Goal Progress Update

It’s been several weeks since I did an update on here.  Got some good excuses, which aren’t really excuses but reasons.  I’ll discuss them  as we go.  Ready?

Ok.

Week 6

I only got 2,248 words that week.  I was Mr. Mom, but interestingly enough I only got words written after my Mom left.  Odd.

Week 7

You’ll notice I didn’t get much written in week 7 until the middle of the week.  That’s when my better half came home.  Not sure how that correlation works.  It’s not like taking care of 3 kids is all that stressful or time consuming.  I blame watching too much TV and drinking too much wine.  Yeah, that’s it.

Week 8

Nada.

The thing to know about that week is it was the last week of an internation tactics course at my place of work.  A bunch of Australians flew into town to train with us.  I got out of playing with them the first two weeks because I took time off to deal with the family crisis.  But even if I’d wanted to, I could not get out of this week.  Because I am in charge of their course of instruction, and while the previous two weeks were classroom, this one was hands on.  We went underway on a couple destroyers for the night, flew back in a Navy helicopter, toured a few other ships, went to the Navy helicopter simulator, and generally had a great time.  And then on Saturday I flew to Japan for two weeks of exercises and training.  The fun thing about flying to Japan is that you get there a day after you left, because you’re flying west across the Date Line.  So even though I left in Saturday, I arrived (pretty late) on Sunday night.  So even if I’d had the energy to write that night, there would be no more writing that week.

Week 9

I hit the goal this week.  You’ll notice the writing was weighted toward the end of the week.  That’s because the exercise we ran in Yokosuka last week kept me busy.  And because after the exercise each night, we tended to go out and get dinner.  I mean drink.  Ok, both.  But we finished the exercise on Thursday, and I flew here to Okinawa on Friday.  We didn’t start the training here until yesterday, Monday in Japan (Sunday to people in the US).  So I had time to write.  And I did so.  It worked out well.  🙂

I’ll tell you what, I’ve not been to Okinawa since 1999.  I until last October, I hadn’t been to Yokosuka since 2000.  Things haven’t changed that much.  As before, I find I like Okinawa more.  It’s less cluttered and it’s tropical.  What’s not to like.  This trip, four of us are renting a cabin from the Navy WMR on White Beach, which is where CTF 76, the command we’re training, is stationed.  There’s not a lot on the base, but it’s a pretty nice place, nonetheless.  I’ll post some pictures a little later.

Long story short, I’m now a little behind on my annual goal.  I’m at 32,500 words written so far, in 2 months.  Do that math on that: if I continue at this pace it’ll take 19 months to complete my 300,000 word goal.  Fortunately, I’m not going to continue at this pace.  A lot of stuff went on at work and at home in January and February, but the busy season at work will be over soon, and that’ll help.  So I’m not panicking yet.

I’ve made a lot of progress on The Pericles Conspiracy.  I’ve also completed my vampire demon bunny story: it ended up at 25,500 word novella.  And I finished the cop story I started a long, long, long time ago: it came out to 4,300 words.  I named it Crossing The Line and  submitted it to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.  We’ll see how that works out, but I like how the story turned out.  So even if EQ doesn’t dig it I’m still happy.

🙂

Ok, getting back to writing now.  Cheers.