The Commitment Report

This last week was probably one of the busiest, most productive weeks I’ve had in a long time. Moving forward anxiously with edits, writing and work, I had a lot on my plate in the last seven days, and though there were times I felt too full to keep going, I kept at it and prevailed.

Last Saturday and Sunday, while out walking the dog, I started chewing on this really cool idea for a short story. By the time I woke up Monday morning, I had outlined most of it in my head. I shared the idea with James, who offered feedback and his thoughts, then I started writing. By the time mid-afternoon rolled around, I had written just over 1500 words, and I hadn’t even started my workday yet.

Later that evening, I shared the idea with my friend Acadia. Acadia offered some feedback as well, helping me get around a point where I felt a little stuck with the moving forward of the plot, and I dove back in. Before bed, I had just around 2100 words. Not bad for a full work day and lots of other things going on.

Monday night, I went to bed feeling rather pleased with myself. Tuesday, I woke up ready to dive back in, and wrote another 600 words before kicking off my work day. The story was coming along nicely, and I felt good. w00t!

Then I had the dream. All I can tell you is there were vampires and some weird neck shackles. I woke up feeling a little intrigued and a lot inspired. I started writing a second story within an hour of waking up and processing the idea over coffee. By ten-thirty Wednesday morning, I wrote about 1200 words on the second short story.

In total, I wrote just over 5000 fictional words this week. I got some edits done on Goblin Market and started weeding through the From the Dark Side anthology submissions. I am hoping to begin formatting this week, so I can get the anthology moving forward. It’s going to be exciting.

I also started work on another new blog called KidGalore.com. I’ll be covering family, parenting and kid-related news over there every day from Monday through Friday, so if you’re a parent or you just like to stay in touch with family-type news, please subscribe to the RSS over there, and don’t be afraid to leave a comment if you see something that stirs or riles you up.

In non-writing-related commitment news, I did something really cool this weekend. I blogged about it last night… but I’m still gushing over it. I drove all the way from Pennsylvania to Toronto, Ontario yesterday afternoon/evening all by myself. Even cooler than that? We discovered about 1/4 the way through the journey the GPS we brought along did not have International routing maps or capabilities. We didn’t print out directions, but I felt confident enough that if I could just get to the border, I’d be a-okay. And I was. Go me! Scoff if you will, but I’m incredibly proud of myself. I have never driven that kind of distance by myself before, and most certainly not without a map. I have also never driven in a city as large as Toronto before because I live in a rural area of PA and there isn’t exactly a lot of traffic even in Williamsport rush hour.

Overall, it’s been an awesome week. I got a lot achieved with minimal stressage and I feel really good about everything. Life is good, and this week is going to be even more awesome. I can already feel it.