cornerofmadness

And for the beginning of the year I'll talk about endings. Finishing. And the motivation TO finish. For those of us who don't get to the flist daily like those of us with no life *cough* I did finish my novel this week. It's the first long piece I've finished since

evil_little_dog and I finished Ties that Bind and I was still living with her so that is over SEVEN years ago(okay I suppose finishing my FMA novel Sorrow's Dark Array should count too).

Needless to say my follow through has sucked. Doing the short story anthologies has really helped. Yes, they have taken away from my writing of the novel but so has fanfic and I've enjoyed both of them. Writing short has at least improved my skills in finding more concise ways of conveying my ideas.

However, I need to stop getting distracted by the shiny things. Every new idea rips at my attention span and I put one thing down and never get back to it. This is the year that I am going to attempt very seriously to change that. I have to change it.

One thing that does help me is competition. It's why I joined

findyourwords &

gsd_rtfn. Also writing for an audience helps me immensely. It's a strange form of peer pressure for me. I adore my writers group Link for that reason, even when some of us forget the word count limits or offer up lame 'this isn't my genre and I can't understand it' excuses. Overall, knowing that every 6 weeks someone is going to be reading my next chapter keeps me going. That is THE reason I finished Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron this week (and thanks for those offering to read it).

I'm overjoyed when people on the original fiction filter stop in to comment, even if it's just to say I liked this (or even if they didn't so long as we point out why). I'm still very much interested in reviving

nanomowhinging and I did get a few people sign up and then I faltered. My apologies. Last year sucked. However I AM going to put off reviving this for a little while longer at least until I get my tenure stuff done and enough class lectures finished so I'm not having to take leaves of absence the moment we begin.

So I will be working. I will finish things. I will be looking to my friends to kick my butt and support me when I need it (thanks in advance on that front!)

Yearly word count -

1139 / 75000 words. 2% done!

FMA big bang (and DAMMIT one whole scene is suddenly missing!!)

12024 / 15000 words. 80% done!

Until the Ice Breaks - edited ch 2, have yet to look at finishing this

Machiavelli Moon - no new edits

Splinters of Silver & Cold Iron - FINISHED. will have ch 1 edited by the end of today

Geek love - update next week, Ditto Steampunk Scars

First off, let me say I do not find it funny in the least that people were calling tonight's Bronco/Steeler games Jesus vs Rapist or the Rape vs Prolife bowl. Both teams deserve more than to be summed up by their QB's (I hate Tebow and Rothelisberger equally for totally different reasons). It's rather soured my whole mood.

Of course the migraine that hit did it's share too. In a few more slides I'll have four chapters (two per class) then I can concentrate the rest of the week on my fast approaching deadline for tenure. I'm going to be cutting it CLOSE. I might try to work on the letter a little since the headache is dying down a bit.

It took me most of the day to get that done (along with a little vacuuming and cutting out the 430$ worth of coupons in the sunday paper).

I've sent out ch 1 of my novel to those who wanted to see it.

Mom is trying to be helpful but in some ways stressing me out. I'm not sure I want to look for a home this year. I couldn't pick a better time. There are homes selling here for less than what my car cost. But I still don't know if I want to live here forever. I jsut know the moment i buy a house my dream job will open up and i'll get it then I'll be stuck with a house I can't sell. But the reality is, I'm probably in this hell for life. (and yes i would leave my tenure if a job opened up somewhere I actually WANTED to live). She sent me this home. She would give me the down payment but I don't want to live in town. Though if I had to, at least my neighbors aren't too close. It's hurting my head and nerves just thinking about it. The older I get the jittery I get. It seems unfair.

on the yay side, ELD had my lost FMA scene captured in her IM program.

finally, the weight off. I'm the same weight give or take 5 pounds I was when I started this last year. So a year worth of failure. I know that my medical issues play a huge role in this but I'm putting out money this year.

I'm not sure if I blogged about this yet but on friday I talked to one of the coaches and got more info on their 'at risk' program for faculty. I'll be getting a private instructor (i.e. one of the wanna be coach/gym teachers) and a specialized program (written by our exercise physiologist) based on my medical issues. This is NOT a weight loss program. It's to improve my overall health. I'm hopeful. I need to do something, anything.

And I feel oddly good to learn this coach had the same surgery as I did within days of when I had it and we both have frozen shoulder. I feel less like it's MY fault. Here's an athlete (also diabetic however) with the same result.

I was amused tonight by The Simpson's as they had a mock Fox news ticker running in one scene that said 'Satan tweets support for Santorum' Yeah, I can believe that