2018 Goals: The Misses

Way back at the end of last year (doesn't that seem longer ago than it really was?), I posted a rather ambitious set of personal goals for 2018. It's time to look back and see how I did. I'm going to spread this discussion over two blog posts. Today, I'm going to list the goals I didn't achieve this year. Unfortunately, there were a lot more misses than I thought there would be. I didn't even finish the first draft of Dryads to Discover, which I started in 2017. Part of that is because I traded a lot of writing time for crochet, and I spent a lot of my remaining time working on short stories. (More on that next week.) I recently decided to make a major change to the plot, so I wouldn't have been able to publish Dryads to Discover this year anyway. My slow publishing may be linked with my slow sales, but there's only so much I can juggle along with my job and my family. Additional commentary on my failed goals will be added below:

Writing

Finish Dryads to Discover (new urban fantasy, first in series)--See above.

Start Dragons to Deceive (sequel to Dryads to Discover)--Obviously it's hard to start Book Two when Book One isn't done

Finish “The Unnumbered World"--I'm having so much trouble with the plot that I may shelve this short story indefinitely.Maybe I should move on to Catalyst in the Crucible, the next installment in the Catalyst Chronicles series.

Revise “The Fighting Roses of Sharon"--I need to revise at least two, if not all three, of the subplots. 

Work on Welcome to Costume City--Didn't have time for this one.

Plan overall arc for Selathen Avatars series (followup to fantasy Season Avatars series)--I wrote a short story bridging the Season Avatars series to the sequel series (which I may rename), and there are some rough notes somewhere. There's still a lot of plotting to be done here, though.

Publishing

Publish Dryads to Discover

Publish “The Fighting Roses of Sharon” as standalone

Marketing

Prepare at least one pull quote graphic for each novella/novel-I may have played around with some graphics, but I need to find some suitable quotes to use.

Send out at least four newsletters--I actually sent out three, but there's been nothing since June. Maybe I should send one out in the next couple of weeks.

Run a promotion every 1-2 months--I did paid sales and Instafreebie promotions for about the first half of the year, but they fell off afterward.

Sell 150 units (books, short stories, collections)--Effective selling is one of my biggest challenges as an indie author. I don't sell many books unless I do discounts and promotions, but even then the sales don't make up for the promotion cost. I really need to write and publish more so my works can promote each other.

WisCon?--I haven't missed a WisCon since Alex was born. We had other things scheduled that weekend.

I did almost nothing on the goals listed below:

Other

Finish Jedi costume!

General Leia costume?

Finish 2 Death Star pillows--I did one, but not the second.

Crochet blanket for Alex

Household

Garage sale!

Get compost bin?

Landscape back yard

Despite this long list of misses, I did have a few successes. I'll share those with you next week, along with (hopefully) more realistic goals for 2019. Until then, happy holidays!

Book and Stocking Stuffer Sale!

Just a reminder that books make great gifts! I have copies of all the books shown here. I'll be happy to autograph them and send them either to you or directly to a recipient. Lyon's Legacy is $5.00; all other novels are $10. If you want to purchase an entire series, it's $12 for the Catalyst Chronicles (Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes) or $40 for the Season Avatars (Seasons' Beginnings,Scattered Seasons, Chaos Season, Fifth Season, and Summon the Seasons.)

I also have some pictures of my crocheted characters and lanyards. The characters are unique, but I do have more stock of the lanyards. The pterodactyl is $20, the other crocheted characters are $8, and the lanyards are $5. Cost doesn't include shipping.

If you're interested in any of these items, please e-mail me at
ulbrichalmazanATsbcglobalDOTnet. (Replace the "at" and "dot" with the appropriate symbols.)


 

IWSG: Five Things in My Writing Space

Welcome to the final Insecure Writer's Support Group for 2018. You can learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Our hosts this month are J.H. Moncrieff, Tonja Drecker, Patsy Collins, and Chrys Fey. Our question for this month is "What are five objects we'd find in your writing space?"

The easiest way to answer this question would be to take a picture of my home office, but it's too cluttered at the moment to show anyone. Instead, I'll describe a few things that I think will be most interesting or reveal my character.

1. "Let There Be Write." I have a two-page printout of a short story called "Let There Be Write," by Nancy Fulda taped to my desk, right above my laptop. It was published online in Strange Horizons in 2005. It's a parody of the Creation story from Genesis, detailing how a writer creates a story. The twist ending is something that will ring true for many writers, including me. I'm not sure if posting a picture of the printout would violate copyright, so I won't include one.


2. A small statue of an Egyptian scribe that I bought in the British Museum. We visited London in 2006 for our one-year anniversary. The leftover British money from that vacation rests on the scribe's lap as an offering. Perhaps I need to increase my donation to advance my writing career.

3. Christmas Trooper--My son made me a Limited Edition Christmas Trooper by coloring one of his Lego Stormtroopers red and green with markers. I keep it in the original packaging, on the same shelf as the scribe.

4. An acrylic dish with a sunflower on the bottom. I needed a little dish for my tea strainer, and this one cost only a dollar or so. I'm a big tea drinker and go though multiple cups of green, loose-leaf tea daily.

5. Reference books. I still keep paper copies of a dictionary, a thesaurus, grammar/style guides, and baby name books on my desk. However, I almost never use them anymore, since my first instinct is to look things up online.

As you can see from the pictures, there's lots more I could list, but I'll stop here. Feel free to share details about your writing space below.

Have a Holly Jolly Jawa!

I promised you I'd share my "Holly Jolly Jawa" costume with you today, so there it is. The normal Jawa softparts (robe and hood) are made with brown weathered monkscloth. I made new versions with green velveteen (which is much easier to work with than the monkscloth) and trimmed them with faux fur. The rest of the costume is the same as what I'd normally wear. I did wear this in a parade last Friday night, but I don't have any good pictures from the parade. Hopefully I'll have at least one more chance to troop in this costume before the holidays are over.

Project Updates 11/21/18

I'm not going to list every single project I've started or I want to start, as that would be rather tedious. I do have a couple of quick updates, though:

1. I finished the rough draft of one of my short stories. The working title (which is already the third one I've given this story) is currently "A Shawl for Janice." We'll see if I change the title again during revisions.

2. I'm nearly done crocheting a poodle. The "Bare Naked" version is below. Hopefully she'll look more poodle-like after I add lots of loops for fur:















3. Dryads to Discover hasn't quite reached 50,000 words yet, but I expect to before the end of the month.

Although it feels like the holiday has already started, I do have to work tomorrow. Whether you're working, traveling, or staying home this weekend, I hope you have a good one. Next week, I'll show off the Holly Jolly Jawa costume I made for a parade this Friday.

Project Update 11/14/18

It feels like it's been a while since I posted an update. Here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to (besides the usual work and family stuff):

Writing: I'm closing in on 50,000 words for Dryads to Discover, but since I started it last year, it definitely doesn't count for NaNoWriMo. I've temporarily set it aside to work on a short story for an anthology. By the time this post goes live, I should be over 2,500 words on that. The submission period for this anthology opens 1/1/19, which is hopefully enough time for even this slow writer to finish the story. However, there's a second anthology that opens around that time that I also want to write for. I have an idea for that story, but I need to do more research before I can crystallize my idea into words. After that, there's just more projects all the way down.

Sewing: I finally managed to finish the holiday Jawa costume for a special parade Thanksgiving Day weekend. Sorry, no pictures until after the parade. I may try making a dress out of the leftover material, but it would have to be a simple one. I also need to make a second set of normal Jawa robe and hood to replace the one I've used for over three years. At least after that's done I should be able to start the Jedi costume. It would be nice to have that for Celebration.

Crochet: I still have a few projects that I need to finish, including a custom Wookie, Spiderman, and a poodle. I did make a green Porg to help celebrate the holidays:

I guess by now you shouldn't be surprised that I have yet another long list of things to crochet once I finish with my current ones. At least I manage to keep myself occupied!

I have a three-day weekend coming up since my son has Friday off, so hopefully I can make progress on a couple of things. I'll let you know more next week.

IWSG: Writing, Creativity, and Life

Welcome to another blog post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook group, or Twitter feed.

Our hosts this month are Ellen at The Cynical Sailor, Ann V. Friend, JQ Rose, and Elizabeth Seckman.

This month, we've been asked to answer the following question: How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

My life has definitely changed a lot since I began writing over twenty years ago, but I'd say other factors besides writing have definitely influenced my creativity. One major life event that increased my creativity was becoming a mother. Although motherhood takes up a lot of free time, it also exposes me to different interests and activities that I wouldn't have discovered on my own. For instance, after taking my son to bouncy houses when he was younger, I used one at the setting in my short story "The Mommy Clone." When he became interested in Star Wars, our whole family got into Star Wars costuming, which has led to me learning to sew.

Other creative hobbies have come and gone over the years. I taught myself how to crochet in my twenties; among other things, I made a ring bearer's pillow and a baby outfit. Then I forgot about crochet for a while until the end of 2016. I found a pattern to crochet a "pussy hat" for the Women's March and ended up making two. From there I just kept on going. I currently found a niche  in making geeky amigurmi with Star Wars characters, though I'm expanding into other fandoms and other crochet projects. Most of my crochet is done using patterns someone else designs, though sometimes I modify the pattern. Eventually, I want to create my own designs, possibly to sell.

How has your creativity changed with your writing? Feel free to share in the comments.

Favorite Halloween Books

Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite books about the season--or, at least, about witches. It's The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes. It's about two little girls (almost seven) and their adventures with the Witch Family. There's Old Witch, who is head of all the witches yet still subject to banishment by human children; Little Witch Girl; Weeny Witch (a baby witch); Malachi the Spelling Bee, and several other characters who live on the barren glass hill with Old Witch. It's a charming story that I remember from my childhood and rediscovered in Kindle format many years later. Obviously, I'm too old to identify with the girls, and it's not the kind of story my son would have found interesting at seven. It was still fun to reread it.

Do you have any favorite books about Halloween, either from your childhood or more current ones? Feel free to share them in the comments. And if you're starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow, good luck! I'm over 44,000 words into Dryads to Discover, and at the rate I'm writing, I'll be lucky to finish the first draft by the end of the year. Whether you finish your story in November or not, the writing is still worth it.

Project Update 10/24/18

I figure if I'm going to reduce my blogging to once a week, I should use the time to let people know how my myriad projects are doing.

Writing: I have four (yes, four!) projects in rough draft. Dryads to Discover, my urban fantasy novel, is the farthest along at about 41,000 words. I started this one last year, but I took breaks from it to work on some short stories. I also have another novel in the works, this one tentatively called Medium's Quest. I'm about 11,000 words into it. I have a few hundred words on each of two short stories, one targeted for a solarpunk anthology that opens next year and one I might submit to pro markets--assuming I ever get them done.

These projects are all new worlds for me. I've decided I'm going to trunk "The Unnumbered World," a short story in the Catalyst Chronicles universe. This story was going to be set after Twinned Universes and follow one of the minor characters from that book. The plot isn't working out, at least for now; maybe someday I'll go back to it and figure out what to do. In the meantime, that clears the way for Catalyst in the Crucible, the next novel in that series. But before I can go back to that one, I'd better finish some of the other stories I currently have drafting.

Publishing: I wrote a short story about Robbie, one of the minor characters in the Season Avatars series, but I'm still not satisfied with the title or the blurb. It can be harder to blurb short stories than novels, at least for me. Once I manage to work that out, I'll have Maria create a cover for it. I'd like to publish it this year if possible. I also have a completed short story prequel to Dryads to Discover, but I'm going to hold that one until DtD is ready to publish and put them out close together.

Crochet: I'm currently finishing up a poodle, and then I want to make an infinity gauntlet. (Click the link for the Etsy store with the pattern.). The first gauntlet will probably be for my son, and then I may make a couple to sell. I still have to finish up a couple of other amigurumi that I started a while back.

Costuming: I really need to replace my Jawa robe, which has gotten a lot of wear in three years of trooping. I have one mostly sewn; I just need to finish some seams and weather it. I may need to make another hood to match the dye lot. Once I finish that, then I'd better make my Santa Jawa robe. The holiday parade I plan to wear it in is only a few weeks away!


So, are you working on any interesting projects? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Blogging Schedule Update

After thinking about this for a while, I've decided I need to cut back on blogging for several reasons:

1. It seems like my posts aren't getting as many views as they used to. (I'm basing this on what Blogger reports.) Something may have changed in an online algorithm somewhere. There might be a decline in blogging in general (I see this mentioned in other places, though usually without sources). It might be more effective for me to put more marketing effort into other social media outlets or my newsletter. Reason #3 may be a factor too.

2. With all the other daily responsibilities and projects I constantly juggle, I feel really time-pressed for writing. Cutting back on my posts, at least temporarily, should help.

3. I'll be honest--lately, I've been having difficulty coming up with topics. I started this blog over a decade ago (I think it was shortly after I got married), so that's a lot of posts! I've written over 2,200 of them, and sometimes I wonder if I'm repeating topics. Maybe slowing things down for a while will give me a fresh perspective.

I'm not planning to give up blogging completely. For now, I think I might cut back to once a week on Wednesdays, so I can continue to participate in the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group posts. This means that unfortunately I'll be giving up on the Science of the Week posts on Fridays. I enjoy researching those posts, but they do take up most of my blogging time. I have to read the science news articles daily (or read a lot at once) and decide which ones to link. If I have news, I might create an extra post for it.

Since it's late October, I'll try this schedule for the rest of the year and see how it works, both for me and for you, my readers. After that, I'll decide if I want to change my frequency. I hope no one's too disappointed by this announcement, but maybe I'll be able to engage more with comments. Feel free to leave one below.

Science of the Week, 10/19/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

A cure for Alzheimer's? Yes, a cure for Alzheimer's!
(It's actually more like customized treatments for each patient, and while it sounds promising, results can also vary.)

Survey shows widespread skepticism of flu shot

Giant planets around young star raise questions about how planets form

A step toward personalized, automated smart homes


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

More Crochet Photos

Although I keep coming up with more writing projects than I have time for, I keep on crocheting as well--and coming up with more projects that I want to do. As long as I do a little both of both every day, I make some progress. I don't like sharing my writing projects when they're still in the rough draft stage, but the smaller crochet projects work up quickly. Here are some of my recently completed ones:

I started this pterodactyl right before the comic con at the end of September. I think it took about a week or so to finish. He's actually a darker purple in person.

 These are Halloween-inspired porg. From left to right, they are a jack-o-lantern porg (though my family thinks he looks like Deadpool, so maybe the next one won't have black eye patches), a vampire porg, a black cat porg, and a ghost porg. If I can figure out how to make a turkey tail, I might make some turkey porg next month. And yes, I have some ideas for Christmas....




I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Now to decide which writing project to tackle next.

Library Troop

We were out of town this weekend, so I didn't have time to prepare my usual blog posts for the week. Instead, I'll share photos from one of our weekend activities: a troop at a library in Madison, Wisconsin. My husband is in the top two photos, my son is in the second, and I'm in the rest.

Science of the Week, 10/12/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news stories I read this week:

Seaweed-powered trucks--hope or hype?

Part-organic invention can be used in bendable mobile phones

Global sea level could rise 50 feet by 2300, study says

Caffeine helps block pain

Even when presented with facts, supported by evidence, many people choose not to believe them

Researchers demonstrate first example of a bioresorbable electronic medicine

Army researchers' technique locates robots, soldiers in GPS-challenged areas

Season Avatar Quiz

As part of preparing for the recent comic con, I developed a short quiz to match passersby with Season Avatars. It was meant as a way to engage with people about my work and interest them in it. I didn't hand out any copies, so I'll have to save them for my next appearance. In the meantime, I thought I'd share them here.

Which Season Avatar are You?

Pick the best answer from each question below. 

1.       What’s your favorite season?

a.       Spring

b.       Summer

c.       Fall

d.       Winter

2.       What’s your favorite color?

a.       Yellow

b.       Green

c.       Red

d.       Blue

3.       Which activity do you enjoy the most?

a.       Drawing

b.       Dancing

c.       Playing music

d.       Sewing/crafts

4.        What’s your greatest strength?

a.       Good leader

b.       Fearless

c.       Kind

d.       Faith

5.       What’s your worst trait?

a.       Perfectionist

b.       Pleasure-seeking

c.       People-pleaser

d.       Low self-confidence

If you answered mostly As, you’re Gwen from Scattered Seasons. Gwen is the Spring Avatar, with the magical gift of healing.

If you answered mostly Bs, you’re Jenna, the Summer Avatar with the gift of plant magic. Jenna is the heroine of Chaos Season.

If you chose mostly Cs, you’re Ysabel, the heroine of Fifth Season. Ysabel is the Fall Avatar and is blessed with animal magic.

If you chose mostly Ds, you’re Kay from Summon the Seasons. As the Winter Avatar, Kay controls the most powerful magic, that of weather.

If you have a mix of answers, then you’re like the full quartet of Season Avatars, who defend their country from Chaos Season, a magical storm that mixes up the seasons. Learn how it began in Seasons’ Beginnings.

Writers and Genre Popluarity

Last week, I read an interesting article on The Passive Voice. It was about a study conducted by The Writing Cooperative, which develops software for writers. They surveyed 740 writers who use their products. I don't know how representative this sample is of all writers, so these answers may not be strictly accurate. Nevertheless, I was struck by one result: according to this survey, the most popular genre was science fiction and fantasy, with 34% of writers saying that was the genre they tended to write in. This is especially surprising when you realize, as one Passive Voice commenter did, that romance is the most widely read genre, so you'd expect more writers to write that. Only 8.5% of authors in this survey reported writing romance, which was the second most popular genre. Perhaps this genre breakdown is an artifact of the small survey group, or it could have something to do with some genre writers preferring other methods of producing their work.

As a science fiction/fantasy writer myself, I have mixed feelings about this result. If there is such a large group of writers in my field out there, then that means I have a lot of other writers to exchange ideas with and potentially become friends with. On the other hand, it may be harder to come up with unique ideas, and there's more competition for markets. Most of the conventions and other writing groups I participate in are genre-focused, so I have less contact with writers outside my genre.

What do you think about these survey results? Do you think they hold up when you consider larger groups of writers? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Science of the Week, 10/5/18

This week was a little better for science news articles. Here are some of the ones I found most interesting:

Fog's role in microbial transport

In dangerous fungal family's befriending of plants, a story of loss

Scientists unlock secret of how the brain decodes speech

Defects promise quantum communication through standard optical fiber

Eco-friendly nanoparticles for artificial photosynthesis

Researchers go deep, design drones for subterranean search and rescue

No more Iron Man: submarines now have soft, robotic arms

Emissions-free energy system saves heat from the summer sun for winter


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

IWSG: Writing and Life

A new month means another post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about them on their website, Facebook page, and Twitter. Our hosts for this month are Dolorah, Christopher D. Votey, Tanya Miranda, and Chemist Ken. Our question for this month is How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?

Probably the major life event that has most affected my writing is becoming a mother. Unsurprisingly, becoming a mother ate up a lot of my time, so now I have much less time for writing than I used to. However, becoming a mother has introduced me to a lot of new activities, hobbies, and experiences that I didn't have before. Motherhood has directly inspired some of my stories, such as "The Mommy Clone" (which is set in a bouncy house). It's even inspired me to try writing for children and middle grade kids, though I haven't finished Welcome to Costume City yet. Although major life events may slow down your writing for a while, ultimately they may enrich your writing. Writing can also help you process the emotions around life events, though I'd rather not go into detail here.

If you're comfortable talking about writing and life events, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Gail Borden Comic Con

I blogged a few months ago about being one of the vendors at my local library's comic con. It finally took place on Saturday. Here's what my table looked like. My son helped me set up and run the table. The most popular items were my amigurumi, particularly the porgs. I only brought five with me, but sold all of them. In fact, the first one I sold was a "Dark Side" porg in black, gray, and red to a girl dressed as Kylo Ren. I also sold the BB-8, a couple of lanyards, a book, and several raffle tickets. Tyrone the T-Rex found a new home. While I probably could have done more to promote my books instead of the amigurumi, it was one of my most successful appearances. I was able to give my son some money for helping out and put the rest of my earnings into our Star Wars Celebration fund. Here are a few things I learned that may help other authors/crafters at similar events:

1. I made sure to adjust my prices ahead of time to account for local taxes. However, I didn't think to include fees for paying with credit cards. That'll have to come out of my profits.
2. The library staff was kind enough to supply us with water and snacks, but it doesn't hurt to have your own food with you, especially if you have special dietary needs or preferences.
3. While it's good to have something to do as you wait for people to stop by, you're not going to get as much done as you think you will. It's also not the best time to try to teach someone how to crochet.
4. Most of your sales will be impulse purchases. It may be hard to strike a balance between setting a price low enough to be attractive while still making a profit.

I wouldn't mind doing this again at other comic cons or craft fairs. The key will be learning about them ahead of time to get a table and finding events that don't charge vendors.