Not much writing happening this week, between the holidays and hosting family and friends. We decided “new state, new traditions,” and started by inviting neighbors over for a drop-in open house on Christmas Eve. While we kept the menu fairly simple–a few appetizers, snacks, and cupcakes–there was still plenty to do to prepare, plus we needed to wrap gifts. And wow, what weather! We wrapped gifts outside on our deck! Can’t say I ever did that in Ohio, though we hear it was unseasonably warm there too.
We had no idea if many (any?) would come to our Christmas Eve drop-in, as a lot of people are busy that night with family, but over a dozen people showed up on Tuesday night, and we had a great fun just hanging out and getting to know our neighbors a little better. Our daughter and her partner arrived that evening too.
They love coming to our new place in Tennessee, which makes us feel really good. On Christmas, after we opened a few gifts (we kept that simple, too), we did a little hiking on the property, and DH taught our daughter’s partner how to drive the tractor and let her bush-hog, which she thoroughly enjoyed! Christmas dinner was simple as well as delicious–our usual traditional ham and twice-baked potatoes, with green beans and biscuits.
We spent the next few days with them, trying out a couple of new-to-us restaurants and a local brewery, which made for a fun and relaxed few days. On Friday night, more friends from Ohio came in, and we made use of our secondary guest space in my office. Our daughter and partner took off the next morning, and we spent the day doing some shopping and sightseeing with our friends.
The weather has been amazingly warm and nice all week. Our friends left this morning, so DH and I went for a motorcycle ride, just doing a little exploring in our part of the county. It seems crazy to be able to do such a thing in December!
What I’ve Been Reading
I still managed to read a little every night before bed, even with guests. I’ve been reading through a big box set that I probably won’t discuss in detail, as I didn’t like one of the books in it. Nothing wrong with it, just not to my taste. I am enjoying the others–pretty typical sword and sorcery fantasy fare.
What I’ve Been Writing
I set a very low goal this week, given the holidays. I did not plan to write while we had guests, but I did get to it on Sunday and Monday, and met my goal. This week, I’m going to shoot for 250 words, for four days, as New Year’s comes right in the middle of the week and I don’t yet know what we’re doing for that holiday (if anything).
2019 Goal Wrapup
This pretty much sums up how well I met my admittedly crazy writing goals, given the move:
I wanted to finish my current WIP. I got about 20,000 words written on it, most of which were written before the move. Heck, I’m just glad I got anything at all written since then! Here were my other goals, which I didn’t detail out in my initial goals post at the end of last year, but that I did write down elsewhere:
- Finish writing Time’s Guardian – DONE
- Finish writing Time’s Judgement – this is the current WIP. See GIF above.
- Complete at least one WMG workshop per quarter – DONE!
- Read The Copyright Handbook – Nope
- Attend WMG Business Master Class in Las Vegas in October – YES!
- Send out one newsletter per month until giveaway books are gone; at least one newsletter afterward in 2019 when there’s news (ideally, quarterly) – uh, I did one books giveaway and took the rest to the library. There hasn’t been any news to speak of on the writing from since, so no newsletters.
- Keep track of books read, including business and other nonfiction, and those not finished – Yep. I read 35 books this year, plus TONS of blogs.
So, I guess I would consider that kind of a mixed bag, though better than I expected. I’ll take it!
ROW80 doesn’t start back up until next week, so I’ll post about my 2020 goals then.
What about you–how were your holidays, if you celebrate them? Did you stick to old traditions, or work in something new? How did you do on your 2019 goals? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you. And have a happy New Year!
Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.