Five Year Goals

This is the last Friday of the month, which makes it time to check in with the Five Year Goal, which for me is to have the Newstead Books be the next great American novel(s). Thanks to Misha for hosting this. If you have some goals yourself and you’d like to join in this adventure, you can sign up here

Things have been going well. Revenge of the Rephaim and Blackbird are being released simultaneously on May 1^st, which is really exciting. Both of these books have been near and dear to my heart and I can’t wait to share them with you. That just leaves two more books in the Newstead Anthem to write. Two books I haven’t started yet. I have ideas, and notes, but nothing solid. And I probably won’t for at least until the end of April. When I write I tend to get all in, and I know I won’t be able to do that with A to Z.

How about you? Do you have any goals you’d like to share?

Also, speaking of A to Z, I have a Rafflecopter that will be running throughout the month of April, with some really great prizes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Not a Runner

Today I’m officially beginning training for the 5k I am scheduled to run in June. I started and stopped several times over the last two months, the excuse being mainly the weather, which is a good excuse this year. But if I’m going to be in any kind of shape to run this thing, then snow or not, I need to start running. That got me thinking:

What do you call a runner who doesn’t run? Not a runner.  

I’ve noticed the same correlation with my writing. It’s real easy to come up with loads of excuses why I’m too busy, or why I can’t write right now, and many of those excuses are valid. But if I don’t do something, even just a little, nothing is going to get accomplished.

What do you call a writer who doesn’t write? Not a writer.

Sobering thought.

Is there anyone besides me who needs to get in better shape?

And speaking of running:

Dead and Moaning in Las Vegas: Black Elvis, a drunken janitor, and a stripper embark on an epic quest to not become zombie food when the undead apocalypse rocks Las Vegas.

If you haven't checked these guys out yet, you need to. They are hilarious.

A to Z

This week just flew by, sorry that this is the first time I‘m posting. I don’t think I’ve done that since I started blogging. It makes me wonder how I managed to do life while I was working. It’s a mystery, I guess.

Anyway…

Next week you’ll see a lot of changes on this blog as I get ready for A to Z. Just some Spring cleaning; making sure links go to where there supposed to, stuff like that. It’s amazing how April had kind of snuck up on me. I thought I had plenty of time to get my flash fiction together, and I have done quite a few of them, but not all. I promised myself I’d do them all ahead of time so I could spend my time in the real heart of A to Z: Visiting all of you. I have next week, so maybe I can still get them all done.

How about all of you? Are you ready for A to Z?

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everyone. I have very high hopes that today should be a wonderful day. My son is going to his friend’s house to play, so my daughters and I plan on having a girl’s day in. There might be some nail polish involved and some tea, and cookies, definitely cookies. It’s not very often we have a testosterone free house, so we’re going to live it up while we can. Not that I don’t love my guys. I just don’t want to have to explain to my four-year old son (again) why he can’t wear nail polish.

What are you up to this wonderful Friday?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Indie Life, What's Up Wednesday

This is the second Wednesday of the month, so that means it's officially Indie Life time. I'm also doing What's up Wednesday today, and both will have the same theme. Blogging. If you're here, you're already familiar with it, but I know from the conversations I've had with people that not everyone who follows other bloggers has a blog of their own. That surprised me. Why don't they? Time for one, and maybe--dare I say it-- shyness? Even if it's a virtual world, it's still self-disclosure and for some people that's hard. For me that's hard. I try to tell myself no one I'll see on a daily basis will read what I post, but that's just not true. I've run into friends I haven't seen since high school who begin like we're mid-conversation, and it's about something I've posted. After that first happened I realized blogging is more powerful than Facebook, more personal than Twitter. So, what am I up to this Wednesday? Blogging. What have I been working on? Getting my A to Z flash fiction ready for April. What's inspiring me lately?

All of you.

What are you up to this Wednesday?





Wormfest

Today is the Wormfest blogfest, hosted by Stephen Tremp, L. Diane Wolfe, and Alex J. Cavanaugh. Thanks for hosting this!


And the question is: What one thing has science invented that advances mankind and what one thing has gone too far? (Where technology has unforeseen consequences and will go too far and actually set mankind back.)


This is a tough one for me. I benefit from technology every day, am right now as I type this, but I know these benefits have a cost. Personally, I think we're in a modern day dark ages and don't even know it. There's something to be learned in the process, in the making of a thing. We can access the world with a touch of a button, but can we figure out the square footage of a room without a calculator? We can heat up a pre-cooked hamburger in less than a minute, but do we know how to butcher a cow? We flip the lights on with one finger, but do we know how that light bulb works?


I live about a mile away from a road made famous because of one thing: Cobblestone houses. It has the highest concentration of them in the world. I tried to look online for a picture to show you what a cobblestone house is, but I couldn't find any; there were fieldstone houses and brick houses, but not cobblestone. It's really a beautiful way to build a house, basically it's smooth lake stones set on edge and held with some kind of mortar. There are no new cobblestone houses being built in the world today. People have forgotten how to make them. It is a lost art. And so my very long answer to this simple question is: All of it to both. All of technology has had some benefit, but I am afraid it will have its cost as well.
It already has.

Celebrate

  The small thing I'm celebrating this week is the warm weather I hear is coming. It's not here yet, but I've been told that this winter should eventually end. So, I'm getting out my seed catalogs and trimming my fruit trees in the hopes it's true. It has to be, doesn't it?


What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG

What is my insecurity this month? Knowing when to let go.
I am a planner. I like to think I can sit down and come up with a to-do list and that's that. I can hear all of you laughing right now. I can hear God laughing, too.

I found an old journal of mine and had the chance to read through it because (cough) my plans for this week ended up changing and I had some extra time on my hands. It was from fourteen years ago when I was in the very beginning of my battle with infertility. I had plans. Big ones. But you know what? Not one of my plans worked out the way I wanted them to. And now, fourteen years later, I can only be thankful. Because God's plans were better.

How about you--has your life worked out the way you planned?