What I’ve been up to May 24, 2013 edition

My my my, I have been a bad blogger. It has nearly been a whole month since I last posted anything – right before Spirit went live. I’m going to try to make up for that in the coming weeks.

So what have I been doing? Surprisingly enough, I’ve been writing. I know, right?! Crazy!

I’ve shared with you all in the past that I already started on the next few projects that I was planning after the conclusion of the Elemental Series. The first book in a new Urban Fantasy series (Adult this time around, not Young Adult), was finished in early February and I’ve been submitting to agents. I’m super superstitious so I’m not going to talk about that anymore, but I did start on the sequel to that book and finished it on Tuesday.

I’m not wholly happy with it and I know it needs work, but that’s what the editing stage is for. Anyone who has asked me how to get through writing a whole book has heard me say, “Just write the damn thing. No matter how crappy it is, just get the first draft done.” Because you can’t fix what hasn’t been written. So I’m okay with not being wholly happy with it. I will fix it in editing and after my betas rip it apart.

But before I wrote that sequel I wrote a whole different book, a post-apocalyptic book. This was totally outside my wheelhouse, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Again, not wholly happy with it. And really, I thought it was just going to sit in my hard drive and never see the light of day, but I’ve been thinking about it lately and I might print it off and take my red pen to it.

The Dystopian/Post-apocalyptic market is pretty well saturated right now and most agents are feeling a little overwhelmed with this genre, so I think, if I can make it shiny and awesome, I might self-publish this one. So you might see something new from me sooner rather than later. I am debating putting it out as a whole novel or serializing it (offering it in episodes). We’ll see how I feel about it after I edit it and give it to some betas and get some feedback on it. This one is New Adult (the main characters are 18-20) and focuses on a romantic relationship. So again, slightly different than what I’ve written before. If I jive on it and decide it is worth putting out there, it would be a trilogy.

And between that novel and the one I finished on Tuesday, I wrote a novella. So since January 1^st, I’ve written a whopping total of 247,660 words. Yep, almost a quarter million words. Needless to say, I’m feeling a wee bit burnt out. I have officially given myself permission to take a little time off between projects to recharge my batteries.

At the first of the year I made a few writing resolutions. This was the list:

3-4 novels

3 novellas

1 short story

So I’ve completed 3 novels, 1 novella and 0 short stories and it’s only May. That seems pretty incredible to me. But I might’ve set the bar too high, or tried too hard to reach it too fast. I need a break.

It’s incredibly difficult for me to go any length of time and not write. I feel lost and like I’m wandering in fog. But I need to take some time off, if I don’t my writing will suffer for it. I wish my hubs and I could go somewhere for a real vacation because that would really help, but it’s not in the cards right now. Luckily it’s sunny and warm in my part of the state so I’ll read and relax and drink in the sun and when my head is in the right space, I’ll start editing some of this finished work. I really hope to have news of new work for you guys to read soon.

One Month Into Our Stupid Diet

So you’ll remember I blogged at the beginning of the month about a 90 day diet challenge that my husband and I were embarking on. Well I’m proud to say we made it through the first month. Now, my husband’s birthday is at the end of January and I had already planned to take him out of town for a long weekend before we started this stupid diet so we agreed we could have some cheat meals while we were gone, so looking forward to that for four weeks was very helpful. But now we’re back on the wagon.

I told my husband that I wanted to throw a Saint Patrick’s Day party this year since it’s on the weekend and I want to celebrate with my people. So we have to get through the whole month of February and half of March for one day of good times. But, let me tell you, short term goals really help.

So what am I doing to make it easier to consume copious amounts of brown rice, grilled chicken and steamed veggies? Making them taste different, duh! My two favorite things to do is to cut everything up and throw it in a bowl and either make it Asian or Mexican. Luckily with Mexican salsa is just more vegies and herbs so that’s not cheating. With Asian, you have to be more careful with your sauces because of the sodium, sugars and sometimes calories. So I usually use Siracha (the awesome red chili sauce found in Chinese food restaurants) because a little goes a long way and it gives it a new and interesting flavor and then I usually use one serving of sauce between two meals by thinning it out with water.

Also, just a little tip for you: if you add spice to your food you spike your metabolism. So add some peppers, add some hot sauce, add some salsa, make it spicy!

We haven’t lost a ton of weight yet, but we area steadily loosing. One big accomplishment for me is my cardio. I grew up with environmental asthma so I don’t have very strong lungs and I’ve never, ever been able to run. I could do sprints in P.E. class but when we had to run the mile or the 2 mile I had to walk over half of it and could only run very short distances. But in the last week I’ve managed to run for ten minutes. This is a huge accomplishment for me. Usually once I’m creeping up to just 1 minute of running (though I imagine most would call it “jogging” and to those people I stick my tongue out at them) I’ve got a stich in my side and can barely breathe. So to be able to run for ten minutes I feel like a super hero! My goal is to be able to run for 30 minutes. My husband likes to run for his cardio so it would be nice to be able to go for a run with him. Thank goodness for treadmills.

I’ll let you know how it’s going the closer we get to St. Patrick’s Day.

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My New Year's Resolution

So I am not one for resolutions – just like everyone else, I tend to fail at them – but this year my husband and I are doing one together. Luckily it’s not a yearlong one; we’ve set ourselves a 90 day goal to eat clean and try to lose some of the pesky body fat we haven’t been able to shed. Many of you know, my husband is a personal trainer, so this sort of thing is pretty easy for him. Really, it’s more of a challenge for me.

I like to say in another life I was an Italian grandmother because of how much and what I like to cook. I love to have people over and pile their plates high with the food I made – I get that from my Southern family. But my favorite things to make are pastas with homemade sauce, garlic bread, and all kinds of things with meat and cheese. Yep, super healthy.

So what does this crazy resolution entail? No sodas, at all, no cheese, at all, no fast food, at all, minimal bread (whole wheat if any and only in the morning), carb depletion through the day, so at dinner we’ll mostly only get fibrous carbs. This also means the only complex carbs I’m allowed will be oatmeal in the morning, that occasional wheat bread, red potatoes (and not often), sweet potatoes and brown rice (which I hate). Yeah, no pastas, no garlic breads, no red meats. Sounds like so much fun, right?

But I keep telling myself it’s only until the end of March and maybe not even that long if we hit our goals early. My husband tells me the first 30 days are the hardest but luckily my husband’s birthday is at the end of January and he’s agreed to some leniency while we celebrate so I’m able to set shorter goals so it isn’t as daunting. And I’ve always wanted to throw a Saint Patrick’s Day party and this year it’s on a Saturday so after his birthday I just have to make it to St. Patrick’s day and then it’s only a couple of weeks after that. Not bad, right?

I know, it’s gonna be hard, but that’s also why I’m blogging about it – telling everyone in the world about it will hold me accountable. Its only day 2 and people are already asking us how it’s going and I don’t want to be that person who says they’ve already caved. Now you all know so if I cave or cheat there are a lot of people who will know and that’s embarrassing. And since I’m doing it with my husband, if I cave, I’m letting him down. It’s a little easier knowing someone else is depending on me to help them reach their goal and I don’t want to let him down.
We’ve done really well building muscle and stamina but we haven’t done what we should have to shed excess body fat so now we’re doing it. A little backwards but at least we’re doing it.

I’ll let you know how we do and how well our marriage survives, lol!

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