Raven's View

Time to get ready for another round - yay!  The first day, July 1, is a holiday - not that the self-employed notice - so I'm doing this today. I will still try to work on some writerly things tomorrow, though.

My objectives may seem daunting to some. Firstly, I'm self-employed, so my schedule is flexible, and secondly, my job/passion/career is being a writer and author. In addition, my kids are all grown up, I'm single, have adjusted my lifestyle to a small but liveable pension, and live in a rental (maintenance free) apartment. All by choice, not luck. The only luck so far I guess is happening to run into a publisher last year at a small press book fair. He was just starting off and was looking for more authors, I had several books written and was looking to get published. Sort of looking, as in I hadn't started the cycle of mailings and rejections yet. Right now we're in the midst of final edits. After that, it will then go to copy/proof editors, then up on Kindle and Createspace. 

My long term goals are to become a better writer and to become a successful (income earning) author. Both would be nice. Also, I'd like to ensure that I live life, make some positive contributions to it, and get/stay healthy enough to enjoy it.

This is for a prompt by Terrible Minds. Chuck says:

This week’s challenge (up a couple days late since for some reason again WordPress borked me on a Friday where I was gone from the house, grarrrgh) is pretty simple: in the tradition of Don Draper, Tony Soprano, Walter White, or even my own Mookie Pearl (hint hint), it’s time to write a bit of flash fiction featuring a bad dad. These fathers fit on the lower more sinister echelon of the D&D alignment chart. The question is: can you also make them sympathetic?

You’ve got 1000 words.

I dashed off something quick for this - mine's only 350 words. 

Whew, I'm done! This was a busy round - mostly from the 'life getting in the way' part. I did get a lot done on my publishing, less on writing, and added in a new task for the round - find a new apartment, pack, move in, unpack. 

My Goals, as mentioned, are long term, while Objectives are short term, contributing toward the goals. Main Goals are still to become a better writer and to become a successful (income earning) author. Both would be nice. Also, I'd like to ensure that I live life, make some positive contributions to it, and get/stay healthy enough to enjoy it.

My original objectives, as well as status for this round, are shown below.  

I had a biological father that I never met, never contacted, and knew little about. I had a step-father that I did meet, that I spent some ten years with, but never really got to know. He was quite reserved, even with his own children. Do two partial father's make a father?

Not for me.

I was better off than my siblings, though, as I had grandparents that doted on me, especially my grandfather, OB. He was the role model that took me fishing and hunting, that gave me a moral sense, that gave me hugs, that told me stories, that shared his sense of humour. He was 55 when I was born, so I didn't get a lot of rough-housing or sports training, but I still look back on my years with him with fondness. 

Happy Father's Day OB.

BTW - photo is him with my mother, when his Richelieu Club ran a trip tp Europe.

Status for this check in:

• Publishing - none - novel sent to Beta-readers, waiting for feedback by end of week. Then will incorporate that, and then send to editor/publisher for his changes. Once those are in he is sending to a copy editor.In the meantime, nice to NOT have to worry about editing. 
• Writing 
  • This ROW80 check in.
  • Attended a workshop on writing about mothers - very interesting. Assignment is now to mull over what we learned, and in 2 weeks do 2000 words on her. 
• Other
  • Lunches and visits with friends and family - things that were neglected a bit while editing.