Goals

Yesterday I wrote an entire screenful of stuff about the different independent publishing Facebook groups I belong to, and then I stopped and thought to myself "Wasn't I going to write about goals?" and I could not figure out how I got from my intended topic to the topic that ended up in the blog.

(Side note: 2020 is the first year when I considered whether I ought to be tested for ADHD. Is this normal?)

(Side side note: I stopped doing agility with the little dog -- back when we still had class -- because I thought she was having back pain, and then that cleared up, and she's able to get up the back stairs with the ramp, but she just walked by the couch and watching the way she moves her back legs -- I'm pretty sure she has proprioception issues, so yeah, spinal problems.)

(Other side note: Does you see why I've started wondering about ADHD? I do this shit all day long. It's exhausting.)

Anyhow, the reason the FB groups came up in relation to goals, is that a whole bunch of authors were talking about how they use yearly planners and other scheduling software to figure out their release schedules and how to stay on track. 

I do monthly goals (on the other blog), and weekly goals on a writers' Discord server, but even those I sometimes forget about. Planning for things a year in advance seems like an impossible task -- unless I'm looking for things to laugh at myself about.

So here, without any more diversions, are my 2021 goals that I am writing down so I can laugh at them in twelve months' time:

1.  Publish the sheep heist space opera trilogy. (Book 1 is written and has editing notes. Book 2 is mostly written. I know what happens in book 3. This may be possible.)
   
   
2. Write and publish books 2 & 3 in the Penelope Standing Mysteries. (The first one was a novella. I'm not sure how long the other two will be. In any case, they are a little faster to write.)
   
   
3. Don't adopt any more animals. (Trust me -- this is a stretch goal.)
   
   
4. Send out a newsletter at least four times. (Quarterly should be possible, right? Especially if I manage to hit this publishing schedule.)
   
   
5. ABSOLUTELY NO CHICKENS!
   
   
6. Make the back yard a more inviting place. (This may involve hiring someone who has a better design sense than I do. That's fine.)

That should do it. I suspect I'll have chickens and a new cat or dog by March, but we'll see how it goes.

Gratuitous Dog Picture

I need to start messing with photos again. These are such cheesy fun.