Revisiting Goals

I just realized we're coming to the end of October--Halloween's just around the corner--so I thought I should revisit my goals for this month.

My big goal was to work at getting my time travel romance manuscript polished up for the Golden Heart contest.

As of this date, I have my synopsis and first five chapters that will be judged in the preliminary round, polished and proofed and have printed up the six copies that I have to send.

As for the full, I'm about two-thirds of the way through with the polishing--I'm also proofreading as I complete each chapter--and I still have a month to go. I'm sending the full on floppy disk and have already converted my file to Word.

As for the futuristic that's still in outline stage, I've looked it over, but haven't really worked on it. I thought for now I'd just put that aside, until I can come back and give it my full attention.

My next post will be my goals for the month of November, as soon as I figure out what they are.

Coming Out Of the Closet

I've been writing since I was in grade school, but had always been embarrassed to admit that I wrote and would never dare to call myself a writer. I had notebooks full of stories stuffed away in drawers that never saw the light of day.

Years later, after my boys started school and I started writing and submitting stories, I wouldn't tell my relatives for fear that they'd discourage or--even worse--laugh at me.

After I had a few short pieces published, I told my close relatives and proudly showed off my work. Then I finally had my first novel published. I think my family thought that was my big break, but the book didn't turn out to be a bestseller and I'm still trying to get my first romance novel published, but so far, no takers.

But, I'm no longer ashamed or afraid to tell people that I write. I even told my dentist that I write romance novels. He was actually impressed. In fact, most of the people I've told have reacted that way.

I realized that even though I only make a minimum amount of money off my writing, the fact that I spend at least eight solid hours a week--often more--in writing related projects, makes me a writer.

And that's something to be proud of.

Post on Victorian Children's Clothing

I just posted a new blog on clothing styles for Victorian children on my group site: Slip Into Something Victorian.

http://www.slipintosomethingvictorian.com

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

As a freelance writer, my life is full of waiting. I wait for editors and agents to get back to me on submissions. I wait for the results from contests I've entered and for that ever elusive royalty check.

It doesn't help that my day job--typing manuscripts for other writers--involves waiting for payment to come in after a job is completed.

My strategy is to continue working on other projects and keep the things I'm waiting for in the back of my mind, but they always seem to surface and interrupt my creative flow.

How do all of you deal with the endless waiting?

Latest Goal

Haven't posted my goals for awhile, but now I've got a big one. I just entered Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart Contest for my time travel romance, Erin's Rebel.

So, my primary writing goal for the next two months is to get this manuscript polished, reprinted and proofread to meet the December 3 mailing deadline.

Besides this, I'm also going to continue to send chapters of this manuscript to my critique group and revise as many chapters as I can before the deadline.

Time permitting, I also want to get back to working on the outline for my futuristic. I had started on that project, but it's been languishing for awhile as I was trying to finish the first draft of my historical romance. But, since that work is completed and I want that story to sit and cool for awhile, I should have time to focus on these two tasks.

New Interview

I've just been interviewed for the second time, this time by Shirley Kiger Connelly on her author site.

Here's the link: http://shirleykoinonia.tripod.com