Another Rest Day… (As a reminder, the overall monthly challenge is to write four novels and gain distance every week on my step count, starting the first week at an average of 11,000 steps per day.) The Day Went Like This… I made it up to WMG Publishing around two and talked with some writers there for a couple of hours. Then headed out for a walk to get my milage. And yes, again I got my 12,000 steps. (Exactly 12,058 by midnight, but I got them. (grin)) Then back to the WMG office to work on workshop stuff. Then the store, then home to nap and cook dinner. I…

Pacing and Resting… (As a reminder, the overall monthly challenge is to write four novels and gain distance every week on my step count, starting the first week at an average of 11,000 steps per day.) The Day Went Like This… Got my 12,000 steps a day back on track today. And did a ton of email and workshop stuff, including getting half of the July workshops started. So eyes were tired, so I decided to go easy on the word count today. It’s called pacing. These two days with all the workshop assignments make it tough for me to not only read challenge stories but to write my own…

Very Tired… (As a reminder, the overall monthly challenge is to write four novels and gain distance every week on my step count, starting the first week at an average of 11,000 steps per day.) The Day Went Like This… First off, I decided to give my legs a rest as somewhere around 7,000 steps I was really dragging. I have done a week at 5 miles (10,000 steps) and another week at 5.5 miles a day (11,000 steps for  me). Yesterday I did 12,000 steps, but today I needed to rest a little. Tomorrow back to 12,000 steps. NOTICE!! Everyone who is signed up for a July workshop should…

A Survival Day… (As a reminder, the overall monthly challenge is to write four novels, lose eight pounds, and gain distance every week on my step count, starting the first week at 11,000 steps per day.) The Day Went Like This… Got out the door around 3 p.m. today after a half hour of e-mail to run some business errands. Made it to the WMG offices at 4 p.m. and then went back out for a walk to get steps. Back to the office around 5 a.m. and worked there on workshop stuff until 6:30. Groceries and home to do a little more email and some workshop stuff for an…

Some Thoughts on Challenges… I’m reading stories for the short story challenge and also starting to get the first novels in for the June part of the novel challenge. Everyone seems to be doing fine. In fact, so far, I am impressed. And the challenge is doing what it was intended to do, which was get writers to the keyboard in a rough time of year. And I’m having fun reading. For me, I seem to be working toward the July challenge in bits and pieces. I should finish this one novel by Sunday or Monday nights, and get other things worked out, including another issue of Smith’s Monthly turned…

I Love Challenges… I tend to push myself with my writing at times. Anyone following this blog knows that, from writing 30 short stories in thirty days to writing a novel in five days while traveling. And that’s just in the last six months. I have a lot of things I like to do in this crazy life I lead, so challenges get me focused for short bursts of time on writing. So I’m thinking of a new challenge for July, one I’ve been thinking about for some time. And as many of my challenges do, it harks back to the old pulp writer days. And it sounds difficult if…

STARTED EXERCISE… Number of things happening today. Last day to sign up for the May online workshops. The first day of the Short Story Challenge that I am reading stories for. (That took me some time to set up my paperwork and tacking system on my side. First stories were wonderful.) And for me, I started my new exercise challenge. (I started the novel writing challenge for myself yesterday.) My exercise goal is once again to run a marathon in Las Vegas in November. That was the goal last year and I lost 30 pounds working at it, but I needed to lose more and have more milage under me…

STARTING FRESH… The few of you who jumped into the May short story challenge are starting up. Remember to have fun. Still two spots open if anyone wants me to read their short stories.  And a number of spots open in the novel challenge starting in June. Information on both the short story challenge and the novel challenge with me as a first reader is below. I finished my challenge last night of 30 short stories in 30 days and the final cover is done below. After I finish the next chapter of the Magic Bakery, I’ll do the blurbs for those stories and post them in one blog. Later in…

DAY THIRTY… Challenge Hit!! Stories from April all done. Wow, feels great to be honest. April turned out to be the worst month I could have tried this and yet I managed to do it by just chugging right along. One story at a time. That really was the key. The last story was one more Marble Grant story. 12 of the 30 are Marble Grant and I didn’t even have that character or realize she existed until the 9th story in the challenge. The story tonight is called “Obvious Creeper” from two story-title halves slammed together. Turned out I wrote it in two sessions with a short break. 2,200 words. Tomorrow…