Raven's View

This was actually a fairly writerly week - who knew? My biggest success was my critique group, followed by some heavy duty library promotion and ground work for book signings. 

Status:

• Write
  • Okay, none, but I am deciding on my next book to edit. Probably Ghost in the Machine. Summary - When a man's wife dies, his immediate goal is to adjust to his loss. However, her consciousness is preserved in an online AI - an advanced version of iPhone's Siri she helped develop - so she's neither dead nor alive.
  • Software - do I continue with Scrivener or try yWriter? The latter has a number of tracking tools - dates, arcs, etc - I'd like to try.

These were the goals I'd set for this year.

• write
• write better
• publish
• enjoy life
• stay healthy

I'll expand on some objectives and add my status:

• Write - Too bad the weekly challenges for Flash Fiction Friday are done, but participation had fallen off. I do have a number of challenges left over from the last few years, as I skipped a few. TerribleMinds is still an active site too, with a lot of participants. Not a lot of feedback though. I could aim to write every other week.
• Write better - I've set up a critique group in a local sci-fi/fantasy group. That's a once a month thing. I also have a series of blogs on writing/editing/publishing I follow via Feedley, with 4-5 postings in it a day. Target is to keep up to date. I'd also like to learn about script-writing - so that's books and groups. 
• Publish - I did publish my second book, in December, Return to Kirk's Landing, so now this also includes Marketing. Objectives? Update my blog intro to show my books. Set up signings at four local Chapters stores. Get out to all libraries on my list (I did this for Kirk's Landing too). Edit and submit and publish my next book - I have four drafts to choose from. 
• Enjoy life and stay healthy - I have good friends locally, a sweetie in Toronto, and enough money to feed myself, stay warm, and visit my local. Plus Netflix, and a fun video game, ETS, as well as a nearby library. Walking more would help. 10,000 brisk steps a day would be a nice target, but 5,000 not so brisk ones is more reachable for now. Plus my daily back exercises, done every time I wait for a coffee to drip through my filter.

This is written for the final prompt from Flash Fiction Friday - due December 29th so I'm just a tad late. I started and abandoned several ideas, and this one is more of an outline for a novel, but what the heck. Here's the challenge - 

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Let’s have some fun with our final prompt. All over our world, the holidays are celebrated in many different ways. But, what about the folks on other worlds? What holidays occur at the end of their years, and how are they celebrated? You tell us. Your ‘other world’ can be another planet or another dimension of our very own Earth realm. It’s all up to you.

Prompt: Write a story about an end-of-year holiday celebration in another world.

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count: 1,500 or less

Deadline: December 29, 2016

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Here's my story, at just over 800 words.

I guess it's time for a new set of goals/aspirations for the next year - or longer.

They remain pretty well the same:

• write
• write better
• publish
• enjoy life
• stay healthy

Details to follow, as I figure out some measurable objectives.

For 2016, my progress was:

• write - I did a number of Flash Fiction stories, as well as serious editing of novel #2
• write better - editing fits here too, I guess. Also following writerly blogs via Feedley, joining writers groups, reading fiction with a critical eye, going to some writers/readers conferences and starting a critique group
• publish - a big YES, as Return to Kirk's Landing is out there now, up on Chapters, Amazon, etc. I also got four stories into Spark: A Flash Fiction Anthology. 
• enjoy - yes, going well, with video games, girlfriend, nice neighbourhood, friends/family 
• stay healthy - well, not less healthy.