AugNoWriMo 2018 - The Round-Cheeked Moon

*I chose the poem above to head up this thread because where I live there's been a spectacular full moon for the last couple of nights, with little red Mars keeping her company.

Welcome to the August NaNo thread, where we state our goals for the month - writing and otherwise - and report on our progress while cheering our fellow posters on. Some of us are fresh from the July Camp Nano, with lots of brand new words to our credit. Some of us :raises hand:: ) had a less than successful Camp, but August is a whole new month and time for fresh starts.

As always, I'll start us off with my goals. The 4th book in my epic fantasy series comes out August 28th, so I'll be doing a fair amount of promo writing to prep for that. Since I only have a couple of small acting gigs, I'm hoping to get a LOT of writing done on the rough draft of the 5th book - so I've set what is, for me, a fairly ambitious writing goal. My gardens are all in wretched shape after a combination of neglect and too much rain, so getting them back in shape is a big goal. And I'm focusing once again on getting some of this stubborn excess poundage off my nether regions.

What's on YOUR to-do list for August?

[ ] Write 20k new words on rough draft of Book 5 - starting count 18,741
[ ] Write ten guest blogs/other promo for Book 4 virtual book tour - 0 of 10
[ ] Exercise at least 2 hours per week[ ] Lose five pounds - 0 of 5
[ ] Submit a short story somewhere
[ ] Write two blogs for my website - 0 of 2
[ ] Weed gardens - 0 of 2
[ ] Read two books - 1 of 2

Good to see so many people joining in for the August thread! Go go go everyone!

Not a bad start to the month. I wrote just over 700 words on Book 5, made some progress on the books I'm reading, and got in about an hour's worth of exercise - different kinds of exercise, too (weights, walking and swimming). Since this was just a partial week I'm going to call that particular weekly goal done.

[ ] Write 20k new words on rough draft of Book 5 - 735 of 20,000
[ ] Write ten guest blogs/other promo for Book 4 virtual book tour - 0 of 10
[ ] Exercise at least 2 hours per week[ ] Lose five pounds - 0 of 5
[ ] Submit a short story somewhere
[ ] Write two blogs for my website - 0 of 2
[ ] Weed gardens - 0 of 2
[ ] Read two books - 0 of 2

I re-read all the time, especially when I'm feeling particularly low energy. It's like visiting a trusty old friend.

Kjbartolotta said:

[ ]
[ ] Throw the dog a party (it's his anniversary). Discussing options, most likely going to walk him to Carl's Jr. and maybe a party hat. But it's happening!

Click to expand...

I want photos.

End of the first full week of August, and it was a trying one. Dead compressor on HVAC system = no A/C in 90-degree temps. Turns out the coil is going, too, so we're having to replace most of the system. We had a parade of estimators through the house all week, finally settled on one bid and now have to wait until Thursday for the installation. (Which I'll have to oversee because the hubs will be out of town.) Meanwhile we bought a small window a/c unit for the bedroom so we can sleep comfortably. We have plenty of box and oscillating fans, so the rest of the house is bearable as long as we keep oven use to a minimum and don't move around much.

The not moving around much part means I got no exercise and did no gardening this week. The prospect of getting hotter and sweatier when I was already hot and sweaty had no appeal. On the upside, I got a fair bit of writing done (most of it on the first sleepless night before we bought the a/c unit) and I submitted a short story. I also decided to use the email addys from my Rafflecopter giveaway entries to start a newsletter (I'm using the free Tiny Letter program), drafted up the first edition which will go out at the beginning of September, and decided on a second promo to start with the release of Book 4 at the end of this month. So in all, while I'm disappointed about the exercise fail, I'm happy with the rest of my progress.


[ ] Write 20k new words on rough draft of Book 5 - 2312 of 20,000
[ ] Write ten guest blogs/other promo for Book 4 virtual book tour - 0 of 10
[ ] Exercise at least 2 hours per week[ ] Lose five pounds - 0 of 5
[x] Submit a short story somewhere
[ ] Write two blogs for my website - 0 of 2
[ ] Weed gardens - 0 of 2
[ ] Read two books - 0 of 2

Jaymz Connelly said:

Haven't done much knitting either, because I've been fighting a headache all week. Man, I hate winter. I can't wait for shorts and t-shirt weather!

Click to expand...

I'd trade you. I'm not a big fan of summer.