AndreaBlythe.com

Thing the First
Yesterday I received a rejection on the poetry collection I sent to Toad Lily Press.

My response: “Well, that’s disappointing. But thank god.”

To which my mom was quite astonished and I proceeded to enthusiastically explain to her about the importance of SASEs, how not putting one with your submission could very well mean having your submission thrown out without having it read, how I had spent the last several weeks flailing, because I was sure I had forgotten to include said SASE with my submission.

So, um, yeah, HUGE relief that I didn’t make the idiotic mistake of forgetting to include a SASE, so much so that it soothed the sting of the rejection quite a bit.

No, seriously, I can’t tell you how stoked I am that I included the SASE.

Thing the Second
Looking over my 2013 goals this week reminded me that I wanted to try to get to 12 spoke work/open mics/author readings this year, and thus far I hadn’t. In general, I just want to be engaged with live performances, from spoken word to stage plays to music, all of which inspires me in different ways.

So, I started looking around for what’s in the area and found that Poetic Justice Wednesdays was going on at the Fahrenheit Bar in San Jose. I dropped in (after convincing my sister she had no choice but to join me) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was impressed by the skill of the poets and musicians who presented, their lips tumbling truths into the microphone. It’s the kind of impressive performances that intimidate me a bit, because I don’t feel good enough to do the same. But I’ll get myself up there someday soon.

Cross-posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment either her or there.

1. The Atlantis Complex, Artemis Fowl #7, by Eoin Colfer
2. The Space Between, by Brenna Yovanoff
3. The Last Guardian, Artemis Fowl #8, by Eion Colfer
4. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Read reviews on my livejournal.

Evidence of poem #1

Poem #2: untitled

Evidence poem #3

Evidence of poems #4-7

Evidence of poems #8-11

Poem #12: “Hunted”

Evidence of poems #13-15

Evidence of poems #16-21

Evidence of poems #22-27

Poem #28: “though you can’t see it”

Evidence of poems #29-30

So that’s 30 new poems! Yay!

Some will remain only on the pages of my notebook, some will be reworked and submitted to journals, and some are small pieces of much, much longer works. Always a fun challenge.

If you participated in Napowrimo, how did you do?

Cross posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment here or there.

Inspired by whipchick, I’d thought I’d take a look at my year long goals and assess how I’m doing overall.

Primary Goals

1. Finish a coherent draft of Under the Midday Moon
Progress is perhaps a little slower than I hoped, but it’s still progress. Not sure that I’ll actually finish the entire draft by the end of the year, but I just might, especially if I pick up the pace a bit.

2. Work up to running three miles
Again, progress is slow, but steady. I’m feeling myself grow stronger week by week and I’m certain I can DO this. *believes*

3. Submit a chapbook- or full-length collection of poetry for publication
Done! Well, sort of. After sending the submission out, I realized that I might have forgotten to include an SASE, a profoundly stupid and newbie mistake. If I did forget, it doesn’t really count, since it wouldn’t be legitimate submission. This sucks. But never fear, I have every intention of sending out another manuscript to another publisher before June, so as to have this officially done.

4. Address finances
Complications have sort of sidetracked my intentions to start up an IRA or retirement savings account. There’s still time for me to start something up by the end of the year, but for the moment I’m putting this aside.

However, the second aspect of this goal was to start earning some money from my writing. I can’t control that entirely, but I can submit my work to paying markets on a regular basis, which I’m working on.

(A rather long list of secondary goals can be found here.)

What I’ve Learned So Far and/or Could Improve Upon

Bite Sized Pieces – Big goals can be a bit overwhelming, so the weekly goals has helped me break things down into little pieces that I know I can accomplish. This way I know that each week forward progress gets made in some way or another.

Plan for What’s Doable – That said, it’s equally important to make sure the list of weekly goals is doable. I have a life beyond my writing, family and friends I want to hang out with, trips to take, events to go to, errands to run, and downtime that needs to be had, so I try to make sure that the weekly goals I set are doable from a practical stand point: Do I really have time to do these things, assuming I use my time wisely? The answer is always yes. It doesn’t mean I always get the list done (in fact, more often than not, I don’t), but it means I could do it.

Accountability – Whenever the fantastic Kima Jones posts on twitter about her writing she always uses the hashtag “accountability”, and I love that. Hold yourself accountable, because no one else will. You’re life is what you make of it and the effort you put it. So, while my weekly goal posts are always public and I do get some kind feedback, it really comes down to my own sense of being accountable. It’s really about making choices, such as getting some writing down before turning on the TV or video game, which is something I personally need to work on.

How are you doing with your goals? What have you learned or what could you do to be better about meeting those goals?

Cross-posted to my website. You are welcome to comment either here or there.

Things accomplished in writing: Received rejections for the two flash pieces and sent out three poems. Also started Chapter Three, completing 1,200 words. Yay!*

*Honestly, I count the rejections as a yay, too, because it means I’ve been submitting and the process is ongoing.

Incidentally, a large portion of this work was accomplished on Thursday, when upon arriving home from work I wrote and edited new poem to completion (not a napowrimo poem), got a submission package prepped, and wrote 1,000 words of Chapter Three — at which point my head exploded. It took most of the rest of the weekend to pick up the bits of brain and skull and assemble then back into working order.

Things accomplished in health: Two running training workouts and one strength training workout with my trainer — all of which has me feeling great. I think I’m going to count the strength training workout  as a part of my three required days (the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to do three days of running, plus the strength training). If I can manage four days, great, but it’s good to have rest days and it’s not always practical for me to do more than three days. I think the strength training will really help me meet my running goal of reaching three miles, so it should all work out fine.

The one thing I need to start including is some yoga, even just a couple rounds of sun salutations, because I just know that will make my spine feel so much better.

Things accomplished in other stuff: State taxes are done and sent! Woot!

Haven’t made much (or any) progress on my filing, but I started cleaning and organizing my room a bit, because the clutter is killing me. No seriously, I think it’s crawling off the shelves and trying to throttle me in my sleep. Hiding it in the closet isn’t good enough, because I still know the monster’s there.

That which must be accomplished in the coming week:
– Finish Chapter Three of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Finish the rest of Napowrimo poems (15 poems in two days O.o)
– Workout at least three days with two workouts being running training (0/3)
– Do three yoga workouts, three sun salutations min. (0/3)
– Sort paperwork out by year for filing
– Either purchase new a new filing cabinet(s), and/or buy folders/large envelopes, and/or go through the process of sorting and putting everything in its place

Cross-posted to my website. You are welcome to comment either here or there.