Today is my birthday

I'm 33 today.

There are days I realize that I'm not where I wanted to be at this age, and other days when I can see just how far I've come. Those are the good days.

I have goals and dreams that keep me pushing forward, and things I want to have done. So, in the spirit of it's-my-birthday, I'm making a "40 before 40" list of things I'd like to do and see and accomplish by the time I turn forty. (Plenty of time.)

Some of the things on my list are small, others are ongoing things. But they are all goals I have that I want to accomplish over the next seven years. After all, it's my list. I can do what I want.

1. Buy a house.
2. Finish writing the collection.
3. Write the waiting play.
4. Get the semicolon tattoo I've been wanting.
5. Blog twice a week, every week, between now and my fortieth birthday.
6. Learn a language (Spanish or ASL, preferably. Or both. Both is good.).
7. Go to a professional women's soccer game.
8. Make a quilt.
9. Buy a new car (to replace our poor, reliable Corolla).
10. Go on an Alaskan cruise.
11. Take piano lessons.
12. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
13. Cut soda out of my diet for good.
14. Do yoga at least once a week, every week, between now and my fortieth birthday.
15. Make a family album/scrapbook (multiple, if needed).
16. Get the Gallifreyan tattoo I've been wanting.
17. Go see a ballet.
18. Get an old fashioned card catalog for my office.
19. Learn Reiki massage.
20. Go to a writing conference.
21. Take at least one trip out of the country (preferably Europe).
22. Read 100+ books in one year. (I started this before my birthday, but there's nothing saying I can't repeat the challenge.)
23. Visit the Emily Dickinson Home & Museum in Massachusetts.
24. Visit the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum in the Keys.
25. Get the quote tattoo on my right bicep I've been wanting.
26. Get the quote tattoo on my left bicep I've been wanting.
27. Meditate inside a Buddhist temple.
28. Make an herb garden (potted) either in my house or on my patio.
29. Get a bamboo plant for my desk. (I had one before, but it was sick to begin with, so it didn't make it.)
30. Take a self-defense class.
31. Go see an opera.
32. Attend a con of some kind.
33. Go on a yoga/spiritual retreat.
34. Take a mental health day.
35. Go to a pride event.
36. Have a home office with a door that closes.
37. Write a collection of poetry associated with the collection.
38. Go to an Orlando Pride soccer game. (Or several.)
39. Write a screenplay.
40. Visit the Library of Congress.

Starting the year the right way

Image from
tiramisustudio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I've made some goals for 2016. Some of them are smaller goals that will be easy to achieve, but others are bigger goals that will be more complex, and will establish a foundation for long-term goals.

But I'm trying to be smarter about my goals this year. I'm focusing on taking small steps a little at a time instead of big changes all at once.

I know that it'll be easier for me to be successful if I take it one step at a time, and experience has shown me that trying to do everything all at once is less than successful.

I'm optimistic about 2016. Bo and I have big, exciting short- and long-term plans, and we're finally making progress toward them. we've overcome some big challenges, and we have a plan to overcome some other challenges that have popped up lately.

2016 is going to be a good year.

It already is.

Obligatory end-of-the-year post

Every year around this time, I start thinking about the end of the year. I think about where I am in my life, particularly in comparison to where I wanted to be. I look at what I want to accomplish in the coming year, and what I need to do in order to make it happen.

That's where my head has been lately. I'm not currently where I want to be, but I'm on the right track to get there. I'm making positive changes in my life (both professionally and personally) to move forward. I have specific goals I want to accomplish, and timelines associated with them.

This year, I'm taking a slightly different approach in working toward my goals.

One problem I've had is I spend a lot of time thinking about the goals I didn't accomplish, and mourning the fact that I'm not where I want to be. But with all of the changes that have occurred in my life over the past couple of years, I know it's important for me to let go of what's happened, forget what I haven't done, and just move forward from where I am.

This is my life. It is what it is. And all I can do is try harder next year, next week, tomorrow, right now to be the person I want to be. And that's what I'm doing.

It doesn't matter what happened (or didn't) in 2013. I'm stepping out from this moment toward 2014, and focusing on where I am to get where I'm going. What's happened doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is this moment, and doing what I can to be the woman I am in that moment.

Who do you want to be in 2014?

Goals for 2012

The past few years I've chosen not to make resolutions for the new year. Instead, I've set goals. It may seem an insignificant difference (especially when the end result is that I make positive changes in my life), but it's a big difference to me. To me, resolutions are ironclad promises you make to yourself of things that have changed or things you will or will not do. They are... resolute. Goals, on the other hand, are things you'd like to do or stop doing, but you're realistic in that it will take time and effort.

If I make a resolution and break it or don't achieve it, I feel bad. If I make a goal and don't meet it, I keep trying.

Big difference.

So I'd like to share with you a few of the goals I've set for myself for 2012.

I would like to read 100+ books in 2012. I know it's a lot. I used to read voraciously. Motherhood sort of changed my priorities so I don't read as much. This year I'm taking a reading challenge, and even if I don't hit that magical number, I'll still have read a lot more than I would have otherwise!

I would like to finish the coffee house book in 2012. By "finish," I mean I'd like to write, edit, and polish the manuscript and have it ready to send out on queries. I've been working on this story for a long, long time, and it's time to tell it in its entirety.

I would like to reduce/eliminate negativity in my life in 2012. I know it's just about impossible to completely eliminate negativity in my life. And that's fine. But there was too much of it in my life in 2011, so I would like to work on distancing myself from overly negative people, as well as working on being more positive myself.

I would like to get healthy in 2012. I have a specific goal weight I would like to achieve, as well as some other health-related goals, but for the sake of this blog, I'll just say I'm going to "get healthy." On the short-term end of that goal, my mom and I intend to run our first 5K race this spring, so I have a lot of "get healthy"ing to do between now and then.

There are other goals, as well. There are things I'd like to do or see or change about my life. I've told many people already that, for me, 2012 is the year of change. But those are the big ones.

It's going to be a good year. I just know it.

Editing Tips, part two

You know it's important to edit your work, even if self-editing is difficult for you.  After all, you want to make your story (or article or poem) the best it can be.  But sometimes, no matter how many times you go through your writing, you could miss errors or mistakes.  Since you spend so much time working on your stories, you can become too close to them, and that's where the problem arises.


(Continue reading)

Setting writing goals

As December draws to a close, people are looking ahead to 2010, and thinking about what they want to accomplish in the new year.  This leads to creating resolutions or setting goals for the year, and writers are no different.

(Continue reading)

Writing Goals for November

• Write at least 100,000 words for National Novel Writing Month (divided over two books)
• Work on coffee house book
• Update CSW accounts

With NaNo, I think that's enough for one month, yes?

Writing Goals for October

This month, I would like to:

• Plan my NaNo novel
• Continue working on my coffee house book
• Expand my client/project list for CSW
• Research Celtic mythology/Irish history

Writing Goals for August

This month, I would like to:

• Increase my daily word count by 500 words.
• Finish at least two sections of my coffee house book.
• Try a coffee drink I'm not sure I'll like for the experience of trying something new.
• Clear my desk at the end of every week.
• Begin a CSW scrapbook.