New Year – Blank Slate

Posted by tmycann on Jan 15th, 2018 in editing, indie | 1 comment

Interesting to be breaking a month-long radio silence for the second year in a row. This time, it was less intentional: My personal laptop took a crap the day after we returned from our second-ever just-us-alone holiday in the almost 20 years we’ve been married. In fact, our trip to paradise allowed me to cross off an item from my bucket list. We went whale watching. It was as thrilling as I’d ever imagined. We experienced at least seven different sightings of groups of either two or three whales as they made their annual return to the Sea of Cortez to have and make babies. We were also in what amounted to glorified dinghies with speed boat motors attached, so our experience was up close and personal, and something like a roller-coaster as we hurtled across the waves. Crossing off bucket-list items is highly to be recommended.

🙂

While we were traveling, and later, while I was cussing out intransigent hard drives, I didn’t end up doing any editing. Still. And even though I’ve set up this year’s Goodreads challenge (spoiler alert: same number as last year), I haven’t been reading novels lately. I’ve been reading news about how high the US infant mortality rate is, another take on the misery of capitalism based on the experiences in Appalachia, and female anger. I’ve been reading about how Facebook can’t be fixed, regardless of Zuckerberg’s best intentions. And how Japan would love to fix its college admissions testing process.

Everybody is starting the year trying to see what can be changed, and how. Today, I ran across an article that highlights both the pitfalls of an MBA education, and how to actually be a better leader. And I read a tribute to a man who did his level best to lift up everyone around him. And, oh, by the way, he was transgendered, so had objective measures of his success before and after becoming a man, which underline some of what the opinion writer regarding female anger said.

Hubs and I have also been enjoying more screen time lately. It started with the long flights to Mexico (I can highly recommend pre-loading an iPad with movies to watch while in the air–it makes the time enclosed fly by, if you’ll forgive the pun). Two we particularly enjoyed for having more depth than we anticipated: “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” and “The Founder.” This week we binged on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which absolutely earned its Golden Globes, the writing was tight and the acting superb. We keep revisiting scenes from all three of these shows and pondering the characters. In some ways, given the arc Mrs. Maisel had in season 1, it is almost a shame to continue the story, but I’m glad they’re doing it anyway. The relevance of a woman fighting for what she’s passionate about in the late 50s is surprisingly on point in today’s climate.

My phone says that so far this month I’ve averaged 3,099 steps per day (it was 5,160 for the month of December… we walked a LOT while we were on vacation). It was harsh to return to the coldest temperatures of the season immediately upon our return from a place where the daily average was in the upper 70s. On the other hand, Tashie is walking better and stronger than she has in a long time, so weather really is our excuse for cloistering ourselves at home.

As for goals for myself… I really like what that HBR article had to say about mindfulness. It’s something I’ve practiced unconsciously for decades, but hubs and I have been talking about doing yoga together, so I’m going to add to my standard list. I’m not happy this list hasn’t changed in two Rounds, really, but I really want to get back into regular writing, and that means first I must clear the decks on the projects that are in editorial limbo. So:

Finish edits on Dust to Blood and re-release it with its new cover.
Edit Blood to Fire and re-release it with its new cover.
Edit Fire to Dragon and release it.
Blog weekly with my ROW80 updates.
Walk at least a mile a day.
Do at least half an hour of yoga a week.
Keep the sanctity of my weekly date night with hubs.

I am in the final phase of getting my first audiobook ready for release, so I know there will be some delays in getting started as I deal with those logistics. I also know my day job schedule is going to continue to demand long hours for the foreseeable future, so I need to get used to just having an hour or so at night in which I can be productive on the writing goals I’ve outlined. That can no longer be an excuse.

I’m glad the ROW80 group continues its mission of providing writers a supportive forum in which to hold each other accountable so I will continue to point everyone to the other participants’ recountings of their efforts. Good luck to us all.

One Response to “New Year – Blank Slate”

Eden says:

January 15, 2018 at 10:45 pm

Your whale watch sounds amazing… It’s one of the things I’d like to do too. Though, so is taking a vacation with my husband alone one of these days… 😉

I can understand your frustration at the lack of “movement” in your goals list. Sometimes that’s a sign you need to shift focus for a time into a new project. Maybe yoga?

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