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2009 Half Way Mark Report For:
The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together

2009 Half Way Mark Report For:
The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together

Half Way Mark Report For: The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together

Half Way Mark Report For: The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together

Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 | Comments Offon Half Way Mark Report For: The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together 

The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together

The end of July marks the half way point for NaNoWriMo’s Big Scary 2009. It’s time for us to update our goals and give the half way progress reports. Have you guys been keeping track of your goals? Did you get anything done yet? Have you added any new last minute goals? Have any goals you planned been knocked off for whatever reason? Now is the time to head back to NaNoWriMo and let every one know how you are making out with this year’s goals, if you haven’t done so already.

Here’s my progress report for this year:

Once upon a time I had a thread where I was going to keep track of my goals. I have no idea where it went and I think I only posted on it once since I made it! LOL!I had several goals:

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one was to read a book every week. I’ve been doing that, but I forgot to write down the books as I read them and now I don’t know if I’m on schedule or not, because I’m pretty sure I missed some weeks and I don’t know if I read enough other weeks to make up for it or not. This is my standard goal, every year – read 52 books or one per week; I usually do pretty good at it, but I always forget to keep track of what I read. I need to keep a chart. As an add on to that goal I had a list that said “including these books . . . .” well, I did THAT part of the goal at least, I read the few books on THAT list within the first month

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my second goal was to work on editing all the drafts I have laying around (I’ve got 6 nearly finished books and dozens of short stories scattered all over the place) and get at least one of them published by the end of the year. I’m good at writing lots and lots of stuff really fast, but I’m so terribly slow when it comes to editing, so I have ended up with more stuff to edit and not much editing done. I have however gotten one book and one play-script nearly complete and almost publishable, so I’m nearing my goal, but not sure if (at the speed I’m going) I’ll get either published before next year, so this goal may roll over and become a goal for next year, but than again, I still have a few months to go, so there’s still time, maybe I’ll get a sudden burst of editing energy and get it finished right quick, who knows. In any case, I am seeing progress with the book now in it’s 4th draft! (YAY!).

There has been a bit of an unfortunate side effect to this goal – the book I’m working on is the non-fiction autobiography one called “For Fear of Little Men”, about my UFO experiences and how a local church group reacted to it (they reacted like a mob straight out a Frankenstein, accusing me of being a witch that consorted with demons and than took it upon themselves to destroy my property, kill my pets, and set fire to my house.) The first draft for this book went online shortly after the end of NaNoWriMo08 so that I could edit it with the help of some online friends. Parts of the second draft went online in early 2009 here:http://www.squidoo.com/Amphibious-Aliens

and here: http://www.squidoo.com/OnBeingHomeless2

and here: http://www.squidoo.com/Autism-and-Me

and here: http://www.squidoo.com/No-Meat This was so that I could get some various reader opinions on what I had written, as well as to get some feedback on what stuff readers wanted to know. (The book is being written as an interview and all of the interview questions are coming directly from my online readers, this way I can actually be answering questions people are actually asking about what happened.)

Well, in any case, last week, my dad, received a phone call (I don’t have a phone) from the bishop asking me to meet him at his office. And I spent the next half hour being told by the bishop that I was a witch, an apostate, an evil caster of spells, and than he threw the ultimatum on me: delete my “wicked website of lies or be excommunicated”. I was given 2 weeks to delete my “evil” websites, after which time, if it has not been deleted, he will be bringing in the church disciplinary council and start excommunication procedures!

Well, if in 30 years, I have stood up against them never refusing to deny the existence of this strange creature, why would I suddenly do so now? I’m not denying what I saw, I’m not deleting my website, and I’m still going forward with this book, and it’s still planned for a 2010 publication date. These people are so crazy, and this, is just proving it even more. Oh well, I guess I can always find a new church to attend, right?

well this whole being excommunicated this was totally unexpected and has made a mess of my life these past 2 weeks and has resulted in me getting more than 3,000 emails from various people – many of whom are fellow church members witting and demanding, not requesting, but demanding, that I not publish this book “or else”!!!! OMG! You know what? The more they tell me not to publish this thing, the more I really, really, REALLY want to get it published! LOL!

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my third goal was to open a store. I’m having my best luck with this goal, actually. I set up an Etsy account (nothing listed yet), next I built a website about my dolls (nearly finished), than I started a blog about what I was doing, but I sort of went off topic and now I need to start a new one, just for my dolls. I set out to designing an entire line of dolls, including to design the fabric to make them out of and had it printed up via http://www.SpoonFlower.com. At this moment, I have finish drawing up the patterns, I have 26 dolls cut out and waiting to be sewed up, and at this rate, I should have my store open before the end of August!!!!!! YAY! I can see the end of my goal in sight and it’s just around the next corner! I should be able to come back in a couple of weeks to shout out that I’ve completed it! YAY!

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I had a lot of other goals – mostly small things – but, you know, life just keeps getting in the way and all sorts of unexpected things happened that my life was not planing for, so lots of little things got pushed aside out of necessity.

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One goal is still on going since I first added it (in 2006 Big Scary!) – find a job, has rolled over for 3 years now and may roll over to next year at this rate! – ICK the economy is terrible and as a result no body is hiring any body, because they are too busy laying off staff they already got! So, three years and counting without a “real” job, still relying 100% on sales of my art via Zazzle & CafePress and sales of short articles via Associated Content and Squidoo. (Hey, at least I can say I’m getting paid to write! Just wish it was higher pay and more of it!)

To date I’ve sent in more than 400 applications and gone to nearly 50 interviews and still nothing! In 2006 and 2007 I had a temp job for Macy’s, but that was about 30 hours a month! I need a real steady reliably paying job, not a touch and go temp job. I was hoping to stay on at Macy’s, you know get picked for full time or part time, but than they laid off all their temps and 50 of their full timers and that just crushed my goal.  Sad about losing my temp job for Macy’s because of every job I’ve ever done, I liked working for Macy’s best of all. I’ll keep watching for openings, and will apply again as soon as I see Macy’s hiring again, because I really want to get that job.

However, on a better note, I am going to start selling Avon again. Got my meeting set up with the new district manager and I’ll be all set to go in September. (I was an Avon rep for 7 years before a family emergency -a flood that destroyed our home, every thing we owned, and put my dad in a coma- turned our lives upside down and left us homeless and living on the streets for 3 years. We are FINALLY getting our lives back in order and picking up where we left off before the flood messed everything up.) So, by September I will have a part time job working for Avon once again, and that, should put a little relief on the income issues.

I’m really hoping that my online store will set off and maybe I will sell enough of my dolls so I won’t have to look for a job any more????? Hoping really hard here, because going professional doll maker full time would really be a BIG dream come true. I just love sewing dolls and to have something I love bring in an income would be a big plus.

I’m hoping that, by multi-streaming my income resources (Zazzle, CafePress, Etsy, SpoonFlower, LuLu, Avon, and hopefully a part time retail job at the Maine Mall) I’ll end up with a more or less steady and reliable income once again, and be able to put an end to the mess the flood made of our lives once and for all.

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And of course NaNoWriMo09 is one of my goals and thus I am currently working on my plot for this years contest and getting ready for November to roll around so I can get this one checked off the list. NaNoWriMo09 will be my 5th anniversary as a paticipant of the National Novel Writing Month Contest. I’ve won the last 3 years, with each year topping my previous year’s word count. Last year I finished the month with a whopping 238,135 words written in 30 days! This year I’m going for a 4th win and an attempt to beat out my last year’s win, by striving to top 250k in 30 days. Any of you guys want to try to beat me? Nows the time to start planning for this year’s contest entry. Who knows, maybe I’ll even beat Katy’s 500k win. Hhhhm… 500k 2 years in a row . . . is there any one who can beat Katy? I can’t wait to watch her word counts rise again this year and see if she can do it 3 years in a row!

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Well, there you have, my half way through the year progress report for NaNoWriMo’s Year of Big Scary Things 2009. I think, I’m doing rather well, all things considered.

———-
Do Animals Go To Heaven?
R.I.P. Michael Jackson
Poison vs. Motley Crue
Hayley Williams (Paramore)
Do You believe in faeries?

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This entry was posted in book writing, EelKat, goals, NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month, The Year of Doing Big-Scary-Fun Things, Wendy C. Allen

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