Well, I spent the final week of the Round not doing any writing at all – but I had a good reason! We’ve been traveling. BlackLion, my daughter ElvenTiger, her boyfriend, and I all went to NYC for the Life Without Instructions unschooling conference. It was so much fun! This was the 2nd annual, and it was just as amazing and wonderful as last year. We stayed in a hotel on Staten Island. The conference wrapped up Thursday night, and on Friday we did some sight-seeing in the city. It was a blast. We’ll be posting some pictures soon on our Feline Dreamers blog.
Our free e-book collaboration, Goddess Awakening: The Rise of the Feminine Divine, was released this past Monday, and the response has been fantastic! All the contributors are sharing with their various communities, and we’ve had 244 folks download it just in this first week. I’m thrilled! You can check it out here if you’re interested!
So, things are going well, even though I didn’t make my word count goal yet on The Heart of the Goddess book. We’ve got a lot of exciting plans falling into place for our business, and I’m still on track to release the new book in November. I feel like it was a good solid Round, especially for summer, when I tend to get distracted by outdoor fun.
Without further ado, here’s my play-by-play (sorry, BlackLion has football on so I’m hearing it in the background) wrap-up of my goals for the Round.
2016 ROW 80 Round 3 Goals
Draft Heart of the Goddess book. Work on it daily (on weekdays). Finish the first draft (target of 120,000 words) by the end of August. I’m starting the Round at 44K words already written. While I didn’t yet make my word count goal, or finish my first draft, I’m still pleased with the progress I’ve made. I worked on it mostly faithfully, and I’m now at 94,578 words, so I’ve written about 50K this Round. That’s pretty good! I’ll continue the goal and wrap up by mid-October.
Re-read draft of Patterns in the Void and make revision notes. Make a plan for writing the revisions during Round 4. I didn’t get to this at all. What’s with me and fiction, lately? I’m procrastinating. Though, to be fair, it’s not that I’m not busy.
Continue my craft & business learning. Participate in summer events offered by In Arms Coaching. Read at least 3 books about writing craft and/or making a living as a writer. I participated in a wonderful in-person workshop with my coach, but other than that it’s been a quiet summer in this regard. I’m jumping back into a coaching program soon, so I know this will ramp up.
Build community for Feline Dreamers. Create and promote monthly online workshops. Do interviews for JV project and compile into an e-book. Complete 2 more videos for Lauren’s new website, by August 1. Sign up and prepare for presenting and vending at psychic fairs and conferences this fall. Write 4 new guided meditations. Terrific success here! Our JV project, as mentioned above, is already a big success, and we’re just starting to share it. We have the monthly workshops up and running. We did one new video, with one still to go. I haven’t written any new guided meditations yet, but we will be as we roll out the workshops. People at the conference told us how much they really love our guided meditations!
Focus on blogging. Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least once per week, Feline Dreamers each month, and on this blog twice per week. Write, edit, and submit monthly guest blog posts for Kind Over Matter. Submit a guest blog proposal to Mike Dooley’s site. Start and keep a running list of blog post ideas, drafts, and picture ideas. I’ve slacked off a bit on blogging this summer, which isn’t unusual. I’ll be getting back to it more now that fall is here, I’m sure.
Enhance my physical health. Devote time to daily exercise, including but not limited to walking, yoga, dancing, hula-hooping, and swimming. Stop eating sugar. Eat less in general. Exercise is going really well. I need to re-focus on my healthy eating, though.
Live AUTHENTICally and spiritually in my daily life. Do things I love: write in my journal, read, do yoga, dance, spend time with loved ones, and express my gratitude. Pay attention to my dreams and keep records of them. Set intentions before sleep and upon waking. Meditate and do my chakra clearing daily. This is going super well. I’m feeling really connected, authentic, and joyful. My gratitude practice is especially powerful, and meditation is an ongoing joy. I feel very blessed!
Our book cover photo shoot yesterday morning was a huge success! We got to the beach just before sunrise, and got a lot of really excellent pictures over the next hour or so. I can’t reveal the covers just yet – in one case, because Goddess Awakening: The Rise of the Feminine Divine doesn’t come out for another week, and in another case, because we haven’t finished it yet (since The Heart of the Goddess isn’t being published until November). I can, however, share this image from my phone, just to give you a little taste of what’s to come. What a gorgeous sky, huh? The purple orbs or refractions captured on my camera won’t show up on the book covers, but I think they’re kind of cool.
Today I’m celebrating the Feast Day of 
