GOOOOOOOOOOOOL! (s)

Yes, I was trying to reference soccer with the blog post title. Did that come through? Because I’m such a huge sports fan as I huddle in my writing and reading cave, OBVIOUSLY.

So, I went to New York… and then I came back home to sunny South Florida. Also known as BLISTERINGLY HOT South Florida. Summer is truly upon us, but Dorothy had it right, there is really no place like home.

Something about seeing the book world come together for Book Expo America was amazingly inspiring. And coming home to my wonderful, but a bit hum-drum life was sad. But the conference really lit a fire under my butt. I want to start living my dream.

To that end… some GOALS:

-I’m going to finish the first draft of my Work in Progress (tentatively titled Apparent) this week. I managed to hit 50,000 words today which… took me way too long to do, but felt like a victory.

-I’m going to finish the first round of Apparent revisions by the beginning of August

-I’m also going to somewhat outline a new novel by the beginning of August because…

-I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo in August writing an idea for a YA paranormal that I’ve had for a while called Half Passed.

-Amidst the beginning of Camp NaNoWrimo, I’m going to prepare things like a query and a Twitter pitch for Apparent in preparation for Write On Con. If I had more time, I’d like to have completed a 3rd draft, but I already know I’m going to be stretching myself thin.

-Amidst the middle of Camp NaNoWriMo, I’m (obviously) “attending” Write On Con, where my focus is going to be on educating myself and improving Apparent.

The goals then become more convoluted:  

• Send Apparent to a few beta readers
• Try not to think about it and outline the second book (the one that I just realized had to happen two nights ago)
• Bang head against wall because I wanted Apparent to be a standalone
• Outline anyway
• Revise Apparent again based on beta feedback
• Start revising Half Passed if I liked anything about it (at the moment all I have is a very vague idea and a title)
• Write 1st draft of second book
• Send Apparent back to betas
• Revise it again
• Maybe another 1-2 beta/revision rounds depending on exactly how much work it needed
• Start querying Apparent by the end of the year

Other things!

-I’m going to renew my job search and extend the search to retail. Because while it will take time away from my writing and I do technically have a job now, it’s not enough that I can afford to save very much money. And there are writing and publishing conferences that I’d really like to attend, but have no way of paying for.

-I am definitely applying to publishing school, most likely to Pace University to complete an online certificate in book publishing so I can get more insight into the industry as a writer PLUS understand it as someone who wants to work within it

-Outside of writing, I think the specific area of publishing that I’d like to work it is Children’s marketing and publicity. It’s the side that I have the most exposure to as a blogger, and I think it’s where I’d be strongest. Ideally I’d like to be able to get Fall internship somewhere, but we’ll see. I’m working on getting into school first.

I think that’s quite enough for one post. It’s amazing to think that at (almost) 24, I’m only just now figuring out what I want out of life. Goodness gracious.

-Jen