Every year, I set goals for myself, and every quarter, I review my progress. This review will be very sad, because I currently work full-time, have a part-time internship, and take a couple classes in addition to writing and sleeping and eating when I get a chance.
1. Finish my third novel, tentatively titled On the Other Side, which will be a steampunk political thriller because, well, why not.
Same as in April: this hasn’t happened, and is nowhere close to happening any time soon. And actually, polishing my next novel, A Handful of Wishes, is taking longer than expected, so its release date has been pushed back to next April.
2. Write and submit at least one new short story every month.
I’m currently 2/6 for submissions. And one of those publications closed since I submitted. But on the plus side, I have a huge long list of story ideas that I’m slowly plodding through.
3.Get a short story collection ready for publication (not including The Futility of Loving a Soldier, which will be out this fall from Evolved – hopefully).
I have an idea for a themed anthology, kind of in the vein of Not My Thing, and I’m slowly working on some of them. Again, no time to write.
4. Self-publish at least two long short stories through my publisher.
My publisher, Evolved, released “Not My Thing” in April. It’s free everywhere, and currently #3 on Amazon’s list of literary short stories.
5. Read 100 books.
I haven’t read anything for about a month. According to Goodreads, I’m currently at 33 books – 16 behind.
6. Learn a new language – either Spanish, Tamil, Arabic, or Icelandic – to the point I can carry on a basic conversation in it.
Slowly but surely, I’m conquering Spanish. I’m able to read the Spanish billboards around town (although I think that’s more from knowing French than any Spanish I’ve learned). But I’ll get there!
If you’ve set goals for yourself, how’re they going so far this year?