found drama

I’ve been doing the “goals” thing on this blog for a couple years now and up until now, the check-ins have been quarterly. I missed 2010’s first quarter check-in. Why? Partly because I got so damn busy. Partly because I felt like I had nothing to show for my efforts.

And I still don’t have (much) to show for it. But we’ll go ahead and disclose six month’s worth of progress just the same.

1. Write ≥3 hours each week. Really haven’t written a thing since January. I’m a long way from living up to this one. If I’m really lucky, I’ll get myself to writing again from here on out. But I’m in a funk in this department, and am not counting on it.
2. Submit at least 2 short stories for publication. I submitted a piece to Lightspeed Magazine in December/January but it got bounced. For some reason this really discouraged me ¹ and it’s been hard to get motivated again. So not only have I not published two piece… Well: see #1, above.
3. Revise at least one of my novels-in-progress. Again: see #1, above.
4. Read ≥36 books. At least I’m a voracious reader? 22 books so far this year ², and that is a nice, strong page if you ask me.
   
   …also worth noting, I’ve read 5 of the 12 on my “special” required list.
5. Exercise: get my money’s worth at Bolton Valley. Had to go at least five times. I went six times.
6. Exercise: walk or run ≥1 mile ≥2 times/week. Have I given you my lecture about how much I hate running? Even reading Born To Run didn’t do it for me.
7. Exercise: climb at least once each week. It was a slow start, but we’re gettin’ there.
   
8. Restrict my “personal expenses” to $70/week. Most weeks I do just fine. (Let’s leave it at that.)

And now, let’s kick off the bottom half of the year. With House of Leaves.

1. The dozen or so prior rejections didn’t sting, but that one did.[↩]
2. Counting Dishing Up Vermont but not counting A Hole Is to Dig.[↩]

About Rob Friesel