Friday Fiver

1. Oh the weather outside is frightful . . . and I have to go out in it today to run errands. Blech.

2. Found my Laurie Lewis book "What to Charge" in a box packed last summer in preparation for our now non-move. If you are a freelancer and struggle with charging enough or keeping track of how long it takes you to do things, this book is for you.

3. Am on the hunt for a new tv. Using Todd's little 20-inch is going to make me blind. I finished the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy yesterday and the hobbits were totally smaller than I remember them.

4. We're going to play in the snow this weekend if everyone's schedule cooperates. Probably snow-tubing, then a nice warm meal at the Rock restaurant. I need to go make sure my ski pants still fit.

5. Constant Chatter exploded. I never went there anyway, but what a mess. So LJ is jam-packed and I can't find my real friends list anymore.

Happy Friday!

Currently reading: The Beautiful and the Damned (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Currently listening to: Elgar

I Am So Excited and the January 2008 List

We are four weeks away from Season 4 of LOST, by far the best and greatest show on television (well, okay, House and Scrubs are good too and I do watch ER; hey I work in the medical publishing field and it's interesting to me) that will return to our lives for eight episodes. Short, but sweet. Oh so sweet.

Things are moving job-wise for both hubby and myself. Changes in responsibilities (in a direction that both of us are really excited about: project management for him and focus on craft and style of copyediting for me) in both jobs that neither of us really expected but are super grateful for. Just maybe I can spend less time thinking about my job when I'm not at work and more time thinking about my writing. Wouldn't that be nice!

Just five more sections in one of my revision books left (the pile is shrinking) and already I have just soaked up all I've learned about craft. Love it!

I just made a January 2008 goal list:

Revise novel for the editor I hired.
Move this blog to a more secure platform (my www.trishlawrence.com domain using WordPress).
Finish building and finally launch my corp writing site (www.realbrilliantcopy.com).
Utilize my virtual assistant (VA) for data entry (required for the corp site to become a success).
Get the next batch of editorial postcards out and the eZine updated.
Decide if I want to add blogs to both those sites.
Write the corp writing eZine.
Resume daily study schedule for CLEP and DANTES testing, which are coming up too quickly.
Write 1,000 words seven days a week. Spend 1-2 hours on weekdays on craft (double that on weekends if I can).

Decision:
I am not going to hire another editor to review that other novel until I have gotten the feedback from this initial novel review. Need to stay on course and that means focus on craft and prepare to make revisions. I am paying a lotta money for feedback, and must take advantage of it.

Truthfully, I think the January list is too much. But the guilt I will have for not doing it will slay me and it will get done but will slug into February/March for sure. However, for now I won't rename it the Q1 priority list solely for motivation purposes.

Little progress doing little tasks make this list doable. And this is my chance. The WGA is still on strike, I have no kids, and if I'm studying, hubby will study. And we both need to keep moving forward!

Currently reading: Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)
Currently listening to: iTunes store demos (got a 25-buck iTunes giftcard to spend; thanks D!)

Happy 2008!

And we're back to it. I admit to delighting in rolling up my sleeves this morning to get back to work, even though I didn't really want to get out of my warm bed.

And . . . there's a Christmas tree set in the middle of our culdesac with a sign that says "LOST! Can you help me find my home?"

Enjoyed a wonderful holiday watching movies and listening to music and reading really good books, but the icing on the cake was hosting my family (minus my bro who was visiting friends) for a few days. We watched a few movies (baby niece swayed to the music every time), read books, listened to more music, and ran out of drinking glasses and bath towels a few times, right?

The fun of NYE was having our television die, the Ratatouille dvd not want to play, and the baby niece refusing to take a nap and getting the giggles at about 11 pm. THAT was fun. Of course then she conked out, got woke up by the canons and fireworks and yelling neighbors and wouldn't go back to sleep until around 2 am, but all in all, she was pure fun. Wiki-puka-teo!

I wrapped up a batch for a client yesterday, but today is officially back to the to-do list. It's good. I get to wrap up everything in the first week of January and then chart out a schedule. I've got an editor lined up for a revision end of January/February and I'm very excited about that. I'm actually toying with the idea of having another editor do a revision review on another novel draft that's been sitting for a few years. Must think more on that.

And we're going off sugar and caffeine for ten weeks. I began siphoning myself off of it yesterday and today will be the true test (no one here to make sure I don't partake!). Wish us luck!

And with that, I'll bid you adieu for today.

Currently reading: Twilight (Stephenie Meyer)
Currently listening: Oakenfold 2007 remix