And so the ugly side of shift work finally rears its ugly head. A few openings thrown into the mix will throw the whole thing off, and I missed my first RoW80 check-in post. Dun-dun-DUUUUN! Yeah, the whole point of RoW80 is that it’s okay if life sweeps you up for a bit, but it’s still kind of grrr. Naturally, a hiccup in the usual order of things means all my neatly organized goals getting out of line, but I think I’m still doing well. And the upcoming week has a nice little on-off-on-off cadence to it, so that’ll help me get things back on track.
So how have things been since last check-in? Let’s look!
Monthly Goal: Finish Fearless by the end of April. Pfffth. Unfortunately, I like to do all my writing in the mornings. So when I have to work in the mornings, that cuts into my writing time, and I haven’t been keeping up with Fearless very well. I highly doubt it’ll be finished by the end of April. But I’m going to plug along and do what I can.
Weekly Goal: Read one book a week; finish one story a week. I’m a little behind on this one, too, although I did finish Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon yesterday morning. This week, I’m hoping to finish Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, which I’ve never actually read, and that seems like a crime. I’m only about 30 pages in so far, and I’m already loving it to pieces.
As far as stories go, last week’s “lady’s dead husband shows up in the background of a photo” hasn’t been moving along very well, but I’ve sparked up a great piece for this week that I’m really digging. It’s intended to be an entry for Alban Lake’s Potters Field Six anthology about a man who suddenly starts sleepwalking and waking up in the same place, and he wants to know why. I’ll definitely be pouring a lot of attention into that on this week.
Daily-ish Goals: Submit one story per non-work day. A little bit behind (are you noticing the theme?) on this one, too. Thankfully, I plan to get a lot of stuff done in the upcoming days (today, Friday, and Sunday). I sent out the new “Death of Therron Hawkseye” and a revived “Letters to Mao,” and I got a rejection for “Couples Therapy,” so that’ll go out today. And that catches me up on last week. So hopefully I’ll get the Potters Field story finished this week, and figured out what other two stories can be sent out into the ether on Sunday.
Progress still made. Still chugging along. Just getting a wee bit behind and needing to catch up slightly. But that’s okay. That’s the whole point. I’d like to spend some time catching up with my fellow RoWers (who you can always catch up with here), but I know that the next chapter in the new King’s Quest series is out, and it deals with the romance between King Graham and Queen Valanice, and so you know I’m going to be spending aaaalllll day playing that shit. YESSSSSS. No regrats.
Happy writing, everyone!
L.S. Engler 
Compared to me, you’re WAY ahead. And you’ve been reading Stephen King? I’m impressed considering some of our earlier conversations. 😛
Seriously, though, work does tend to derail our efforts sometimes. My day job stresses me out so bad this time of year, I don’t have a lot left in me to be creative. You’ll get Fearless done, whether it’s April or May. And then I can finally find out what the heck happened! 🙂
Haha, yeah, I have so many of his books that I haven’t read and he’s just so damn Iconic that I’ve been trying to work my way through them. For the most part, I’m still not very convinced with most of his work, but whenever I pick up the earlier stuff, I’m really kind of impressed. I’m itching to get through It and Misery and The Stand soon, as those are frequently cited as some of his best work, but, even if I’m not wild about his writing, I love his ideas and I have to be impressed by the sheer volume of his works.
And, yeah, Fearless will get there, just later than I had hoped. I might have to push back the release date, which I’m reluctant to do, but, at the same time, this is all a learning experience for me, and, while I loved the idea of a book a year, I do not love the idea of rushing this particular product. And it’s not like I have to worry about it not coming out; I’m pretty sure several people will have my head if that were to happen! But giving it extra time might take it from a good conclusion to a great one.
We all fall behind from time to time, but you’re still making progress.
I’m doing this lovely little sideways dance into fan fiction. I’m getting past my submission-shyness, getting lots of feedback, claiming something I love, revising on the fly, adjusting as I go, dealing with critics, and learning, learning, learning!
Not so much drafting my novels-in-progress, but I’m totally OK with the trade-off! =)
Boldly Going Through the Alphabet!
@shanjeniah
Part-Time Minion for Holton’s Heroes
shanjeniah’s Lovely Chaos
Submit, submit! Love that progress in spite of shift shiftiness. My hubby’s been sick so for the last two months, I’ve been fighting off depression and struggling to meet goals. So I appreciate that tenacity your post reveals — and time for fun. Don’t start me on Farmville! Hope that the week is going well.