Shoot for the Moon 2016 Challenge – How Did I Do?

For the last three years, my writing buddy Mhairi Simpson and I have set ourselves a series of ambitious goals to work towards. How did I get on with the targets I set myself last year?

• Publish the Sunblinded trilogy
Nope. Still not happened… In the flurry of submitting work to a number of agents who appear to like my writing, one of them specifically requested to see Running Out of Space, instead of the manuscript I was submitting. This presented me with a dilemma – ROOS was all set to be my self-publishing project, but if I was serious about also wanting a traditional publishing career, it seemed that I should submit it. So I have. In the meantime, I’ve got further work to do on Dying For Space and Breathing Space as my wonderful beta-readers have provided me with invaluable feedback that impacts on the ending of one and the start of the other.

• Write the first draft of Bloodless, my space opera crime novel, featuring Jezell Campo, my protagonist who features in The Sunblinded Trilogy
Again, no. I have been busy rewriting and editing a number of other manuscripts, so this simply didn’t get done.

• Complete Chaos in New Cluster
This is the novel my writing pal, Michael Griffiths, and I started in 2014. Yes – we completed the first draft and Mike has someone looking over it. As this is a project we will be working on in between everything else, it is ticking over quietly in the background.

• Complete Picky Eaters
No, this didn’t get touched. I have been busy on a variety of other projects and didn’t have the time or headspace to get it done. However, Frances regularly asks about it, and I have made a PROMISE that it will see the light of day at some stage.

• Edit Miranda’s Tempest
Miranda’s Tempest was duly submitted after being edited and I had some excellent feedback from an agent. So I am now in the process of rewriting it, which is challenging but much easier than it might be, because getting that advice was a lightbulb moment where I could then see exactly where I could improve the story flow and tighten up the plot.

I am working through it right now, though I took a break over Christmas as I also needed to produce my course notes and it was particularly busy, social time.

• Submit Miranda’s Tempest
This year, I have been far more organised about submitting my work and while I don’t have a publishing contract, I have had some very positive feedback, which will help me move forward. One of the reasons why I failed at some of my other targets, was that earlier in the year a publisher considering Netted, my other novel which was ‘out there’, asked me to undertake a major rewrite which took me the best part of five months to complete. I’m now waiting to see if they like it sufficiently to offer me a contract…

• Write at least 100 reviews for my blog
I wrote 150 reviews for my blog during 2016, the most I’ve ever posted. I also nailed my target to read and review more new releases as 71 of those reviews were about NetGalley arcs. I made one of my goals to increase my blogging output to every day and I have also mostly achieved this, too. Indeed, my views on my blog during 2016 have nearly doubled from the 2015 figure and I also have far more interaction with a number of wonderful bloggers who love books as much as I do. Given the fact I’ve been rewriting and editing throughout the year, reading and reviewing have become increasingly important to me as a source of pleasure and escape, particularly as personally 2016 was something of a heartbreak throughout the latter half.

• Propose and plan Creative Writing courses for the academic year 2016/17
Obviously, I had these planned, but due to all sorts of things going on from August onwards, I didn’t get the Spring Term course notes written during the summer as I would have liked. Last year’s classes went really well and I was also able to run my one day courses. I have a lovely time teaching – it’s got to be the best gig of all, teaching a subject I’m passionate about to a group of people who are equally keen to learn.

• Work on the teaching syllabus for TW
I undertook to teach English to Tim now over a year ago, paid for by County. Last year, we needed to find a suitable syllabus for him to study with a view to getting him some qualifications. This proved to be far more difficult than we initially thought. However, we now have found a way forward that is unusual but doable and I have now begun working on a series of projects with him that will provide Tim with a qualification commensurate with an English GCSE. Meanwhile, I am privileged to watch Tim continue to blossom into a remarkable person.

• Continue to improve my fitness
This has gone really well. I decided to become vegetarian right at the end of 2015 and while I still eat eggs and fish occasionally, I haven’t eaten meat for over a year. I cannot get over how much better I feel – I have so much more energy and my nails, hair and skin have never been in better condition. I’ve continued my Pilates classes and now also attend a Fitstep class, which is exercise through dance and so much fun. Just before Christmas I finally achieved my target weight and although I put on a few pounds over the holiday, I’m confident I’ll soon lose it again. It’s marvellous to open up the wardrobe and know I can wear everything in it!

It’s a mixed picture, isn’t it? On one hand, the aspect that is really important to me – my writing – hasn’t appeared to make much progress. However, all that rewriting and re-editing prompted by professional advice has helped me to further improve my craft, which was one of the reasons why I wanted a hybrid career in the first place.

As regards the reading and blogging, it’s never been better. Though I don’t expect 2017 to be such a productive year, as I’m hoping to spend more time writing and less time reading. And teaching continues to provide me with plenty of challenges and much-needed interaction with other people.

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – November Roundup

After setting some crazy writing goals with my writing partner, Mhairi Simpson, way back in the dying throes of 2015, how am I doing?

Family issues rather ambushed me and I had little mental energy or necessary headspace required to cope with my demanding rewrite. On a more positive note, I gave a talk at West Sussex Writers on the joy of writing reviews and posting them online and my Creative Writing course gathered momentum, while Sally and I finally sorted out Tim’s syllabus and have drawn up a coherent schedule of work for him for the next two years.

• During November, I read eleven books. Again, it’s been a great reading month. I really enjoyed the wonderful the children’s book Clover Moon by Jacqueline Wilson, cyberpunk adventure Synners by Pat Cadigan, Bloodrush by Ben Galley and E.D.E. Bell’s The Banished Craft – however Songs of Seraphina by Jude Houghton and Penric’s Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold are my standout reads for the month.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. I fulfilled this challenge in August, but I am continuing to read and review more enjoyable, exciting books.

 

• I am currently stranded in the boggy mid-book bit of Miranda’s Tempest. Realistically, I don’t expect to get much further this side of Christmas, but there’s no point in getting in a spin about it. I’ll continue as and when I can manage it.
Challenge – To continue to submit my work.

 

• I’ve continued to improve my fitness with Pilates and Fitstep classes and we’re now learning extra steps for the jive and tango – so much fun … thanks to the marvellous Louisa Jones, an inspired and very patient teacher. I hadn’t quite reached my target weight during November, but it was very close and I am continuing to improve my fitness and stamina.
Challenge – To continue to improve my fitness.

Another month where nothing has gone to plan… Oh well, that’s Life I suppose. I wrote just under 17,000 words on my blog during November, nearly 6,000 words on my teaching admin and just over 10,00 words on my rewrite of Miranda’s Tempest, bringing my total for the month to just under 33,000 words.

How are you getting on with your targets now the year is drawing to an end? Are you anywhere close to fulfilling them?

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – October Roundup

After setting some crazy writing goals with my writing partner in crime, Mhairi Simpson, way back in the dying throes of 2015, how am I doing?

I had expected that my reading would have significantly eased up at this stage as I’d planned to be busy writing Bloodless. That hasn’t happened and as I’ve been mired in editland and rewriting, I’ve been turning to reading for relief and relaxation. It has also been a very sociable month with a series of visitors staying with us and the highlight – the amazing, marvellous Bristolcon 2016. So October has been busy, productive and congenial.

• This month, I read fourteen books, though that isn’t as impressive as it sounds because there were a couple of children’s books in there and some novellas. Once more, there were some marvellous reads. I thoroughly enjoyed How To Be Pirate by Cressida Cowell, Escapology by Ren Warom and V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic. While two novellas – Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric’s Demon and Frontier by Janet Edwards were my standout reads this month, along with fantasy novel The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. I fulfilled this challenge in August, but I am continuing to read and review more enjoyable, exciting books.

• I finally managed to resubmit Netted halfway through October after the hardest rewrite I’ve ever had to do. This now gives me the opportunity to act upon the feedback I received on Miranda’s Tempest and so I have now started work to improve it.
Challenge – To continue to submit my work.

• I’ve continued to improve my fitness with Pilates and Fitstep classes. It’s a wonderful feeling when I find I can now easily complete exercises that I couldn’t begin to manage this time last year. I’m working long, intensive hours and now have given up sugar, as I’ve found it diminishes my energy and messes with my concentration. We managed one longer walk this last month, but with all the guests visiting it has been difficult to get away.
Challenge – To continue to improve my fitness.

After being dismayed at just how far off track I’d strayed from my original targets, I’ve come to the realisation that plans are made to help focus while working. But once events overtake them, then comes the time to let them go. That doesn’t mean this monthly accounting is a waste of time, however. While my writing targets have taken a dog-leg down a by-way, there are still other challenges I need to keep tracking.

I wrote just under 15,500 words on my blog during October, less than 3,000 words on my course notes and teaching admin and just over 44,500 words on my rewrite of Miranda’s Tempest, bringing my total for the year so far to just under 290,000 words.

How are you getting on? Do you also set yourself targets and if so, as the year grows older, are you able to keep fulfilling them?

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – September Roundup

This is the month where the summer break finishes and I resume my teaching at Northbrook College and with Tim. It was also busy as I had a long week-end away at my mother’s where we caught up and enjoyed a bit of retail therapy then at the end of the month, J and I travelled up to Scarborough to Fantasycon 2016.

• While I, inevitably didn’t read so many books during September, completing only nine, the lack of quantity was more than made up for by the quality. Another joyous month with a slew of wonderful reads. I loved E.D.E. Bell’s The Fettered Flame – her worlds are intriguing and post pertinent questions about what happens to those who aspire to step outside the norms of society. Crosstalk by Connie Willis was huge fun with a serious message under all the mayhem, while Alastair Reynolds’ Revenger piratical space opera tale was engrossing. But my standout reads this month were Joanne Hall’s The Summer Goddess and the final book in Jo Walton’s amazing Thessaly Trilogy, Necessity.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. I nailed this challenge last month, but am pleased the Netgalley arcs I’ve requested continue to delight. I was also delighted to have a line from one of my reviews appear on the paperback edition of Lesley Thomson’s best-selling novel The House With no Rooms. And last week, Netgalley have informed me I have reviewed 80% of the arcs I’ve requested.

• I have continued to submit my work. Hopefully, my main rewriting project, of the summer is on the final lap – I started editing Netted in the last week of September and should have it ready to resubmit by the end of this week. I also received detailed, very helpful feedback on Miranda’s Tempest. I can now see how to improve it, so will be starting on a major rewrite of that manuscript as soon as I have the time.
Challenge – To continue to submit my work.

I had hoped to have made a start on Bloodless – that was in the plan I made at the start of the year, anyhow. However, I hadn’t factored in the major rewrite of Netted or major surgery on Miranda’s Tempest. While rewrites don’t take up quite the amount of time and effort of a first draft, I certainly cannot consider writing one book and editing another – I wish I could, but I’m too much of a mono-tasker, sadly.

I wrote just over 10,000 words on my blog in September and more than 15,000 words on my course notes and teaching admin, so my monthly wordcount came to just over 25,000. This brings my total for the year so far to just under 227,000 words. Have you had any schedules or plans for reading, writing or blogging this year go peelie-wally?

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – August Roundup

Now that I have the opportunity to get down to some uninterrupted work during this break, how am I progressing with the ambitious targets I set myself waaay back in the dying hours of 2015?
• I had another really brilliant reading month in August, reading 15 books again and reviewing all but two. Once more, it was a delight to have so many really good books to read – I loved Autonomy by Jude Houghton, which raises some uncomfortable questions in amongst a cracking post-apocalyptic, near future thriller; Janet Edwards’ Telepath was such fun – I really love her writing and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Spiderlight was another gem from this talented, award-winning writer. But the two outstanding reads this month for me were Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton and N.K. Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate, the second book in her fabulous Broken Earth series.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. As I have now read 106 books and reviewed all but a handful, this challenge has been achieved. Thanks to Netgalley, I am continuing to come across authors unknown to me and broaden my reading.

• I have continued to submit my work – another of my challenges I’ve been working on – which has entailed some major rewriting. I worked on the opening of Miranda’s Tempest at the front end of August, which went reasonably smoothly and then had another go at Netted. It is by far the hardest rewrite I’ve ever undertaken and twice since attempting it, I’ve ground to a halt. I’ve learnt these days that when I stare at the page and my mind blanks, I need to take the hint and walk away. If I try pushing through it, I write rubbish which just compounds the problem. I now need to make an editing pass and hopefully, get the manuscript in a fit state for resubmission by the end of the month.
Challenge – To continue to submit my novels.

• I am in the process of writing my course notes for this term’s Creative Writing class, which starts in a fortnight. Obviously, this deadline isn’t optional.
Challenge – To have two of my four courses written by the end of the summer break. No – that isn’t going to happen. The rewrites that popped up out of nowhere took a large bite out of my writing schedule this month and I am playing catchup with a number of other tasks.

I wrote just over 16,500 words on my blog in August and around 20,500 words on rewrites. With a paltry 500 words on teaching admin, my monthly total came to just over 37,500 words for the month, bringing my wordcount for the year so far to just over 200,000. What were your favourite August books? Do you read more in the summer or winter?

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – July Roundup

High summer is here. So how did I do with my targets during July?
• I’ve now completed the line edit of Breathing Space and have also finished the timeline edit of Running Out of Space, Dying for Space and am on the last lap with Breathing Space.
Challenge – To have The Sunblinded trilogy published during 2016. Still on track…

• I had a great reading month in July, reading 15 books in all and reviewing all but one of them – and that was only because it was the next in a series I’d recently covered and felt I did not have a great deal more to say. There were some excellent books in amongst that selection. I very much enjoyed Louisa Hall’s thought provoking Speak and Jane Lythell’s Woman of the Hour was a strong start to an entertaining, original series – however the two books that were outstanding reads for me this month were N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season and Foz Meadows’ An Accident of Stars.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. I wasn’t expecting to be reading quite so much – but as I’m still editing, I find I need to keep plunging into other worlds to keep my head straight. This takes the number of books read so far to 91 books, so this challenge is clearly nailed.

• My one-day Summer Surgery course on Friday 22nd July went really well – I’m glad I have planned an identical course next year. Both my Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon courses starting in September are now full.
Challenge – To have at least two of the four courses I hope to run next year planned and written by the end of the summer holiday. Yes… this should be doable.

There are also a couple of my 2016 Shoot for Moon challenges that I am working on – but right now I’m not saying anymore, as I don’t want to jinx things… It’s exciting and terrifying in equal measure and hopefully I will be in a position to fully update everyone in due course. I wrote just over 20,500 words on my blog in July and just under 6,500 words on teaching admin. I also wrote a number of query letters and synopses which took my overall writing total to just over 29,000 words for the month. This takes my yearly total to just under 164,000 words. How are you getting on with your August reading targets? Do you find the weather affects your reading habits?

Shoot For the Moon Challenge 2016 – June Roundup

Here we are – halfway through the year, already. Though it feels as if we are permanently stuck in April, given the shocking weather. So how am I doing with the targets I set myself back on New Year’s Eve?

• I’m now working on the line edit of Breathing Space. Events like my birthday, the end of the college year at Northbrook and changing over my computer have slowed everything up over the last week and a bit, but overall, I think I’m more or less on track. I now have the covers for all three books – Running Out of Space, Dying for Space and Breathing Space organised, thanks to the wonderful Janet Sked.

During the All Night Write event, I started work on the opening passage of Bloodless, which will be the first book in the Jezel Campo murder mystery series. While it wasn’t my best effort – there was too much going on to really get into my writing zone – it did feel great to actually get back to writing, rather than editing.
Challenge – To have The Sunblinded trilogy published during 2016. Still on target…

• I read 10 books in June and will be reviewing all of them. I have slipped slightly behind on my reviews of NetGalley arcs, as I miscalculated just how long it would take me to read Justin Cronin’s The Passage. It’s a remarkable book, but a really hefty read and I had a whole lot of other things going on. I have read 76 books so far this year and enjoyed most of them.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me.

I should be able to achieve this target, though it won’t necessarily be with such a wide margin as the numbers might suggest so far. The numbers of books this month I managed to read has fallen and I’m expecting that trend to continue through the summer while I get through the mountain of work I’ve got waiting for me. However, I am really enjoying blogging and interacting with fellow book bloggers.

• I have now completed this year’s Creative Writing classes at Northbrook College, other than a one-day Summer Surgery course on Friday 22nd July. It has been a successful year, with most students continuing to improve and several celebrating successes in competitions.
Challenge – To have at least two of the four courses I hope to run next year planned and written by the end of the summer holiday.

There are still a couple of my 2016 Shoot for Moon challenges that need serious attention, but I am reasonably pleased with where I am halfway through the year – I just need to sustain my momentum. I was delighted that my short story ‘Miranda’s Tempest’ was published in the anthology Eve of War. I wrote just over 13,000 words on my blog in June and just under 5,500 words on teaching admin, as well as nearly 1,000 words on Bloodless – though a fair chunk of those won’t ever see the light of day!

How about you – how did you get on during June? Are you where you want to be halfway through 2016?

My 1,000th Post – Shoot For the Moon Challenge 2016 – May Roundup

I was all set to write a special one-off post about this being my one thousandth blog – but I really couldn’t think of anything to say, other than thank you very, very much for taking the time to read and comment on my reviews and articles.

So how have I done during May – have I managed to keep within touching distance of my very ambitious targets for this year?

• I’m now on the last lap of the third major edit of Breathing Space. It’s taken quite a long time, but I’ve been quite pleased with it, so far. It’ll be interesting to see if the closing scenes work, as I’ve had several goes at them to ensure the ending is sufficiently satisfying – though it will be leading into a crime series with my protagonist, Jezel Campo, solving the murder mysteries, so I’ve left a dangling plotline that I can pick up again in Bloodless. I’ve also been working on the blurbs for all three books and I’m finally happy with them.
Challenge – To have The Sunblinded trilogy published during 2016. Still on target…

• I read 13 books this month and reviewed 11 of them. Five were new releases, but I’ve gone a bit mad this month with all the NetGalley arcs I’ve stacked up for review, so will need to keep on top of it all. There’s a good chance it will all come crashing down about my ears… Though I got carried away because I’ve been having so much fun reading books I wouldn’t necessarily have picked up off the shelves. Only one, so far, has been an utter disaster – which is very good going, given that I’ve read 66 books so far this year.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. So far, I’m comfortably on target for this particular challenge, as during May I read another 6 authors I haven’t encountered before.

Overall, it’s been a good month. My classes are going well at Northbrook, though I can’t believe we are now nearing the end of this academic year. Tim is now thriving with the one to one teaching he is getting and we now have a solid plan as to what we’ll be working on next year. I thoroughly enjoyed going to Lesley’s book launch at The Kew Bookshop last week, and will be reviewing The House With No Rooms next week. I wrote just under 14,000 words for my blog and just over 6,000 words on teaching admin during May, bringing my overall writing total this year to just under 114,500 words. Sadly, none of those were new manuscripts – but once I decided to publish my novels, inevitably editing has to become a far greater chunk of the workload than the initial writing.

Here’s hoping everyone has a successful June and that the weather starts to act as if summer has arrived!

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – April Roundup

Now April has zipped past and we are a third of the way through the year, how am I doing with my writing and publishing targets that I concocted on New Year’s Eve when all right-thinking folks were partying?

• I’ve been working on the first major edit of Breathing Space since I completed it last year, and in addition to the earlier fixes, I ended up doing a major rewrite of the final battle scene, as I wasn’t all that happy about it. There was a long build-up, and the final action scene was too short and not sufficiently satisfying. I’ve also completed reading Running Out of Space on my Kindle and after going back and tweaking the final manuscript with the niggling errors I discovered, I’ll be working on Breathing Space once more. Dying for Space is currently with a beta-reader, so I’m waiting for her feedback, before embarking on the final line edit.
Challenge – To have The Sunblinded trilogy published during 2016. The editing run is still rolling forward and I still feel reasonably confident I’ll get them published this year.

• I had a lovely surprise this month – I submitted a short story for the anthology Eve of War and then forgot about it – as you do. So when a request for my biography and a copy of the arc bounced into my Inbox, I was delighted. The anthology is being published in June, which is great.
Challenge – nope. Nothing about this particular project was on my to-do list – because I’d forgotten about it.

• I read 17 books, did not finish one and wrote 16 reviews during April. So it’s been another storming month with my reading challenges. I wrote seven New Release Special reviews during March, although some of these won’t be published until the launch date of the books in question.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include more authors new to me. So far this year, I have read 53 books and 10 books during April by authors I haven’t read before, so I am also hitting this particular target. I’m very much in reading mode at present, but if I hit a slump or get buried in all the chores that go with self-publishing The Sunblinded trilogy, it could all slide away.

I’m very pleased with my blogging and reading targets, as I produced a blog every day, except one, when I was away. During April, I wrote just over 13,000 words on blogs and just under 11,000 words on teaching admin. Again, novel writing is non-existent at present, so my wordcount on writing projects is a measly 1,500 words, which brings April’s total to just over 25,500 words. Am I on target? Yes. But there is a long way to go and lots that could still go wrong, so I’m not able to relax just yet. In fact, I think this is going to be a year when I continue to put my head down, keep working and hoping for the best… Wish me luck, I’ll need it!

Shoot for the Moon Challenge 2016 – February Roundup

Where did it go? I know it’s a short month, but I turned around twice and February has already slipped past with terrifying speed… So how did I do with the stupidly ambitious 2016 targets that I set in the New Year, aided and abetted by writing buddy Mhairi Simpson?

• I hadn’t been near my space opera novel, Running Out of Space since the mess last October, when formatting issues meant I couldn’t publish it as I had initially planned. When I revisited it in the middle of February, I was expecting the manuscript to be littered with a forest of niggling errors after my desperate efforts to manually replace all the italics and bolding that had been wiped out by the likes of Sigil. But there were only a small handful of mistakes which were quickly fixed. I have loaded onto Himself’s Kindle to see if the format is as robust as I’d hoped, and so far, so good… I also completed another editing pass on the sequel, Dying For Space, after my major rewrite last summer. Again, there were a series of small errors, but nothing too major.
Challenge – To have The Sunblinded trilogy published during 2016. After my failure last year, I am reluctant to give any firm dates when this will happen until I have everything in place, but at present, I am certainly on schedule.

• Last November, I finally completed the first draft of the book that has been burning a hole in my skull for the past eighteen months – Miranda’s Tempest. So after Christmas, I started the editing process. The biggest issue was that the style was far too modern and snappy, so I set about ‘Tudorising’ it. I went through and expunged most of the main verbs that were not around in the 16th century and replaced them with older words, as well as making the dialogue sound more appropriate. The word nerd in me was purring like a well-fed cat, but aware I can get carried away on these sorts of tasks, I kept passing bits of manuscript around to my long-suffering beta readers to ensure I wasn’t getting too extreme. So far the feedback has been positive. As soon as I am sure, the manuscript is as strongly written as I can manage, I shall start submitting it.
Challenge – to get Miranda’s Tempest fit to send out to agents by Easter. I’m on target for this one.

• I read 9 books and wrote a review for every single one of them during February, as they were all really good. It’s been a joy to read such a great run of books – it’s the best year that I can recall to date. I wrote two New Release Special reviews and have been applying more to NetGalley for ARC copies, which so far I have been getting. I am trying to widen my reading to include more authors new to me, especially women. During February I encountered four authors I hadn’t read before.
Challenge – To review a minimum of 100 books during 2016 and widen my reading to include at least a third of authors I haven’t read before. So far, I’m on course for hitting this target, although it’s early days and later in the year it could very easily slip, when I’m grappling with my publishing projects.

Overall, it’s been a reasonably productive month. I have managed to get through a significant amount of editing. I wrote just over 6,500 words on teaching admin and just over 7,000 words on my blog, bringing my writing total for 2016 so far to just over 40,000 words.