New month, New goals

Nano is done. I need new goals for the upcoming month. Goals which will get me moving and keep me from stagnating like I did this summer.

Goal 1: Keep trying to find a home for Judas' Tree.

Goal 2: Make a submission package for Turtle Island and send it out to 3 agents or publishers.

Goal 3: Make some kind of note card outline for Magic's End, with a goal of making it an a 60,000 word book. Then In January I would follow the outline and write the book out.

And I hope to get more exercise in this month, as soon as my flu goes away, anyway. I'm still feeling icky, though the outward symptoms have disappeared. Standing up leaves me exhausted. It's like I have menstrual cramps!

I finished Nano!!! Here's my winner's Icon!

On another note, y body fat didn't change at all this month. Probably not too surprising, as I was exercising less this month.

Later today I will post my goals for next month and see how I do on those.

Been really sick for the last couple of days. Think I got the flu. I'm pretty sure that I caught it, ironically enough, on the day I took Diana in to get her flu shot. If doctor's offices are really full of germs, and pediatrician's offices are really super-deluper full of germs. But I got back on the writing horse again and pounded out 2000 words, bringing me to 48000 words. Hope to get to 50,000 words tomorrow and complete NaNo! This is short of my goal of 60,000 words, but respectible enough. Last year I didn't even compelte NaNo, so I feel good about this years accomplishment.

Was pretty sick on Thanksgiving, which was a real shame. What's the point of being good on your diet if on the one day you let your self eat as much as you want, on that day you get sick?

Still a bit sick today. Will probably write about 1000 words, but that's all. I still plan on getting 50,000 words done for Nano, but I might not hit 60,000. It depends on how much time I have and if I get better quickly or not, and whether or not I reach the end of the book.

Before Thanksgiving Photo

Here's my photo from today [left] and one from the beginning of the month (actually just before) [right]

No visible differences. Oh well!

If you like Sword and Sorcery and wanta collection of recent stories, check out Sages and Swords

http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=0975884050&userid=5EDAFF52-803F-2B7A-707AE7892728C909

This anthology is close to selling out, so get it while it is still around.

I was not published in this, by the way. Then again, I don't recall submitting a story...

I had to write 3800 words today to get back on track. Because Diana was in preschool and I didn't exercise, I was able to manage it. Just barely. But it has left me a bit tired, mentally. It seems like writing is a bit like running. You need time to work up to the longer distances. Time and a lot of training. Tomorrow, thankfully, is only 2250 words. Phew!

Got 2000 words written today. I figure I only need to write 2250 words a day until the end of the month to write 60,000 words total. I think it should be doable, especially as I get farther in the book and the plot gets more tangible and I can see how it will end better.

Diana went on a bus field trip with her preschool today. I was chaperoning along with her. It was kind of fun. Diana said it was the best field trip EVER. Of course, she also says things like, "This is the best pancake I've ever had." And she'll say that to describe more than one pancake. It's a bit funny.

I only got 500 words written yesterday (of the 200 I should have written). My wife wanted to watch Spiderman 3, and that sucked up all of my writing time.

On the plus side I managed to write 3000 words today, so I'm only 500 words behind. Yay!

Didn't exercise today, as catching up on my word count was a higher priority, since today was a light exercise day anyway.

Hope to be all caught up tomorrow!

I wrote the required 2000 words today to stay on schedule. I thought about doing more but decided not to. I'll have plenty of other days to kill myself. Why start now?

Weight loss has been very slow this month. Partially I blame Halloween, but there is another major factor, and that's that I haven't had much time to exercise, what with all the writing. I'm still hoping to have my body fat down to 12% by the end of the month, but I'm also wondering if that is reasonable unless I step up the exercise more.

Tried to make some lowfat, sugar free (Splenda) chocolate chip cookies today. They tasted all right, but they didn't cook like cookies at all. Normally a cookie forms into a nice little cirlce in the oven, and it stays moist, but these were a little bit dry and crunch, and their shape didn't change at all in the oven. I suspect that it is because there was so little butter in them, and the butter is what makes them "melt" in the oven. Maybe I'll try to find another recipe...

I managed to write 3000 words today! Most of the credit goes to my wife who had today off, and gave me a few hours to do it. That means I'm back on schedule! Yay!

I only wrote 1000 words today, of the 2000 I was scheduled to write. I guess I wasted too much of the little time I had to get all my work done. I hope to write 3000 words tomrrow to make up the difference. It might be possible ,since my wife is home tomorrow. Might...

Good news, I am now out of Halloween candy that I want to eat! Now eating healthily will be much easier. THankfullt the next holiday coming up is Thanksgiving and Turkey is low in fat. Woohoo!

Here's the picture. It looks pretty much the same except I opened my eyes and there's a goofy look on my face. It's only been 1 week, so don't expect me to look like a new man yet!

As long as I'm getting pictures off my phone, here's a picture of my daughter all dressed up to go trick-or-treating. She's got an elmo basket and a Super Girl costume. When you're three, I guess finding things that match makes not one wit of difference.

I forgot to post yesterday! Whoops! I also forgot to post a new picture, to see if there are any visible hanges in my physique. I'lll be posting one soon.

Writing had been going good. Got up to 7333 words yesterday. Should be up to 9000 by day's end today. Still have to exercise before that.

For some reason I gained 4.5 pounds in 2 days. I can't really explain it. I know it isn't actually fat, that would be physically impossible. My measurements don't seem to show my body fat increasing at all during that period. I guess I've gained water weight. I'll know if it comes off super fast.

I wrote another 1666 words today (roughly), putting me at 5707 (exactly). Awesome!

Weight loss still going good. Lost another half a pound today, making it half a pound a day for 6 days, which is very strange for me. I don't usually lose weight this fast at all. Maybe I'm finally doing something right? :) Or am I losing muscle? :( It's hard to tell by simply measuring my body fat as it is difficult to get an precise and reliable measurement of it.

1666 words written today, putting me right on target! Excellent!

On another happy note, I've lost half a pount a day for 5 days, putting my weight at 162.5, the lowest it has been in quite a while. The secret for me that i was missing was to not eat any kind of sugar within a few hours of bed time. Other than that, I seem to lose weight no matter how much I eat. (Which seems a little weird) Perhaps if I eat the calories during the day, I burn the calories, through activity. But if I eat less, my body just burns fewer calories. I won't be sure. Hrad to do a scientific experiment with only one case study!

I wrote an additional 1333 words today, for a total of about 2333 words. Some of that was going back and adding to what I wrote yesterday. Sometomies I write too much action without having the characters react to it at all, so much of my first level of rewriting is adding those reactions in, as well as adding enough descriptions to follow the story.

I wrote 1004 words today for Nano, which was the amount I promised myself I would write. I might write more, but I don't have enough time today. It's tough fiting in exercise, writing, AND being married.

Plan to write 1333 words tomorrow!