’m hoping next year will build on things I started this year.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Conclusions” — December’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret, D. M. Bonanno, and Margaret McGaffey Fisk.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!


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2015 halfway point

Back in January, I talked about how I was planning out my year — one major goal per quarter, keep up my serials, get Corn Maze up for sale, and make progress on the 50 States mystery series.

Yeah . . .

I’m still finalizing Corn Maze edits, I’ve set aside 50 States for now, and I finished nothing new in the second quarter. I have kept up on the serials, though, and I’ve tried to be better about blogging.

New project I’m pitching, though, involves a comic book miniseries. I didn’t get the pitch sent in by the end of June, but the publisher is supposed to reopen to pitches in September, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve also been looking at older work, novel manuscripts that I set aside because I didn’t yet have the skills to fix them, to make them the best they could be. At this point, that’s probably going to entail writing them over from scratch, rather than patching up sentences and paragraphs here and there, which on the one hand is a little depressing (more time and work involved) but on the other is a testament to my growth as a writer because I don’t think a simple edit is good enough.

Goal for the rest of the year is still to complete two more projects. Let’s see how that goes.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Midyear check-in” — July’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret, D. M. Bonanno, and Margaret McGaffey Fisk.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!


Subscribe to my newsletter now — receive updates twice a month, including a newsletter-only serial and recipes:


Beginning 2015

So what am I doing — or planning to do — with my writing in 2015?

I have specific goals, some of which I’ve talked about in my newsletter: still need to get Corn Maze Murders up for sale, and I’ve started the new 50 States series. I’m continuing my serials, both the one in my blog and the one in my newsletter. I’m not really planning on much short fiction for the year — some drabbles for SpeckLit, but not a lot else.

Instead, I want to focus on just getting a few things done, and maybe setting up for future work, doing research and the like.

Inspired by M.C.A. Hogarth, I’m basically focusing on one major writing goal per quarter, with perhaps smaller goals on a monthly basis. I was really amused this morning to discover a post on Fast Company about how 90-day goals were better than annual ones, which just reinforced this plan.

Hence, I have a lovely board (whiteboard-style posterboard, so I can make changes as necessary):

planning calendar

Whiteboard for the year

So far, I’ve got quarterly goals, a few things up under “Year” for things to think about and consider, and only a couple items on specific months, such as the release date for The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (which has my story “Blood and Gold” in it) and the expected end date for Bodyguard of Lies (followed by its publication as an e-book and POD). Right now, it’s looking reasonable. Let’s hope I have the sense to keep it that way.

Not on the board are things like my daily sketching, and my freelance work isn’t on it at all. This is just my writing board.

How are you planning out your new year?


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “New Beginnings” — January’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret and D. M. Bonanno.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!


Subscribe to my newsletter now — receive updates twice a month, including a newsletter-only serial and recipes:


One of my crazy 2015 projects

I mentioned this in my last newsletter, but I know that not everyone subscribes to my newsletter, so I’m letting everyone know here, as well: next year, I plan to do a sketch a day and post it to DeviantArt. I’ve had an account there for around five years and never done anything with it, so you can see my work from the beginning.

Sketches might range from a ballpoint pen drawing of a bluejay (I’ve been doing those in my daughter’s lunch already, so that’s not really a challenge) to trying my hand at colored pencils on a dragon. I don’t know; I have 365 days to fill.

If you’re interested in following along, you can find me here: Eimarra on DeviantArt.