FULL STEAM AHEAD!

The first three months of the new year have been hectic for me. I've fought nasty sinus infections, helped my sister move out of an apartment she lived in for more than a dozen years, bid a sad farewell to my agent, and just in general felt buffeted by LIFE like that little boat shown above.


Sometimes we can get so caught up in the day to day routine of just hanging on that we lose sight of the distant shore we are trying to get to. The rough waters tossing us around throw us off course and sometimes we flounder in a river of self-doubt, rejection letters, and unfinished manuscripts. But I am of the strong conviction that it's not what knocks us down that waylays our goals in life, but what we do while lying on the ground which determines if we will ever succeed in any of our dreams.


So, with that in mind, I have written down three goals that I will keep in mind for these next three months and make a detailed action plan on how to reach each of them.



GOAL #1:  IMPROVED HEALTH


When it comes to my health, I am nothing but unique. Even weird some people may say. There are some issues I deal with that aren't your run of the mill health things and it can affect my weight. While I don't exactly like it, I've come to terms with the overall challenge of losing weight and have set goals to address THAT particular part of my life. If you want to check out what I'm doing, you can stop by my blog, CLAWING MY WAY BACK TO A HEALTHIER ME http://healthierrocks.blogspot.com/), where I will try to be more diligent in posting helpful tips for achieving a healthier lifestyle. Oh, and in case anyone's interested, PLANET FITNESS is the BOMB when it comes to gyms and is GREAT for my budget since it costs only $10 per month!

www.a-to-zchallenge.com

GOAL #2:  IMPROVED WRITING

I seem to have a particular challenge in keeping critique partners or selecting critique groups that actually stay together. Everything will start out fine but somehow thing will always fall by the wayside and I'm left looking for another CP or group. It saddens me because I've collected great advice over the years which I've tried really hard to put to good use. I've been working on a few things this past month to help improve my current portfolio of manuscripts.

One of the things I've done is sign up for the A to Z Challenge again this year. I've participated many times before and it's a great way to challenge a writer to meet deadlines and tighten their overall writing. I even managed to write and schedule FIFTY-TWO individual posts to run the entire month of April on both this blog, THE STORY CATCHER, and my Taekwondo school's blog I manage, KICKS KIDS CLUB (http://kickskidsclub.blogspot.com/). This blog will list food items from A to Z that people used to eat during the 1800's and I even managed to find some foods beginning with the letters X and Z! My school's blog will list lesser known sea creatures and also showcases the letters X and Z without making things up...;~)

GOAL #3: IMPROVED AGENT SEARCH

I've been looking for an agent on and off for about three years now. I've been lucky enough to work with one for a short time who gave me some good advice on improving my manuscripts and for that I will always be grateful. In April, while my blogs are participating in the A to Z Challenge, I will resume my search for an agent who has the same writing interests and future goals as I do. Communication is HUGE for me. I will jump back into the querying fray with the knowledge an agent search is not a mad dash to the finish line, but a grueling long distance marathon where only the most dedicated writers will make it to their ultimate goal of partnering with another industry professional on that road to publication.

With the early moths of 2016 behind me, my focus is clear and all pistons are running so all I can say is...FULL STEAM AHEAD!