Outside it’s spring and beautiful. Inside it’s me again, thinking that I’ve finally cut down on the impossible number of creative projects I tend to plan for. Not!
So here it is. I am well into my new novel which is dystopian science fiction aimed at the young adult market. Myself and every second writer in the world are, at the moment, all creating dystopian fiction it seems.
This time I will do it the right way according to all you marketing gurus out there and produce a series of three related novels. The story lines are already all tumbling around in my brain. Because I don’t work very well from detailed outlines, there are mornings when my head clearly wants to explode. Shutting down is hard.
I am trying to get in at least two hours a day writing, which hopefully turns into two or more finished pages. Also like a more or less normal person I plan to take weekends off. Summer is coming, after winter is coming and Game of Thrones finally ends.
I have a pretty firm deadline in mind for one of three, but I refuse to do the math. Too scary. I plan to book myself into a cheap hotel room somewhere for a writing marathon if I’m not close by the end of September.
Marketing my paintings and prints has not gone as well as I’d hoped at trade shows like the Edmonton Expo and I’m sorry to say that I won’t be back. Except to go and enjoy the event myself of course.
Since I’ve set firm goals for my writing I’m not even going to pretend that I can do the same for my painting and art work. I still paint at the Rimbey Art Club and will still show locally. Only now I’m only working on what really moves me. And giving each piece all the time it needs. More on that in a future post.
Oh, and just in case I find some spare time, I’ve started a quilt. Something to do when I need to get out of my chair and move around during those longer writing sessions. So I have cut down. Sort of. Wish me luck.
I am at the very beginning with this quilt; the blocks are up on the wall in the studio and I am just starting to sew them together. There is so much more to come. Borders, batting, and backing need to be added. Then I’ll do the quilting and binding, and finally I might add applique and maybe some thread painting.