It seems to me that whenever I grab a box of Cheez-Its, I am struck with a creative idea. I think my Muse likes those delicious crackers as much as I do. This is something I need to keep in mind the next time I have writer's block. Grab a handful of Cheeze-Its to lure her to me like Elliot did with E.T. (*points finger* oooooouch......)

Time is moving rather quickly for me this month, which is rather odd since I have been cooped up in the house so much thanks to the crazy amount of snow that was dumped on us. Okay, okay, it wasn't THAT bad and it is already melting thanks to the unusually warm temperatures this week. But still, it made a mess of things and apparently people forget how to drive in the snow. Three inches of snow managed to shut down Atlanta.


As for my goals: GOALS (mostly) MET!


I finished the blanket I was working on fairly early in the month. I have yet to mail it because of the snow. My butt wasn't walking to Fed Ex in the cold. I have to say, this is my prettiest one yet. The colors are beautiful and my stitching was better than ever. I almost don't want to send it! I will get that in the mail soon.

I have started to outline and do research for the sci-fi story that I have in mind. It has been a bit difficult to get a plot. This story was based on a dream that I had. I had a single idea and I don't know how to make it into an actual story. But thanks to my wonderful writing group support I was able to get ideas, which were developed even more thanks to my sci-fi nerd of a Husband. Now I have a good working plot and am working on research. I have found out really interesting things about our planets and have discovered a really great idea about terraforming.

I haven't taken a look at my previous NaNo novel because I have been so focused on this new idea. The month isn't over so I may still glance at it and, I dunno, add a plot or something.

As for the editing.....I'm not even going to go into that and we are going to forget that it ever happened.

So that is where I am now. Off to more researching and Cheez-it eating.   

Holy carp (yes, I said carp) time has flown! I looked up and it was February. January just dropped in to say hello and leave snow all over the place, then out it went. Sheesh.


January was a momentous month for me. I saw my 30th birthday. It was nice. I had a nice, quiet birthday dinner with the family. No muss, no fuss. Just how this introverted girl likes it.

As for my goals....well.....meh....I agreed to do a Year of Creative Pursuits thinking that it was going to be a piece of cake. I set an overall goal then set smaller, realistic and easily achievable goals. Easy peasy. What I didn't take into consideration was depression, anxiety, bitterly cold weather, and achy hands. Let's face it, this has been a record breaking cold winter already. I love winter and everything, but damn. Being cooped up and cold did wonders for my serotonin and vitamin D levels. All I wanted was chocolate and ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream. That is all well and good with the teensy, tiny, insignificant fact that my body doesn't like lactose. Luckily the sun came out at some point this last week and it warmed up to a nice 40 degrees and I was able to get some sun. Because of all this I was very lax on my goals. I did manage to almost complete the blanket I have been working on since the beginning of the month. I would say I am 92.749375% finished. I apparently do not know how to count granny squares and made 12 thinking I was finished. I actually need 36. Don't ask me what I was thinking because I don't know. I would have been done had I not come to this realization YESTERDAY when I was attaching the granny squares to the blanket.


I did not do any writing. I opened the document several times and just stared at the screen for 15 minutes before closing it. I had nothing this month. No muse. No creative juice flowing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Even my fanfic gave me nothing. I just had no desire to write. As soon as I am finished with this blanket, I think I will be able to focus more on my writing. I honestly don't know if I'm going to work on my most recent NaNo story. I think I may need more of a break to think it through before I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. There is another story that I have that I want to develop. It was one of those crazy dreams that I had that I managed to remember because it was so freaking weird, but makes for a cool story. (No, not THAT crazy dream, K. I leave that one to you.)

I did manage to do some editing. This is my first experience editing and actual novel. It was sent to Sir Step Dad by a cousin who was looking get it published. SSD sent it to me because I'm really good at editing. I made the warning that I can be harsh when it comes to the truth. I may need to learn a bit of tact when it comes to that, but I make it known that I'm not going to lie and tell you that it is ready for publishing when it needs a serious editing over hall. I will also tell you specifics as to what is working and what is not. Just and FYI if anyone wants to send me something to edit. If you want constructive criticism, I will give it to you. Anyhow, off the tangent, this was my first experience with editing a finished novel. I've only made it up to the first 20 pages and may take the advice of others and stop there, then send my edits and con/crit based on those pages. On the other hand, I feel the need to print this this out and take my red pen to it. I can't help it. My OCD calls to me. (“Aaaaaashleeeeeey, print it out Ashleeeeeey. It need to be edited.) It is over 300 pages, so I think what I will do to satisfy my Inner Editor, and not be consumed by my OCD, (“But the red pen loooooooves you and wants to come out and play”) I will print the first 50 pages, edit, add my critique and send it on its way. I think this will be a good practice.



So my goals for February are as follows:


1. Finish the baby blanket.

2. Work on developing and outlining my new story idea.

3.Possibly work on my first NaNo story about my time doing animal rescue. I would like to actually finish this one and get it edited.

4.Work on editing the story that was sent to me. The first 50 pages only. I MUST stop there. I will conquer the OCD. Seriously, my fellow Nanites, not let me edit over 50 pages. I know most of you are going to fuss at me already to doing that much, but I can't help myself.

And there you have it, folks, my goals for this month. I will check back in two weeks to see how I am progressing.