Friday Done List December 26

Christmas Eve yoga spot

We got through Christmas without death, dying, or general illness! Hurray! I forgot to take pictures of 

our dessert bar or my sister. But I did get an hour of yin yoga on the Solstice and a half hour Christmas Eve. How chill was that? 

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

• I completed my Advent Project. One of my most successful Advent Projects as far as making me feel that I was both working and living through Christmas preparations without undue suffering. It remains to be seen if any of these beginning essays/humor pieces/book chapters will ever be published.
• Had my last essay of the year published at Books Are Our Superpower. A Native American Writer Opened My Mind to Literary Horror is a rewrite of an Original Content blog post.

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

• Wrote and published a Time Management Tuesday post.
• Promoted the Literary Horror publication to Facebook and BlueSky.

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

• I spent last night with a 5-year-old houseguest who didn't want to sleep by herself. So sometime in the night or this morning (I actually woke up before she did) I was in bed with this kid who was sleeping while I wasn't. So, instead, I was reading (on my iPad) an article on Medium about how to use Manuscript Wishlist to find agents. Using methods I haven't been using. I thought, well, maybe I should consider doing one of these nonAI things next year and sending out some more submissions. Except I didn't save the link (I think someone else in the bed woke up), and I don't know where the link was, and now I have to spend some time looking for it. Hey, that's thinking about a goal, and I'm claiming it. UPDATE: I found it! It didn't take long, either.

Friday Done List December 12

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

• New humor piece published.
  
• Seven new beginnings for the Advent Project. A couple of these were extensions of beginnings from other years' Advent Projects. 
• Wrote up my Native American Heritage Month reading for my Heritage Month Project.

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

• Did a couple of promotional posts for the new humor piece.
• Wrote a Story Behind the story post for the new humor piece and promoted it on BlueSky.
• Took part in the annual OCWW Holiday Book Mart, which went hybrid for the first time this year. Promoted that on Facebook.
• Have not yet promoted my Native American Heritage Month reading at Facebook and BlueSky. Sunday!

Friday Done List March 15

Today I made three lasagnas and three batches of cookie dough, one of which I baked and...Wait. We're supposed to talk about work here.

Goal 1. Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

• Finished a draft of an essay!
• Submitted the essay.
• The essay was accepted and published. 
• Very small amount of work on a short story.
• Considered joining a Medium Zoom event. Need to sign up for a OCWW workshop next week.

Goal 2. Submit 143 Canterbury Road To Agents 

• Did minimal research on agents for this.

Goal 3. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

• Four blog posts
• Marketing of blog posts 
• Marketing of essay

Friday Done List February 16

A distracting week: A. A snowstorm that involved a lot of snow shoveling; B. An hour and a half of snowshoeing the next day, because if there is snow in the south of New England, you have to drop everything and take advantage of it before it's gone; C. Two trips out to shop for a washer and dryer. D. Prepping for a family dinner. 

Nonetheless...

Goal 1. Adult short stories, essays, and humor.

• Still working on that short story. It's getting long. What if I have trouble finding someone to publish it? Which, you know, could happen. Hmm. Can you self-publish e-short stories? I could look into that.
• Submitted two pieces of flash fiction, just this morning. 
• Did some reading in preparation for starting an essay.

Goal 2. Submit 143 Canterbury Road to agents.

• Submitted to two agents.

Goal 3. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

• Three blog posts, counting this one. Did some promotion of one of them.
• Will be reposting one of them at my Goodreads blog.
• Began some updating of the website.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? May 21st Edition

Less than one week left of May Days. In the meantime, I'm still all about Good Women.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With "Good Women." I spent some time revising last week's chapter and then today I wrote all this material I was happy with but it just went on and on and there was so much more that had to happen and wasn't that going to be a drag? Then I came up with a way to make everything different and faster, though it means reworking today's work. So things are good, but not great.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.

• Started the Connecticut Children's Lit Calendar
• Spent a lot of time today corresponding with a family member with quite an elaborate website and blog about GDPR.
• Did four blog posts and promoted them, which I'm not going into tonight because I have that CCLC to work on. Also, vacation. Also, I have to back up some work.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? May 18th Edition

Weren't we just doing this? Like, a week ago?

Well, I took care of a nine-month-old for half a day, which was a better time than you might think, and a half a day of unexpected errands, which wasn't. Then I'm painting my living room tomorrow, which seemed like a good idea when I came up with it, but then I had to spend some time today putting up tape and taking drapes to the dry cleaners and...well...nothing revolutionary happened here this week.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With "Good Women." So, I finished the chapter I was working on last week, and started another. That wasn't as well planned as the two earlier chapters I've done this month. It's not done, but some more planning has been done for it. And I'm painting that living room tomorrow. Breakout experience potential!

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.

I must admit, I blew off writers' group this month. I can live with my decision.

Blog work:

• Little Woman in Blue Post, promoted to Google+, Twitter, and Goodreads
• Time Management Tuesday Post promoted to Google+, Facebook, and Twitter
• Flying Deep Post, promoted to Google+ 

Sent out the request for Connecticut Children's Lit Calendar events.

Started following National Novel Promotion Month, though I am way, way behind. 

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? May 11 Edition

Did pretty well, people.

Goal 1. Submissions. I had an essay accepted for submission! Needed to do a little administrative type stuff on Monday for that. And I did some research for more submissions.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. Knocked off one short chapter and fourteen pages of another. Little disappointed that I didn't finish that second chapter, but I didn't have as good an outline as I did for last week's work. I'll try to get a few minutes in this weekend.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.

• Maurice Sendak Post. Promoted to Google+, a Facebook community, and Twitter.
• Time Management Tuesday Post. Promoted to Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.
• Environmental Book Club Post. Promoted to Google+, a Google+ community, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
• Worked on getting some books I've read onto Goodreads.
• Started reading some marketing posts that I'll probably be writing about at some point. 

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? The May 4 Edition

The first week of May Days, the group binge write I'm taking part in, didn't go badly, all things considered. I didn't get started until Wednesday, didn't work most of Thursday because it's my run-around day, and still managed the following:

Goal 1. Submissions. I made two and did some research for future submissions.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. I wrote a new twenty-three page chapter, working from a blueprint I created earlier this year and did a lot of clean-up of earlier chapters.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. I got back on task with promoting blog posts. 

• Connecticut Children's Lit Calendar Post. Promoted to Google+, Facebook, a Facebook community, 4 tweets on Twitter.
•  Sent out the CCLC newsletter.
• What I Found in the YA Department Post. Promoted to Google+, Twitter, and Goodreads.
• Time Management Tuesday Post. Promoted to Google+, Facebook, and Twitter
• Jazz Picture Books Post. Promoted to Google+, Twitter
• Environmental Book Club Post. Promoted to Google+, Twitter, and Goodreads

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? April 27 Edition

Only two full days of work and some here and there stuff other days, as well as social media things in the evening.

Goal 1. Submissions. I found a new market for an essay. Three submissions are planned for next week.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. The bulk of my work time during the day went to this goal, preparing for binge writing next month. I've nearly finished skimming a research book that helped with fleshing out characters and coming up with plot ideas

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. 

• Have been working on the Connecticut Children's Lit Calendar
• Made three blog posts and did a better job promoting them then I have recently. This is hugely important. Blog stats are ridiculously low without promoting them. These days a blog, by itself, goes nowhere.
• Continued posting Goodreads reviews of my ReFoReMo reading.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? April 13 Edition

Another three-day week, though I am definitely getting into squeezing some work into odd-times on between other commitments. I worked into the evening once, which is extremely rare and unusual and unique for me.

Goal 1. Submissions. I received a couple of rejections this week, which is, you might say, the opposite of submitting. Wait. No. The opposite of submitting would be not submitting. Rejection is something else. I checked out a couple of on-line publications today. Both won't work for me.

Next week I'll only be working only two days. If I can manage any work time at all on the other three, I'm going to commit it to market research.

Goal 2. YA Thriller. Got a few pages of this ready for writers' group Monday night. The discussion there was helpful in terms of getting one particular character settled. And I've come up with a couple more ideas during the week. Maybe just one.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. I have finished revising the first eight chapters and have made some progress undercoating/blueprinting/outlining (choose your metaphor) additional ones. That will be my focus the rest of this month.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. 

• Attended a writers' group meeting.
• Made four blog posts, promoting them at various places.
• Updated my Goodreads blog for the first time in a couple of months.
• Started posting Goodreads reviews of my ReFoReMo reading.

In totally unrelated news, I finished what I'm calling a rough draft for a vacation itinerary for this fall. That was weeks and weeks of work spread over about three months.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? April 6 Edition

The Done List is back! I did a few things on a three-day work week.

Goal 1. Submissions. I made two submissions. Have someone in mind for another one.

Goal 2. YA Thriller. I had some great ideas for this, maybe for the ending. But I forgot them. I have to do some work on this before writers' group on Monday night.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women.  This is my focus this month. I've been revising early chapters to get characters functioning at their best, which I find makes moving on easier. I've also been able to work on underpainting a later chapter, which just shows my "begin again" policy works. That's my story.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.

• Four blog posts that were feebly promoted.
• Beginning to review the 47 picture books I read last month at Goodreads.
• Building up followers on Twitter.
• Came up with an idea for marketing Saving the Planet & Stuff this summer.   

What did you do this week. Gail? March 9 Edition

Not a lot. These last two weeks have been cut into with appointments, shopping for necessities, and coping with winter weather. Oh, and also I broke my mother’s new hearing aid and had to make a couple of runs into a medical office with that. (I’ve got another trip to come on that.)

Nevertheless, over the last two weeks I managed to do some more work for:

Goal 1. Submissions. I have a plan to submit at the beginning of each month, and I managed to do that the end of last week. One submission resulted in some interest. Then yesterday, between power outages, I was able to take part in pitmad.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. This has been my big focus with whatever time I could find. I haven't made the kind of progress I'd hoped to these last two weeks, meaning underpainting/blueprinting/outlining new chapters. In order to go on, I had to go back and deal with a secondary character. I did a lot of research and information on her religious background and I'm much happier with her. I also have a better feel for how the next chapter should go. Even how this character should dress.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Picture Book Study. In addition to actually taking part in Reading For Research Month, I've had to do library searches for the picture books and then get them. I've been to the library four times in the last two weeks. Three different libraries. I'm a couple of days behind with this and hoping to find some time this weekend to catch up.


Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. Got some blog posts done, including the Connecticut Children's Literature Calendar, but have done a weak job of promoting them. Something else I can catch up on some weekend.

UPDATE: If you're on Facebook, you can check out my Northeaster 2018 Album to see how we managed our big 24-hours without power. Hint...I could still read.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? Feb. 24 Edition.

Very short work week here. However, I managed the following:

Goal 2. YA Thriller. Did some more reading of engineering essays to come up with a significant point for a secondary character. Jotted down some notes last weekend regarding my central crime.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. Finished underpainting or blueprinting (whichever metaphor you prefer) the chapter about the Christmas pageant. Have already decided I want to change the tone. The next chapter is going to be very short, and between what I'd already done with it and what I did this week, I think it's safe to say that's ready for May.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Picture Book Study. I signed up for Read For Research Month, hoping to shape up the picture book manuscript I've completed or, hey, do some other picture book work. I also began looking for and collecting the picture books I'll need to read next month to take part in that challenge. That's going to be a lot of work.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. Did three blog posts and promoted 
them in the usual places. Did two Goodreads reviews. Started the March Connecticut Children's Literature Calendar. I also brought my historical fiction Pinterest board up to date.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? Feb. 16 Edition

I had only three full days of work because we have a new family member, our second in six months, and that was diverting in the best possible way. I lost a little social media time in the evening because of the necessity of watching Olympic figure skating. It's on every evening, all evening, on NBC Sports. I want to be Adam Rippon! Then some evening time goes to planning a complex vacation for this fall, which is driving me crazy. We've been eating dinner in the living room (watching the Olympics, of course), because the dining room table is covered with road maps.

Nonetheless, I did some work.

Goal 1. Submissions. One thing I'm trying to do this year is squeeze submission research into days when I have a lot of nonwork obligations and can't spend a lot of time concentrating for big chunks of time. That way I'm getting something done on even a difficult day, and I'm actually making some progress on my submission planning. So yesterday and today, I got submission research in. Some good stuff, too.

Goal 2. YA Thriller. I brought a voice exercise for one of my characters to writers' group. I felt the voice wasn't there, myself, and someone gave some excellent feedback on that. I'm also skimming a book called Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering by Henry Petrowski. (Honest to God, I found this on my To Be Read shelf.) I need a  world, a life, for a dead engineer in this story, and I'm hoping reading some engineering essays will give me some ideas.

Goal 3. Generate New Work With Good Women. I'm still working on underpainting the Christmas pageant chapter. Hey, it's hard to create a Christmas pageant.

Goal 4. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.  Four blog posts with promotion to Google+, Twitter, a Facebook community, a Goodreads journal post, and a writers' group meeting.

Back to the men's free skate.