Spent my Valentine’s Day brushing off my photography skills. I am a bit rusty and unfortunately no longer have a decent camera for this type of photo-shoot. It’s been many years since I’ve even touched anything photography-y. (I think that’s a word- ish.) Anywho!
Currently my cover artist is putting together the cover for my urban fantasy “Darkness Looms”. I wasn’t overly happy with the stock art he was using for the image. The idea in my head is quite specific.

He tried several different things and I just wasn’t happy. So I thought, “Why don’t I just take some of my own pictures?” I asked my niece if she would like to be my model for the day and she was all on board.

So I spent my Sunday taking pictures of the different poses with different props. It’s hard to say if my cover guy will be able to use any of them. But fingers crossed!
On the writing front, I have been struggling to get back in the chair. I have gone through some of my notes in my “bible” for The Young Chronicles, but nothing seems to be shaking the motivation tree. But now that it’s mid-February I have to start looking at the cold hard stark reality of where I am.

Where is that? It’s simple, if I don’t start getting my daily words in I will not complete the projected five novels that I planned to write this year. It’s buckle down and knuckle down time. I’m not sure how I am going to do that just yet. I may have to be a brunt force situation, possibly shut off all internet access, have my phone taken away, gaming site passwords changed. Yup, I’m a teenager that doesn’t want to do her homework.

I guess I need to be grounded.

I’ve been slowly getting back to moving about. It’s been slow but I’ve managed to string several days in a row before my body says it needs a break. (I honestly think it just doesn’t want to do the work.)

That brings me to another major goal I have, I would love to do the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. This is at minimum 100km trek. I can’t do 100meters right now. So I need to start getting my body ready for this. I have a few years; I would like to do it in my 50th year. No I will not tell you my exact age, but let’s just say I’m closer to 50 than I am 40.

I need to knuckle down for this as well, not just so I can live out this bucket list item, but because I need to take my health more seriously or I won’t make it to my 50th.

So on that note... I have a great deal of work to get done so that’s it for today.

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Follow your bliss!
Stay Save, Stay Healthy, Love Always.

You know how professional fighters always say, ‘You always have a plan until you get punched in the face’. Well I feel like I got punched in the face this month. My plan was to get my short story written then to move onto the Young Chronicles. This did not happen. I also planned to get my butt up and moving, get my health back on track. This too took a hit.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a complete bust of a month; I did get some words done, just not enough to finish off that short story. You wouldn’t think 10-15k words would be that difficult when I’m normally staring down 75-80k.

I think the biggest thing that caused a little frustration was I had to bite the bullet this month with my phone. I’ve had my iPhone for nine years, that’s right; I have been using an iPhone 5 for the last nine years. And I was happy with it. The plan was to keep it until it no longer worked. The poor thing has been struggling for the last while. I couldn’t play games on it any more, forget keeping music on it, the touch screen was going and sometimes she just didn’t want to start.

So I switched, to a Samsung. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice phone, but it’s HUGE! I feel like I have a tablet in my hand. I used to be able to type with one hand, now I have to double fist it! Nothing works the way I want it, options I had previously don’t exist and did you know that the a20 doesn’t have a slow motion video option?! WTH? Not to mention that it took me three days to figure out why Facebook messenger kept barking at me. Yes, barking, actual dog barking sounds. The first time it went off I couldn’t figure out where the barking was even coming from. Much to my surprise it was my phone!

I had to come to terms with two things, my iPhone was getting ready to say her good-byes and I’m very old and stuck in my ways. I don’t like change!
But I digress. The question now is what now? Outside of still getting used to the tablet phone, that is.

Well, it’s simple really.

Like many people I’m a creature of habit, I like my routines and the one thing that 2020 did for me was destroy the routine I had setup. The crippling depression aside, Hubby was home all the time and because his routine was disrupted it did the same to mine and I have not found my way back.

I had started and petered out of my 100 day challenge. So, I boldly declare this is part of the plan, again. This week I must start rebuilding my routine. Hubby is still home more than at the office and since he works where I work out I will have to learn to love morning workouts again. Beat him to his “office”.

It’s strange really, intellectually and by experience I know that regular workouts for me elevate my mood. It’s not about losing weight (though that is a side effect); it’s about being in a better head space. And Lord knows we all need to be in a positive headspace! So if it’s so beneficial to me, why am I struggling? It all comes back to the fear of failure. So I need to set myself up for success and that’s what I’m hoping these goals will do for me.

My goals for the next couple weeks:

-I will have the short story finished and find some beta’s to read it before finding an editor.

-I strive for ten days of activity. Ten days minimum.

These are doable goals. It’s important to set goals that help you succeed. The more small goals you set and meet leads to accomplishing bigger more complex goals. What are my bigger goals? Writing five books this year and completing a 100 day challenge of activity.

So, baby steps.

Two weeks at a time, one story at a time!

Are you meeting your goals? I would love to hear about it.

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