Category Archives: Quotes

I was productive, but these guys? They rested.

Apparently my self-pep-talk worked, because I’ve had a rather productive week! I worked on my DSP (daily spiritual practice) work in progress 4 days this week, which I’m counting as a win even though I didn’t hit my goal of 5 days. I got a lot of good work done, and I’m now at 16,225 words total. It’s going well.

My book talk at a local Pagan festival yesterday went well. I had less than a dozen attendees, but that was actually pretty good when compared to other workshops being offered. We had some good discussion at the end, and everyone seemed to especially enjoy the DSP excerpt I shared, which is a good sign. I’ll share it here on this blog tomorrow, so you can read it for yourself.

Blogging is going okay. It seems like I’m only able to do one blog post per week on Starcat’s Corner, no matter how I try to schedule in two. I’m not sure what to do about that. I’d rather have one good quality post than two or more rushed ones. Maybe I only need to post once per week. I’ll have to think about that and re-evaluate.

This week I’m very excited to be participating in a week-long “virtual retreat” that’s all about figuring out how to make my business (which includes my writing career as well as Feline Dreamers) shine. I’m determined to set aside plenty of time to focus on it, making it a priority.

Which brings me to my mini-goals for this week:

• Work on the DSP e-book at least 5 days.
• Spend at least an hour per day, every day, on the virtual biz retreat.
• Keep up with my blogging schedule (and evaluate the frequency of posting).
• Send out my first Starcat’s Notebook newsletter.
• Work on Feline Dreamers promotion and marketing.
• Write a book review of Tantra for the West.

I wish you a productive week with all of your chosen projects and goals. As well as some fun time just for you!

Here we are in the final stretch of ROW 80 Round 1. It’s so exciting! My biggest question is: will I make my goal of finishing the first draft of my urban fantasy novel, Patterns in the Void? I’m just not sure. Here’s how things stand right now: I’m at 93,856 words on what I thought would be a 100K novel. But I’ve only written 47 of 59 scenes, so it looks like I might need to exceed the word count in service to the story. I don’t know if I can finish it in a week, but I’ll certainly try!

I’ve now finished reading four (out of a goal of only three!) craft novels this round. The one I just finished was Fiction Unboxed by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. It was excellent! I love these guys. Not only do they provide techniques you can use, but their writing style is funny and engaging. I’m a total fangirl of theirs now, I admit it. Today I updated my Resources for Writers page on this blog, to include the best of what I’ve discovered lately. I hope you’ll check it out. If you have other cool resources to share, please leave a comment!

With this post, I have all my blogging for the week completed. Yay! I’ll be away for part of this coming weekend, so I scheduled Saturday’s post for Starcat’s Corner ahead of time. That feels good. I finished a book that I was reading for a review site, so I want to write up the book review today and send it off.

I had some shifts at my part time job this week, so I haven’t been out for walks or done yoga, but I’ve been keeping up with meditating, and writing in my journal every day.

Some of my other Round 1 goals have gone by the wayside or have simply shifted and changed, but I feel like I’m making great progress with my main intentions. Life is good. I’m thankful.

I love being able to come here and talk about writing. I was just reading a quote on Facebook about how it’s sad when someone is all lit up, excited to talk about their passions, and then they shut down and say “Oh, sorry, I must be boring  you.” It means that someone else shut them down, somewhere in the past. And it’s true, it’s not always easy to find folks who are truly interested in the details of my craft. I’m thankful to have fellow ROW 80 writers to share with about word counts, writing schedules, and the like. Thanks for listening!

This week has brought some more good progress on the novel. I’m currently at 83,782 words on the way to 100K-ish. I’m only on scene 42 out of an estimated 59, though, so I might exceed my word count. Which is fine, as it will give me room to trim when I’m editing. The tale is definitely going to need some attention. I’m finding it a bit tricky to weave things together. Before I started, I outlined the major plot points, but left the other scenes to evolve and fill in as I wrote. So it can be a challenge to make sure everything makes sense and the characters get where they need to be. It’s an experiment in progress.

Other goals? What other goals? Oh yeah. Well, today I cleaned the house rather than working on the novel. It really needed to be vacuumed, and was getting on my nerves, so I just did it.

Blogging has been going great this week. I feel like I’ve gotten back on track with it after a bit of a lull.

I’ve been very much enjoying reading about writing, marketing, and (self)publishing. I finished Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran, which was excellent. Now I’m devouring How to Market a Book by Joanna Penn. Really good info. I’m adjusting some of my current practices based on what she says. I’ve also been getting more comments on Facebook for my blog posts lately, and engaging with more folks, so my long-term work on building an author platform is beginning to show fruit. Yay!

My journal writing, gratitude, and meditation practices are going well. I haven’t done much art or music lately, but that’s because I’ve been so wrapped up in writing and studying. I’m like that, tending to ebb and flow into and out of different interests over time.

Oh, and I was going to report back on how my writing schedule is going. But really, there’s not much to report yet. I had a stretch of having to be out of the house for various activities, so I haven’t had a pure “writing day” in the latter part of the week. I’ll get back to you on that. Happy writing, all!

“In a sense, meditation and writing go hand in hand. The more deeply we can allow ourselves to sink into the darkness of our own selves, the more we can settle into the mind of being a writer.” – Natalie Goldberg

“I feel very firmly that, in as much as I exist, I have a right to be here. And I have a right therefore to express what it is that I affirm and love about being here. This is fundamental. I mean, I’m like any other plant, any other tree, any other creation on the planet. I see no reason to feel in any way hindered in expressing my essence, my being. I mean, if I were a rose, I would be doing what a rose does. So I would just say to any young writer, poet, painter, dancer, whoever, of whatever hue, shade, form, to believe that you have a right to be the self that you feel.” – Alice Walker

(Coming this weekend: my first Round of Words in 80 Days post…ever!)

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” – Stephen King

“Hardly anybody every writes anything nice about introverts. Extroverts rule. This is really rather odd when you realize that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts. We have been taught to be ashamed of not being ‘outgoing.’ But a writer’s job is ingoing.” – Ursula K. LeGuin