Success?

I've been thinking about success the past few days. Or more correctly, what constitutes success. How would I define it?

In terms of money, that's easy. I'd define it as being out of debt, having money to pay my monthly bills, having the ability to put money away for retirement and emergencies, and having health insurance.

In terms of life, not so easy. Being able to help other people in a significant fashion, perhaps. Certainly to be a loving and kind person. To be remembered as an example of what we should be. To give other people joy.

How do you define success? Let me know. However you do, hope your days are being successful.

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Floozy almost done

Woohoo! I finished inputting the corrections into Floozy & Other Stories today. Just one more read through (in which I hope to find no more corrections) and a minor change on the cover, and I can submit to Lulu to submit to online retailers. I'm excited about finally getting this off my TO DO list. If everything goes well, I should have it sent off tomorrow.

Next up will be Murder by the Mile. Philip Larkin once said that books have "a beginning, a muddle, and an end." Well, I'm in the muddle of MBTM. I'm looking forward to writing my way out.

Otherwise, I did laundry, washed dishes, worked on filing, cleaned my work area, etc. Still not feeling great, but so much better that I know I'm on the way to 100 percent. I'm hoping to go walking tomorrow. Wish me luck!

How was your day? Hope it was good. See you tomorrow.

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Working on the Floozy

Did nothing but work on Floozy & Other Stories. I'm hoping to finish my Wednesday. Maybe it will be more interesting here then. Check back!

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Serene Sunday

Another good day, although I was tired and didn't get much done beyond working on Floozy and getting most of the indoor Christmas decorations put away. Only my Christmas village remains, and I'll take it down tomorrow. Kinda hate to box it up. I always enjoy how it looks.

Speaking of Floozy, I finally solved a formatting problem that had baffled the folks at Lulu and Amazon. Between pages 60 and 61, I had four or five BLANK spaces that were coded for a different font. Yeah, that's what the problem was. I was amazed that little bit of coding caused all those problems. Of course, it caused those problems because the coded font wasn't embedded -- and it wasn't embedded because I wasn't intending on using it. Anyway, things should go faster on Floozy now.

Otherwise, I vegged today. What did you do?

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Great day!

Had a wonderful visit with my roomie's daughter and her family. Little Michael is in the tub, and after he gets out, we're going to watch a movie together: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. He's such a good little boy and definitely attached to his Papa Eric and me. His three-year-old brother Jordan is cute and charming. And headstrong! And I got to hold baby Gage for a while. Such a sweet, sweet baby.

It was a great day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. They're going to stay overnight at a local hotel and go to church with my roomie tomorrow. Oh, Michael is going to stay overnight with us. He's very excited about doing it.

Got no work or writing done today. Okay with that. Family will always come first.

And now I want to clean a bit before we watch that movie. Hope you had a good day. Talk to you tomorrow.

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Friday Floozy

Working on Floozy still. Harder than I expected, but formatting is going well and I appreciate another chance to clean up the copy.

Not healthy yet, but doing better day by day. Hope to resume walking at Fitness Center on Monday.

Roomie has been helping me clean house as his daughter and her family -- including the marvelous Michael will be visiting us Saturday for our long-delayed Christmas with them. Looking forward to it. Hope you have things you're looking forward to.

Talk to you tomorrow.

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What I'm doing

Between bouts of sickness these past few days, I've been working on finally getting Floozy & Other Stories ready for Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other online dealers. Back when Floozy was first published, I submitted it for Expanded Distribution (which is what Lulu.com, my publisher, calls being available for online retailers). Unfortunately there was a formatting problem that no one could ever figure out.

Finally it was apparent to me that I'd have to reformat the book from the very first page. Since I already couldn't make the deadline to have it available this Christmas, I put it aside. Now I'm working on it. And although it's taking a lot of time, it's finally coming together.

To fix the formatting problem, I changed the book into a text only file. Now I'm reformatting it a page at a time. I'm also putting in corrections (thank you, Jean!) and making a few minor changes to punch up a few jokes. I'm also making a minor change to the cover. I should have it finished by Tuesday or Wednesday next week if things continue to go as it's going now.

So no new words on Murder by the Mile. That's okay. Floozy needs my attention, and I'm certainly learning a lot about formatting that I didn't know before. Knowledge that will be useful for my future projects. And I do have several projects planned. Are you as excited about that as I am?

Anyway, that's what I'm doing. What are you doing?

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Better today

My stomach was better today. Definitely not right, but not attempting to tear itself out of my body, either. Got a few things done, but no words. Hoping Thursday will be better. Talk to you then.

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Relapse

For some rotten reason, I started throwing up today and having terrible stomach problems. I won't gross you out with the details. Instead I will just go to bed. Night.

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Catching up

I started the day at 5000 words behind for the year. I am now 3745 words behind. Tomorrow I will start at 4245 words behind and nibble, nibble, nibble away. (My total gains 500 a day if you're wondering why it's increasing.) I'm hoping to be all caught up by the end of January.

I feel like I've finally started 2011. Now if I could finally get completely over this cold and get back to exercising, we'd be running full steam!

Talk to you tomorrow. And Happy New Year!

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Better Sunday

I actually spent more time awake today than asleep. That's an improvement. In fact, I was even able to do some paperwork and a few chores. Admittedly, I seem to lack much energy, but I'm thinking that will come back as I do more. I'm very hopeful about tomorrow being better.

The calendar by my desk this year is The Power of Positive Thinking. The Norman Vincent Peale quote for January is: "Every day remind yourself of your own ability, of your good mind, and affirm that you can make something really good out of your life." I've been trying to do that every day. I beat myself up a lot. I intend to stop doing that.

Tomorrow I will start on my words. Currently, I'm 4500 words behind where I want to be. Tomorrow, it will be 5000 words behind. Except tomorrow I'll start catching up and earning back my days off. Will take a month or two, but I will get caught up.

And now I'm very tired. Going to call it a night. I hope things are going well for you. Talk to you tomorrow.

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Getting back up

What a way to start the new year. There are some writers apparently who are capable of dragging their fevered bodies to the keyboard and pounding out masterpieces even during delirium. Delirium to me is simply delirium.

I intended on writing today, but instead, slept, slept, slept. Now, of course, I'm wide awake when I should be sleeping. Humana nocturnal as it were. At night the writer rises from his crypt and seeks out an unsuspecting plot ...

Yes, I'm a bit discouraged about losing so many days at the beginning of the year, but I did build in those extra days for sickness, emergencies, etc., so my plan is still intact, although perhaps under the weather a bit. Just because I got off to a slow start doesn't mean the whole year will be slow start. We're never defeated as long as we get back up after we're knocked down.

So, starting tomorrow, I will be getting back up as long as my health permits. And if not tomorrow, then Monday. But I will be getting back up, one way or another.

Friday, Friday

I had decided I would be healthy today. Very annoying to me that I'm not. All I'm asking is to be able to breathe without coughing, sneezing, snotting, etc. Is that so much to ask?

Apparently so.

Truly I'd like to tell you some wonderful things I did or thought or wrote down or said during this prolonged illness. Regretfully my attention seems to be focused on the softness of facial tissue and the timing of my meds. I'm sure Marcel Proust could have written several books on just that subject, but I cannot, for which I think we all can be glad.

Anyway, that's the news or rather the no news from the world of the ill. Talk to you tomorrow.

Better

I'm better today. Not 100 percent, but I can stand without the room spinning. I've kept down all my food. Coughing is much less. Still producing snot by the gallon -- how much can you actually produce, I wonder -- but I think I'm on the downside of this. Sure hope so. I want to get started on 2011. I've lost too many days to this.

A little better

Okay, I think I'm a little better today. Less coughing. I got some sleep last night. Not enough, apparently, as I will fall asleep if I sit still even for a moment. So maybe tomorrow I will be much better. I hope so. I'm as tired of being sick as you are hearing about it!

No change

I'd like to tell you that I'm better. But unfortunately, it's about the same. I'm curious about a couple of things: how many gallons of snot can a human actually produce and what do sinuses do anyway?

Still sick

Sigh. Still sick. Mostly cough, sneeze, a bit of fever, read, sleep, and repeat. Have read several chapters of Genesis. And that's it for today.

Sicker

Should not have done that housework yesterday. Sicker today. Blah. What a rotten way to start the new year. It's like 2011 hasn't begun for me yet. Hope I get better soon. I got plans, ya know.

Goals

I haven't got my words yet, but I will. Things have been going slowly today. I got sick yesterday afternoon and got sicker as the night went on. Nasty cold kept me awake with coughing and sinus headache. Finally started feeling better around noon. Got up and started to straighten my house up and do some chores that had been neglected. Kept thinking about my words and my goals and finally decided to write about them.

My 2011 Goals

I'm intending to write 500-1000 words a day in 2010, only taking 14 days off for vacation/illness. (You can watch my progress at Createslate.)

For January, most of my words will be on Murder by the Mile, the third entry in my Measurements of Murder(tm) series. I need another 20,000 or so to finish the story.

Then in February, I will be editing MBTM and working on a few more stories for Tales from Bethlehem, which I hope to sell to a publisher of Christian books.

In March, more editing and rewriting on MBTM, TFB, and a new project. Don't know what the new project will be yet. Maybe finish Ghosts, a horror adventure story that I started a year or so back.

In April, I hope to publish MBTM and send TFB off to agents/publishers. Of course, I'll be busy with the publicity and promotion for MBTM for several months after its publication date.

There's a possibility I might participate in Script Frenzy in April, where the participants write 100 pages on a play, movie, TV show, etc. It's the companion to National Novel Writing Month, which is in November.

November, of course, will be NaNoWriMo. Wrote 50,000 words in one month. That's an awesome time. I plan on participating again.

I'm also going to be reading the Bible all the way through. Even if you're not religious, I suggest doing so because its sheer literary power. You'll be amazed at the number of similes, metaphors, and other writing tools that the writers of the Bible used to convey their message.

I'm also going to continue to walk and work out at the gym. I hesitate to say this, but ... I'd like to lose 50 pounds in 2011. Is it possible? Don't know, but want to find out.

Anyway, that's all I can see forward on my goals. What do you see in the coming year? Good things? Bad things? Happy? Sad? I don't know if we will succeed with our goals, but I do know we won't if we don't try.

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Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at Amazon.com
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Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at BooksAMillion.com
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Buy Murder by the Acre at Amazon.com
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Buy Murder by the Acre at BooksAMillion.com
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Buy Floozy, MBTA & MBDD items and more at Oakleaf Harbor

HNY!

˜˜”*°•.¸☆ ★ ☆¸.•°*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆
╔╗╔╦══╦═╦═╦╗╔╗ ★ ★ ★
║╚╝║══║═║═║╚╝║ ☆¸.•°*”˜˜”*°•.¸☆
║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ NEW YEAR ☆ 2011!!
╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╝╚╝═╚╝ ￥☆★☆★☆￥ ★
May the Lord bless you all with His mercy, healing, and love!

Buy Floozy and Other Stories in paperback at Lulu.com
Buy Floozy and Other Stories in hardcover at Lulu.com
Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at Amazon.com
Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at Barnes&Noble.com
Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at BooksAMillion.com
Buy Murder by Dewey Decimal at Lulu.com
Buy Murder by the Acre at Amazon.com
Buy Murder by the Acre at Barnes & Noble.com
Buy Murder by the Acre at BooksAMillion.com
Buy Murder by the Acre in soft cover at Lulu.com
Buy Murder by the Acre in hardcover at Lulu.com
Buy Floozy, MBTA & MBDD items and more at Oakleaf Harbor