July has been a busy month, for a period I usually find to be the doldrums of summer. We took an extended vacation around the 4th, I’ve traveled for work, etc. I must admit that I was not actively tracking my goals for July, but I feel like I ended up hitting most of them anyway.

Perhaps it’s more a matter of routine, or a bit of a mindset I’ve been in to just get things done. Either way, I feel good about where I’m at.

Last Month’s Goals

1. Read three books.
2. Finish New Earth.
3. Stay on top of my shifted priorities. 

Read three books?

Yep! I finished three books in July, all audiobooks again:

• Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Among the Beasts and Briars, by Ashley Poston, and which I reviewed here
• A Plague of Giants, by Kevin Hearne, which I reviewed here

I’m thoroughly enjoying Kevin Hearne’s trilogy and will definitely be finishing A Blight of Blackwings in the next week or so.

Finish New Earth?!

Yes. Basically. I finally came up with my ending, which, of course, was a scene that had been staring me in the face for months. It’s the type of scene that I knew I had wanted to incorporate in some way during revisions. The ending isn’t perfect and likely needs some more work, but I’m honestly relieved to say that I have ended this story.

I still have a lot of revisions, and working with an editor, to do before this duology is anywhere near finalized.

For the moment, I’m happy to put a pin in it. I feel like I need to do some serious self-evaluating and self-reflection to figure out my writing goals. I haven’t yet nailed down a consistent writing routine, so I want to step back and consider how much I can reasonably focus on writing week-to-week to give me a better sense of how long each project will take, rather than writing into an unknown void of time.

Stay on top of shifted priorities?

Yes, mostly. Another change we have coming up is our oldest starting kindergarten, so our daily drop-off/pick-up is about to change. I think we have a plan figured out, and we just need to see how it goes.

Goals for August

1. Read three books.
   • Current reads: A Blight of Blackwings, by Kevin Hearne, and The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl.
   • Likely next reads: A Curse of Krakens, by Kevin Hearne, the final installment of this series. And… I’m not sure what else at the moment.
2. Plan for/test a writing routine. I’m not committed to sticking to a writing routine yet. I just want to put in the effort to figure one out and do some much-needed longer-term planning for my writing projects.
3. Figure out my next writing steps. I have two projects I’d like to make progress on, but it’s difficult to prioritize, because I’m not sure when or in what order I will be publishing anything.
   • I haven’t decided whether I’m just going to publish my next thing and hope for the best, or whether I want to plan out a publishing phase of three-ish stories, to try to boost overall sales and carry into some convention work. So, goals #2 and #3 go hand-in-hand, really.

Steve D