2017 Goals

I don't like the word "resolution" because it infers I have some sort of control over every aspect of the year. And I know better.

Instead, these are my goals, lofty at times, for the upcoming year.

Read: Read all off the books on my nightstand. There are like 30 of them and if I don't start reading them I'm almost positive the tower will topple, killing me in my sleep. It's practically my entire TBR list, honestly, plus some new books. I just...I didn't get a lot of reading done.

Write: I have a few unfinished projects that are too near completion to ignore and I'm going to finish them, dammit.

1: The Measure of  a Lady - Basically a gender-swapped, steampunk, Count of Monte Cristo with necromancy, ghosts and shenanigans - Currently sitting at 39K words, I believe I can wrap up the draft in 20-30K words.

2: A Caper in Crete - MG Steampunk - Currently sitting at 26K words, I believe I can wrap up it up in 10-15K words

3: Rule of Steel - YA steampunk, third book in a trilogy I've been working on with spies, an Irish empire, fairies inspired by Twelfth Night. Is at 46K words, should be able to finish it in 20-30K words.

4: Cyril : Sort of secret project. Currently just in beginning stages because of things. Need to finish ASAP.

5: Children of the Mountain: Adult fantasy, sitting at 17K words, an overhaul of a previous novel and sequel to another adult fantasy. Should be able to finish in 40-60K words

6:Are You Happy Now? - YA paranormal mystery - Started this end of December, I think it'll wrap up in 60K words or so, currently at 6K. Relatively hopeful.

7: The Merlin Cipher - Adult contemporary fantasy - Merlin's grand-daughter takes on Mordred. Basically. I needs to be finished. It's over the halfway point. 

Edit:

The only project I know I'll be editing majorly is Scout's Honor my Nanowrimo project from 2016. I've got a beta reader for the project and once feedback is in I'll start overhauling in preparation for possible submission.

Rule of Sword: Got the comments back from the lovely Chelsea, who beta-read this for me after the holidays, and once I've got a feel for where it needs help, I'll start on it. Not as exhaustive an edit as the other project, that's for sure.

Art: I need to get back into the habit of drawing or painting at least every week if not every day. We'll see how that goes.

The Truly Lofty Goal

Get an agent.


Well, that's it for work-related goals. I'm also hoping to finish some fanfics I have out there, meet at least one author in person for the first time and perhaps travel outside of the state. Fingers crossed.

Cheers.

PitchWars Commission Winners

Many of you expressed an interest in seeing all of the winner's portraits once complete. Here they are in order of completion.

Hershey for Jeanne Intrieri

Hansel for Olivia Chadha 

Bandit for Beka Olson

 

If you're wondering about your own pet portraits, hit up my sidebar, I Can Make You Art, located to the right of this post. Cheers!

Pitchwars and New Directions

It's kind of funny, since starting the PitchWars prep, I've been doing a lot of peripheral creation. Mostly with imagery. Which has been fun. I've gotten a much firmer handle on GIF usage, image curation and the like. I've created traditional art for Liadan in the past, utilizing illustration skills and testing out some different styles, but I'd never really toyed with cultivating a mixed media presentation of sorts. It's sort of fascinating actually, this mesh of words and images and tiny video clips that helps sell the story you're trying to explain.

 I've done a couple portraits of Liadan. One in a more illustrative style and one with more realism. The one on the left is a version of her that's older (around 14) while the one on the right I conceived closer to her age in A Matter of Mummies. I like both of them for different reasons and more importantly they helped me sort out her appearance and personality.

 Novel aesthetics are this sort of phenomenon that's emerged from the digital age of stock photos, screenshots and the millions of images available via search engines combined with free, easy to use image editing software. I've used one of them, but I prefer using Gimp. It's also free but it has a more Photoshop like feel.
 It's actually been really helpful for me, much in the way the portraits were. It made me focus on the atmosphere of my book and I even ended up adding in some descriptions I'd glossed over because I had a more definite idea of certain buildings.

I even learned about a new painter, which always makes me happy, and started working on Liadan's aesthetic for potential future books. In historical fiction, clothes can be everything. Liadan's disdain for hats I knew, but getting to look at extant garments for the era gave me ideas about what Liadan would look like a little older. What she'd wear, how she'd walk and sit and exist in space.

Images can be incredibly powerful and when you can combine art and words together it can spark new ideas and new creative venues. It certainly helped breathe new life into my creative process. So if I get nothing else out of PitchWars (and I've already made some new friends!) it's definitely been worth it.

Good luck to the mentee hopefuls and happy reading to the mentors!