Friday Done List July 3

While I am well aware the world isn't waiting with bated breath for my done lists, they are very helpful for me. In fact, after around 5 weeks of aiding a family member, two weekends of my own upper-respiratory illness, a houseguest for three nights, prepping for a John the Baptist Day gathering for 17 people, and a 48-hour trip that involved visiting a couple of historical sites, two woods walks and a quick visit to a dam, as well as a stop at a garden and arboretum, I am having trouble wrapping my head around what I want to be doing. 

A done list should help a great deal with that.

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor 

• At least two of the five blog posts I've done since mid-May should become essays I'll be submitting or publishing somewhere else.
• I did write and submit an essay that was published at Books Are Our Superpower.
• I submitted three pieces of flash fiction to a site that accepted up to three pieces per submission. They were all rejected within days. Such efficiency!
• I created something called a junk journal that has cleaned up my desk and may have organized my life some.
• I did a lot on my Market Research Spreadsheet that I'm using to keep track of journals I've checked out, whether I'm interested in submitting to them or not. Knowing you shouldn't be submitting to a publication is useful information. The spreadsheet has a place for planning and for keeping track of submissions. And rejections, too, of course. 
• I requested a just published history galley from NetGalley. They rejected me. So I requested a different book today! Also, I looked at my NetGalley profile. The information about where I share material about my reading had disappeared. Fixing that might improve my chances for being selected as a gallery reader.
• I finished revising a chapter of one of my unpublished books into a short story and just submitted that.
• I've started a couple of essays for a series I'm planning to publish directly to Medium without submitting to publications. More about that another time.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• I'm in the early stages of planning a big website and work revision. I've looked around at some writer websites as research.

Goal 3. Submit Book-length Work to Agents and Editors 

• I have a page long list of agents in my junk journal that I am slowly going through to see if any are appropriate for me to submit my adult books to. So far, not many. 

Goal 4. Begin Some Writing on the 19th Century Novel Idea

• I started reading a book dealing with a historical element relating to my novel idea. The book is not very good.
• This past week's historical visits on our mini-vaca were all about the 19th century novel idea.