ROW80 check-in #33

I got a glimpse of the new schedule this week and a taste of what it’s like to have your oldest in school all day. I didn’t cry, much. It was hard at times, but that’s life, it keeps changing and you have a choice to move forward or get dragged.

No burns and dirt for me, I kept moving.

Forward movement feels good. I even made my very first pitch to a couple of publishers during MFRW‘s “Write-place, Write-time” event. I received two requests yesterday!! And I have one more pitch to do this morning. Good times.

Motivation Jars (14-goals in all & $7.50 is up for grabs each week): 10-goals had real good progress or are complete. Wardrobe Jar gets $5.36 (total so far: $64.28) and NOT my political party of choice jar gets $2.14 (total so far: $10.72)

The Goals – week-10 results

  • Spend at least 1-hour a day with my characters– done
  • Pick a title for Voyage Novu #1 & #2- Goal complete. Yes,  I did it, feels good too.
  • Write 3,000 words each week or 33,000 for the round- I pulled my hair out with this task this week. I haven’t written 1st draft material in weeks, but I’ve been working hard on edits and prepping for the MFRW pitch fest. Some goals do have to sit to make way for others. BUT, I will not forget about this one, this week is it, literally for the round. WEEK 11 PRIORITY
  • Spend time editing at least 3 times each week- done. I spent 4-days editing this week.
  • Send Voyage Novu #1 to 2nd beta- Goal complete.
  • Finish Editing Voyage Novu #1- I tinkered with it all week in preparation for the pitch fest, I searched for this and for that and bunch of other things. I’m glad I did, because I got a request! In fact I got two! Wahoo! I’m going to take another look this week and send it out AS REQUESTED 😀
  • Voyage Novu#1 Query/Synopsis: finish, polish, get 2nd opinions, finalize AND send out 1st round- Goal complete. Yes, you read that right. I finished my query & synopsis this week, got 2nd opinions, and this weekend I’m showing the query to 3-publishers. THREE!
  • Finish first draft of Voyage Novu#2 and begin to edit- I had fabulous intentions to read through VN#2 this week, but with the pitch event prep I couldn’t get my mind to shift. WEEK 11 PRIORITY
  • Finish reading current craft book and start another- I started Margie Lawson’s Empowering Characters’ Emotions. Love Margie.
  • Workout a minimum of 200-minutes a week and round it out with plenty of water, sleep and my calorie limit- done.
  • Study one of the Nia 52-moves each week- Downward Punch: start in the ready position, and simultaneously bring one fist and forearm down in front of the body, while the other elbow and forearm draws back to maintain vertical alignment. To punch lower, move your hips backwards. Use equal force down and back up to the ready position. Look where you punch and exhale while you punch. Engage the whole body by pushing down with your feet.
  • Finish the Sanjana bars and start the Opal bars (i.e. studying the song/movement structure)- No progress, another pitch casualty. WEEK 11 PRIORITY
  • Finish needed continuing education, enter all credits on PMI site and save my PMP certification for another 3-years- No progress, another pitch casualty. WEEK 11 PRIORITY
  • Stay on top of my co-op preschool Treasurer responsibilities- I got a break this week thank goodness, this week I just have a deposit to make and monthly reports to generate and distribute.

SYTYCD – season 9, top 6

Cole’s gone, I knew it. I’m not surprised, but I will miss him. It was an interesting week of performances. I was tempted to share a solo, Chehon, wow, and this will make you smile. But it’s Eliana & Cole, choreography by Mia Michaels that I had to share. It’s a piece about hatred, an emotion I despise, but their frustration is palpable and the movement is beautiful.

What you might have missed here this week:

Unsafe Haven by Char Chaffin ~ Living Alaska and a Giveaway <–fabulous post, thanks again Char.

Links of the week #32

It’s Saturday and time to review the treats from the week. SYTYCD was back in a Mia Michaels kind of way. I’ve picked a powerful performance for you and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Story

Jami Gold : Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Are These Characters the Perfect Match?

Grammar

Liz Bureman at The Write Practice : Do You Use Quotation Marks or Italics for Song and Album Titles?

Place Descriptions

Sharla Rae at Writers In The Storm : Place Descriptions: Waterways

Body Language / Character Development

Darcy Pattison at Fiction Notes : 10 Body Language Tricks for Deeper Characterization

Fight Scenes

Rayne Hall at Clarion Blog : Writer’s Craft #85 Writing A Great Duel Scene

Editing

Linda Yezak at Writing Fiction Right from novelist Gail Gaymer Martin : Pet Peeves of a Professional Editor

Conferences

Gwen Hernandez at The Edited Life : Workshop takeaways from the 2012 RWA conference

Hook /  Query

Mary Keeley at Books & Such Literary Agency : 8 Tips for Writing a Powerful Hook for Your Book Proposal

Images

Sarah Arrow at For Bloggers By Bloggers : Finding Timely Images for Topical Blog Posts

Promotion / Marketing

Jenny Hansen at Writers In The Storm : QR Codes ~ A Sexy Marketing Technique for Your Books

Rachelle Gardner : 8 Tips for Promoting Your Book Online

Cassandra Carr at Hot Blogging with Heart : Thursday Thirteen 8/16/12- 13 promos that worked for me

Writer Business

Amy Sorrells at The Writers Alley : Beyond Sticky Notes: A review of Scrivener for writers

SYTYCD

This week the great dance show was back and all performances were choreographed by Mia Michaels. Oh, bells!! Love Mia’s choreography. But the Top-14 faced a great dancer-challenge. They’d be performing previously performed routines, routines choreographed for past seasons, making it really easy to see where this year’s dancers fall short in direct comparison to past contestants. It may have been a bit cruel, but so is the life of a dancer. One performance stood out. It was not better than the original, but stood on its own. This routine made me cry when Kayla and Kupono performed it in season five, so powerful. I do suggest watching both performances, but please watch Lindsay and Cole first.

Both performances made me cry, how about you?

Lindsay & Cole performing “Addiction” choreographed by Mia Michaels

What you might have missed here: 

Six Sentence Sunday #29 – see Janna melt in want

Tantalizing Tuesday #2 – The flick of a cloak

Flash Fiction #20 – She deserves it