IWSG & Looking Back to Look Forward

 

Happy IWSG Day. It’s the final IWSG blog hop of the year. In 27 days we’ll be saying goodbye to 2019 but not to each other. We’ll still be here. Toiling away on our own writing journeys. While supporting other writers doing the same in 2020. Thanks for bringing us together goes to ninja extraordinaire Alex Cavanaugh.

The awesome co-hosts posting today are: Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Fundy Blue and Tyrean Martinson!

Interested in joining us? Click on the badge above. Our Twitter hashtag and handle are #IWSG and @TheIWSG.

So what’s going on with me this month?

Well, I’m trying to figure out how in the hell did my Chromebook screen break again. The last one broke by the hands or should I say feet of one of my kids (the younger one).

Don’t have a desk or mommy cave of my own but I do have a lap desk. I keep my Chromebook on it and when I’m not using it, I put it aside in a corner, either on my bedroom or living room floor. Somehow or other, as explained by eldest, the little one was running around, jumped off the couch and landed on it.

This time, I’m not sure what happened but it broke on Thanksgiving. It was working fine when I was on it after dinner but then the ITIS struck and had to put it down. When the in-laws left for home later that night after 11, I picked it up again to finally work on my NaNoWriMo novel. And the screen was all messed up. Again.

The only way I could see anything was to press and hold one side of the screen. I could see my NaNo novel document, for several seconds, before the screen blacked out again. I only had the new Chromebook for about three years.

Told my husband I needed a new screen and Amazon had a screen replacement and tools for $42. He looked at me as if I was crazy and said no I need a new laptop. Later he laughs and asks how it broke again. My sons offered an explanation that someone must’ve kicked it.

But I think it must’ve been the recliner. When the ITIS struck, I put the lap desk down, in front of me and a good distance away from the couch. When I woke up again and setting the reclined seat down the lap desk was under the seat. So I’m thinking that it broke when the recliner was resetting back down on top of it. I don’t know.

Either way, I couldn’t use my Chromebook to type my NaNo novel. Had to type on my phone and use my husband’s MacBook Pro. Which I don’t like because I find it difficult to use and navigate.

So I ended NaNoWriMo with 21,709 to 22,610 words. As I said before, I don’t like using my husband’s laptop, and when I put my word count session in, it didn’t show up on my stats. So I tried putting it in again and caused a miscalculation. Anyways, though I was short on my personal 30k word goal, I still wrote a little over 20k words. Despite the computer snafu towards the end. So…

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I’m going to preplot the rest of the novel and then let it rest. I’ll return to it in January/February 2020. In December I’m focusing on writing two shorts (a menage and ghost romance). And a novella (May-December romance). And submit them to anthologies in January and February 2020. Wish me luck!

 

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PS I’m considering Liliana Watt(s) or Leila Watt(s) as my romance pen name. What do you think? Or do you have any LW (my initials) pseudonym suggestions?

PSS Have any suggestions on good menage, ghost or May-December romances to read?

IWSG December 4th question: 

Credit image: Eligrek243 on Pixabay; credit image: GDJ on Pixabay

I imagine my future self making a living as a published author. Making the New York Times bestseller list. And having a deal in the works with Hollywood adapting one of my stories to the big screen. Or a movie or series on Netflix or Hulu, etc. Aside from writing I’d own a bookstore-slash-cafe. Or work part-time at the local library because I’d go a little crazy if I didn’t have anything to do besides writing. As long as whatever I do allows me to be close to books.

But none of it, or at least one or two future writerly dreams, would have a chance of coming true without looking back. To look forward. In 2018, I thought 2019 would be my year. My year to finish a WIP and have it ready for querying. My year to make a possible 2020 debut happen. Then I got into a writing slump. How? Why? I still don’t know. But I’ve been starting to think it was necessary.

Time’s been creeping on me and I had this restless energy that my published author life needs to begin now. Hard not to when I got back into writing six years ago and the only thing I have to show for it is one self-published book. Don’t get me wrong. That’s still an accomplishment. But when I look at my Goodreads and Amazon author profile, it looks awfully lonely.

Plus add the number of times my husband has asked if I don’t think about changing my job this year. Which I can count on both hands. Even brought up working as a manager at a Panda Express store in the county we live in a few weeks ago.

All I’ve ever wanted, since I first read Little Women was to be a published author one day. Jo March was my inspiration. Even made a paper booklet series and shared my stories with my classmates.

I detoured from my dream because in high school a teacher told me that writing was a hobby. So instead of pursuing English/Writing as a major I chose Mass Communications. But then I took a Creative Writing elective class. And I enjoyed it. The professor even told me he enjoyed having me in class. As you can guess, after that first semester I reversed my major. To English-Creative Writing and Mass Communications minor.

Still, I held myself back. I could’ve interned at editor’s/publishing houses but I didn’t. And I lived in New York City. Why, I couldn’t tell you now because it was so long ago. My future writer self could’ve been a reality today if I’d taken that path and never strayed. Or maybe not. But now, I have six years of committing myself to my writing journey under my belt to make it so.

2019 was not my year that I thought it’d be. But at least and despite how 2019 went I was able to set out and complete almost half of my 2019 writing plan. As well as refreshed my blog with a new look.:

• Revise, edit, submit, query/self-pub feminist poetry manuscript “Triplicity” 🗙
• Submit more poems to Feminine Collective and other poetry publications ✔
• Uploaded Hellsgate character bios and prologue on Wattpad ✔
• Finish Foreseen bonus “Taming the Beast,” completing the Foreseen series 🗙
• Write and upload Holidaze on Wattpad, a contemporary romance novella trilogy 🗙
• Create multimedia design want ad on Wattpad for Holidaze series 🗙
• Added missing/extra scenes in novella #1 of Foreseen “Love Lines” ✔
• Created Youtube writing music playlist for Foreseen ✔
• Minimal plotting of NaNoWriMo story ✔✔✔✔
• Created Youtube writing music playlist for Hellsgate ✔
• Create character interviews, blurbs and start plotting Holidaze novella trilogy: Be Mine Valentina, Seeking Independence and Having Merry Christmas ✔
• Finish creating Youtube writing music playlist for Holidaze ✔
• Create character interviews and continue plotting Hellsgate ✔
• Edit “The Soul Traveler” 🗙
  • Submit to Writers of the Future contest 🗙
  • Query to #SFFpit, #PitMad, Tor Books, agents, publishers, etc 🗙
• Edit “Foreseen” series 🗙
  • Submit to Carina Press Dirty Bits, Avon Impulse, Entangled Publishing, etc 🗙
  • Query to agents, publishers, #Kisspitch, #PitMad, etc 🗙
• Continue new blog schedule of twice a month ✔
  • First week of the month on Wednesday, IWSG day ✔
  • Third week of the month on Monday ✔

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Reminder 😘 #writerscommunity #writermom

A post shared by Karla Kratovil (@karla.kratovil) on Nov 20, 2019 at 6:06am PST