The quieter you become, the more you can hear." -Ram DassAmazingly, I succeeded in dragging myself through the week after returning from my latest trip to visit my mom without having to take off any additional time–and getting some things DONE. Like posting our old iPhones for sale on Ebay. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to have something up on auction and having a trustworthy intermediary handle the financial bits so strangers don’t have a problem trading significant sums for valuables. (For anyone who’s looking, the 4S is still counting down…) I managed to submit the billing for some of our freelance work. I even edited the first chapter of Gayla’s Discord Jones book 2, so she could add it to the back of book 1 to remind people … it’s coming SOON. I even finally got the paperwork to reduce my MBA from a double concentration to just the marketing concentration that I will have completed after next week, so there were a lot of administrivial tasks to take care of.

On the writing front, I got myself organized for next year. I updated my spreadsheets to include 2014 options, and opened up new MyWritingNook documents for … THREE new stories. Turns out… I’m now aiming to release FIVE stories next year. I had planned on three: The final Red Slaves story (which got a few half-hearted edits this week); a follow-on to Wytchfire (because it’s earned out already and seems to have found some popularity! Thanks!); and another plotbunny that has captured my attention that I’m calling The Builders. After I turned in that list to Gayla, we discussed the KKP group project, After the Fall. For some reason, based on a similitude to how I started Wytchfire, I have now inherited story notes for another story in that series, and spent a few hours plotting out how it fits into the AtF world. It will be a completely different kind of stretch for me to rely on someone else’s world-building, but the story should be a lot of fun, and has successfully grabbed my attention to the tune of several hundred words. KKP is also going to try again for an anthology, this time in the Sword & Sorcery category. Once again I have a plotbunny–this time from the perspective of a House Brownie who will be caught between an evil sorceress who’s the house’s new owner, and her step daughter, a secret white witch. I’m thinking a different variation on a fractured fairy tale like Cinderella told from the perspective of the Brownie caught in the middle. So I wrote the first paragraph of that story too.

😀

I suspect all this creativity was spurred by being away from the family noise of our trip last week, prompting the inclusion of the quote above: “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” It’s certainly an interesting phenomenon to note the explosion of creative possibilities after your life shrinks back down to its more accustomed outlines.

🙂

I think all that adds up to my 1,200-word goal; if not, I’m still counting it as a win, since I managed to be so productive despite an average of six hours a night of sleep. I also turned in all my school work, and even took a walk in the frigid air, so I’m counting this week as three for three.

I have even been celebrating and helping Gayla carefully track exactly how popular Cordi has become in the UK. It’s thrilling to watch those numbers climb reliably–and yesterday marked a record for single-day sales for Gayla. I’m so honored to be participating in the ride even so sidereally, I had to give her a congratulatory call late last night. Amidst all that happiness, I was very sad to note the passing of Nelson Mandela. He lived a rich 95 years, and should be considered not only an emblem of hope and idealism, but also for the amount of good a single individual can accomplish, living conscientiously. It gives me a different kind of goal to aim for. (And brought its own oddity of an explosion of search traffic to my blog as people tripped over my July post and one of Mandela’s key quotes about always returning to fight the good fight.)

So once again, I’m staying up way too late, but I’m jazzed about the possibilities in the new year. I hope all the other ROW80ers are too, as we wrap up this round and get ready for the next one.

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