Monday, December 15, 2014

2014: Year in Review


This is the last week of 2014 that I will be blogging as well as posting stories on the internet. And so I thought it would be a good idea to review what I've accomplished in 2014.

As expected, I failed miserably at my New Year's resolutions for 2014. This is not a surprise. When you plan out what your going to do for the next 365 days, you're bound to get it wrong. However, instead, I successfully accomplished other goals that I couldn't have foreseen at the beginning of the year.

What I've accomplished:

I started 2014 off with grand schemes. I was going to lose a bunch of weight in two months, publish the entirety of RoboNomics Books I and II by the end of the year, and read 20 books. However, I only managed to achieved the last item on that list.

But I actually consider this past year a win, overall. I did read 20 books, which is more than one a month. And while I could do better than that, it meant that I was making time in my life for reading. I also wrote the first draft of a novel, a short story, and I edited my way through thousands of words. I posted on my blogs nearly every week day. All of this means that I've been making time in my life for my career.

And while I may not be in the best shape, just like I wasn't back in January, I have managed to go to the gym as a part of my weekly routine. Which means that I have made time in my life for my health. Each day, I've been making time for the things that I want in my life, and systematically eliminating the things that I don't want in my life.

And I have had results. I've had more hits on my blogs this year than any of the past years combined. During 2014 only, I've gone from having a bunch of my writing sitting on my desk or in my computer, unread, to having a book on +Wattpad with nearly 40,000 reads. And I am that much closer to publication.

I once read an article that said that because of the way the human brain works, New Year's Resolutions are destined to fail. And if you look around any gym mid-February, you'll know that this is true.

But that doesn't mean that I'm being negative about what I can accomplish, or that I think humans are destined to fail, or that we shouldn't even try. For myself, I'd rather take it a day at a time.


Where I go from here:

Just because I've decided not to resolve anything doesn't mean that I don't have plans and goals. In 2015, what I'd like most is to see RoboNomics published as a single book. During this next year, my biggest (and really, my only) resolution is to start making money from my writing. And just like when I began 2014 with the resolution to post stories on wattpad, I'm not expecting much. If I can find even one reader who wants to actually pay for my work, I will be over the moon! :)

Of course, that big goal has lots of little steps along the way that I'll have to follow in order to achieve it. And as in 2014, you can definitely look forward to reading all about that journey on this blog. So until then, everyone, I'll see you in 2015!!

Monday, December 8, 2014

New Short Story!

So I can finally tell you my big news! I was asked to write a short story specifically for Wattpad's Science Fiction profile. Here's the short story collection.



And you may have seen that I posted the story itself on my sidebar. It's the story of a young woman looking for work in the near future, and who's taken a job on a near-earth asteroid.

I have to say, I didn't think I had it in me. I have always been so bad at writing short stories since I just love world building and my imagination always spins out of control and I end up with novel after novel. But over the past month and a half I put together this little ditty for you. I could so easily spin this short into an extended universe in which asteroid mining is a big deal, but I'm not sure that I want to. Maybe I'll just leave it as is and call my first successfully executed short story, the end.