Keeping Me Honest III

A quick update on my 2011 creative writing goals:

• The Dating a Widower book is 99% done. Basically all that needs to be done is some marketing copy and final cover layout (which is dependent on my writing the marketing copy). Hope to have everything to the designer this week as Marathon Girl is scheduled to be induced next week unless she goes into labor before that.
• Since I turned down a publishing contract and went the Indie route with Dating a Widower, I haven’t had as much time to work on “White Whale.” However, I should be able to go full bore on that once the baby comes.
• The sequel to The Third still needs some tweaks but is essentially done. Hopefully there will be some good news regarding its release date soon.

Also, I’ve had several people who read Room for Two this summer and wanted to know if I’ve ever considered writing a book about life after I married Marathon Girl. I’ve tossed the idea around and though I don’t know if I have a consistent enough storyline for a memoir, I do have enough content to write a dozen or so long essays about second marriages, moving on, and starting a new life that could be complied into a book. Anyway, I’d like to toss the idea out there to see if book like that something you’d be interested in reading. I probably won’t get around to completing it until next year but if there’s enough interest in it, it’s something I can start on relatively soon.

Leave a comment below or email me your thoughts if that's something you'd like to read.

Creative Writing Goals 2011

 

After singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, I’ll dive right in to accomplishing my 2011 creative writing resolutions. This year’s creative writing goals include:

• Have the Dating a Widower book available by end of January. I finally finished rewriting the latest draft this week and have an editor queued up to do a final review of it. Providing the editor doesn’t have substantial changes, it should be out an available on Amazon by late January.
• Have a final, polished draft of a novel that I hope will take me to the national market. Code named “White Whale” I’ll be pitching it to an agent the first week of May at a writer’s conference. The clock is ticking on this one. All I have right now is an outline.
• Wrap up the sequel to The Third. The first draft is almost done but need to get it polished by fall should the publisher pick up the option to do the next book in the trilogy.

And if I can accomplish all that, 2011 will be a very successful year indeed—at least when it comes to writing. And to keep me honest, I'll be posting regular progress on this blog.

Hope you all have a happy and healthy 2011.

The One New Year's Resolution I Can't Keep

I'm pretty good about keeping New Year’s resolutions. Whether it’s writing a book or two, shaking up the exercise routine, doing things that make me a better husband or father, I can usually look back at the year and see that I’ve accomplished most of them.

There is one exception to this rule—one that I've tried for the last three years with varying degrees of success: no more soda pop. As hard of I've tried, I’ve never been able to go an entire year without it. The longest I’ve made it without any bubbly was three years ago when I went all the way to September.

Since I don’t drink a lot of soda anyway, you’d think this would be an easy one to keep. The only time I usually drink it when we go out to eat (an Apollo Burger isn’t an Apollo Burger without some carbonation) or the occasionally family party. And avoiding carbonation during those times wouldn’t be difficult since there are always plenty of non-carbonated options to choose from.

Part of problem is that nearly a decade ago when I started running every day is that if I met my running goals for the week, one of my rewards was a 32 oz. fountain drink from a nearby convenience store. Even though drinking soda was went somewhat against the grain of the weight I was trying to lose at the time, it was still my reminder that I wasn’t giving up soda—but only drinking it after I had accomplished other health related goals. Nearly a decade later, I still routinely meet my fitness goals. However, I still want a reward for doing it. Hence the draw of at least having something carbonated to drink once a week. I’ve tried non-carbonated substitutes but so far nothing seems to work well enough to keep me off carbonation for 365 days.

It’s also become more difficult now that our kids are older. When Marathon Girl and I were first married, we never bought it. Now we buy it occasionally for the kids—usually as a reward for good behavior. This, however, creates temptations when we have it occasionally with dinner even though there’s plenty of other stuff I could drink. In the end, however, I have no one but myself to blame.

There are always other options available—I just choose to have the occasional soda. So this year I’m going to give it one last try and see if I can have the self control to abstain for at least a year. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll have good news to report.