Goals and Plans – Page 10 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

A not-so-obligatory New Year’s resolution

First of all, happy New Years! I hope you’re all looking forward to 2013 as much as I am. Last year was full of awesome life-changing experiences, but I have a feeling that this one is going to be even better.

So after chatting about resolutions with some old friends, I’ve decided that a good new year’s resolution should be more than just another mundane daily goal. Those are great, but you shouldn’t just set them at the beginning of the year and forget about them around February or March, you should adjust and rework them constantly no matter what time of the year it is.

Instead, a good resolution is some extraordinary task or challenge with a deadline of December 31st. Basically, it’s something from your bucket list that you hope to accomplish that year. Because it’s extraordinary, it’s not something that you forget in a month or two. And the deadline gives you a sense of urgency, so you don’t put it off for “someday.”

With that in mind, here’s my 2013 resolution:

Hike four of the seven peaks of Utah County.

I was originally going to go for all seven, but I’m not (yet) an experienced climber, and some of the peaks look a little difficult. Others, though, seem pretty doable. I’ve hiked Y Mountain several times, and got a chance to do a little hiking in Georgia. Four shouldn’t be too much, even with my relatively limited skill level right now.

Here are the seven peaks:

Of course, I’ll wait until June to make the first hike (probably Provo Peak). In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to get ready: eat healthy, climb a few smaller mountains, and otherwise get in shape for the big ones.

As far as writing goes, I’m going to go back on the early morning writing schedule and shoot for three hours of writing new words per day. My monthly goal is to start / finish / publish at least one thing, and my yearly goal is still to finish at least two novel-length works (2012 was Star Wanderers I-IV and Stars of Blood and Glory).

But it’s hard to call any of those goals resolutions, since most of them are probably going to change over the coming weeks and months. It’s hard to know exactly what life’s going to throw at me once I get back in Utah, so I’m going to stay flexible and just try to do the best I can.

I do want to publish Stars of Blood and Glory next month, and I think I can finish The Sword Keeper before then–if not, then definitely Star Wanderers: Benefactor. After that, I’d like to do a print version of Star Wanderers I-IV with some decent cover art. And Star Wanderers: Dreamweaver will probably be out sometime in the spring.

Beyond that, who knows? It all depends on where the muse takes me. One thing’s for sure, though–I’ll definitely keep writing.

Someday…

Someday I will settle down, probably in southern Utah or somewhere else in the American West. I will live with my wife and kids in a small house in the country, one that I’ve built with my own hands. It won’t be larger than 1,000 square feet, but we’ll have at least five acres of land–a small house with a big yard.

We will keep a sizeable garden and grow at least half of the food we eat. We’ll start with tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, and zucchini, then move on to other crops as our tastes change and our gardening skills improve. We will keep live chickens, and maybe a cow if it’s not too difficult. We will eat what we love, love what we eat, and live by the maxim: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

In the winter, we’ll stay warm with a wood burning stove. Everything in our house will all be centered around one main room, which will help to keep our family close. We’ll sleep in the loft, with the kids on the other side. Daddy’s writing space will be off in the corner, but not cut off from the rest of the family.

Our house will be well-insulated, so it will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We’ll get our water from a well on our property. Like good old-fashioned Mormons, we’ll grind our own wheat and bake fresh bread every week. We won’t own a lot of material things, but we won’t waste anything either. The people in our lives will always be more important than the things.

When we aren’t at home, we’ll be on the road. Our children will see the whole country, from the rolling hills of New England to the oil fields of West Texas, from the orchards of California to the skyscrapers of New York. My wife and I will have seen the world together, and we’ll visit our international friends as often as we can.

Above all else, we will be independent. No one will own us, and we’ll stay out of debt as much as possible. Our failures will be our own, as well as our successes. And when our friends and family need us, we’ll be there.

All of this will happen someday. That’s my dream. Someday soon, I’ll find a girl who shares this dream, and together we’ll make it a reality.

A Letter From My 2013 Self

So shortly after writing up my last blog post, I got an email from myself marked December 27, 2013. How freaky is that?I don’t know if it’s a glitch or a feature, but apparently in 2013, you can use gmail to send messages back in time.

In any case, the letter is pretty interesting, so I thought I’d post it. Here it is:

Dear Joe,

Well, it’s been an interesting decade so far, hasn’t it? Not a bad time to be alive–and that’s going to be even clearer by the end of 2013.

Right now, you’re still in the Republic of Georgia, anxious to get on that flight and head back home. Don’t be. You’re going to miss that place, even though it’s hard to feel that way right now. Your time there has changed you a lot more than you realize, though it’s going to take most of the year for you to figure that out.

You’ve picked up some bad habits, mostly from the other expats. Swearing is one of them. Clean up your language–it’s not going to do you any favors, especially back in Utah. Personal hygiene is another. Just because you could go for days without showering back in Rokhi doesn’t mean that you can get away with it in the States.

Money issues are on your mind right now. That’s good. You’ve learned how to be extremely frugal in the past two years, and that skill will serve you well. Don’t be afraid to get a crap job–that’s actually one of the best things you can do right now. The economy hasn’t improved much since you left, but if you look in the right places and speak with the right people, you’ll be able to make ends meet without too much trouble.

Remember, your writing career should be your main focus. Don’t go chasing after the dollar. You’ve experienced a taste of success in the last few months, and you’re going to taste it again. It comes in spurts, though, so be prepared for that. You’ll figure it out–in fact, you’re already most of the way there. Just remember to keep your butt in that chair, and you’ll be all right.

By the way, you really should spend more time on your business plan. Don’t just use it as motivation to write something else–that stuff is actually important. In Georgia, you can get away with winging it, but not in the States. That’s going to take some getting used to as well.

Your biggest anxiety right now is your supposed lack of self-discipline. That’s actually not as much of a problem as you think. After spending a year in Georgia, you might feel incapable of working another honest day in your life, but that feeling will soon pass. In fact, 2013 is going to be a very productive year for you. All that self-discovery is going to pay off in a big way soon. So don’t worry about it so much, and remember, you haven’t written your best book yet.

Perhaps the most important thing about your year in Georgia is that it really lit a fire under your butt. You know what I’m talking about. If you can travel alone to a foreign country, you can work up the courage to ask her out. No, I’m not going to tell you who. You’ll know her when you see her. But you may have to trim the beard. Just sayin’.

You won’t spend the entire year back in the States, but when you do go overseas again, you won’t be alone. No, I won’t tell you who you’ll go with, or where. Some surprises are better left unspoiled.

There’s more I could tell you, but that’s enough for now. You’ll figure things out on your own, same as you always have. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Follow the path of least regret.

Joe

A Letter To My 2011 Self

Dear Joe,

Well, 2011 has been an eventful year, hasn’t it? It sure didn’t feel like it when you were down in the trenches, but now that it’s over, you’ve got to admit, you sure came a long way.

You’ve discovered a lot of things about yourself since January. In your quest for economic security, you’ve learned that you’d rather work for yourself as a freelancer than be anyone else’s employee. You took the plunge and self-published, something you thought you’d never do (and yes, it’s okay to call it ‘self-published’–the stigma will be dead in another year). You attended your first Wordcon, made a couple of cross-country road trips, worked a ton of crap-jobs just to make ends meet, and now you’re on your way out of the country to try your hand teaching English. It sure seems like a lot, doesn’t it? Just wait. Next year is going to be just as full of changes, though it won’t always seem like it at the time.

I know, I know–cut to the chase and give me some advice already. Well, looking back on what you’re going to go through in 2012, here’s what I have to tell you.

First, don’t stress out so much about the whole self-publishing thing. You’ll figure it out all right. No, I can’t say whether you’re going to hit the turning point before the end of the year. In fact, that’s not even a healthy way to look at it, so stop thinking about it that way. Follow the slow growth model, and don’t angst about sales or price points so much. Keep your butt in that chair, because writing new words is still the most important thing you can do.

Don’t beat up on yourself so much for failing to meet your ridiculously high goals. You’re going to write a novel in the next six weeks, and the rest of the year is going to be a struggle. Right now, you place too much emphasis on your daily word count. Relax a bit, and don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve still got a lot to learn about your own creative process, so take the time to figure it out.

By the way, you totally rock the beard. Growing it out was a great idea, no matter what your sisters told you back in 2010.

About your upcoming excursion to Georgia, the best advice I can give you is to remember what Spencer told you back in 2008. Adventures are like stories–they each have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You’re going to experience all of that in the next year. No, you probably won’t write another travel journal. Most of your experiences are going to be too personal for that kind of thing anyway. You’re going to accomplish all of your goals, though, so don’t worry–things are going to be just fine.

The most important thing you can do is keep yourself grounded spiritually. I know, I know, that’s always the most important thing. Well, it’s especially true now. Where you’re headed, you’re not only going to be the only Mormon, but the first Mormon to live there. Sundays are going to be a struggle. Everyone is going to think you’re crazy because you don’t drink. You’re going to make wine, though, and that’s going to be an interesting story for your friends back in Utah. Just be sure to keep doing the things you know you should be doing, and everything will turn out all right.

You’re going to love teaching English. Oh, you won’t love everything about it, but it’s something you’re naturally good at, so don’t worry about that. Just try to listen to your Georgian co-teachers and be more considerate of them. And don’t worry about the language. You’ll pick it up pretty quick. Just realize that Georgian verbs are impossible to conjugate unless you’re a native speaker.

I could tell you what your biggest mistake is going to be, but I think it’ll be better if you go ahead and make it. Just be sure to hope for the best, even as you plan for the worst. Follow the path of least regret, and you’ll make some really awesome memories–not to mention some truly amazing friendships.

At this point, I’d tell you you’re on the right path, but that isn’t exactly true. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ path for you right now, but you’re on a good one, so keep it up and see it through to the end. You’ll be glad you did.

Take care!

Joe

Summer recap and new goals

So back in June I made a to do list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer. I’ve only got a week left before I go overseas again, and I’m happy to say I’m on track to finish most of them. A couple of them (such as doing a blog tour and submitting aggressively to book bloggers) I decided weren’t worth my time, and dropped them, but these are the major things I’ve accomplished:

Release print-on-demand editions of Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars through CreateSpace.
Redo cover art for Bringing Stella Home.
Redo blurb/description for all titles.
Put proper copyright page in all titles.
Publish all titles on Kobo Writing Life.
Find a better way to build an ebook and reformat all titles.
Finish the second draft of Stars of Blood and Glory.
Finish and publish parts I and II of Star Wanderers.

The only major thing I haven’t accomplished is figuring out how to sell ebooks directly from my website. I figure I can set that up later, though, when I’ve got a large enough readership to justify it. If it’s all online, I can probably do it from anywhere.

While I was vacationing with my family on Cape Cod, I had a chance to step back and take a long look at what I’m doing with my life, which helped me to set some new goals and get a renewed sense of direction. I stopped tracking my daily writing word counts in July, which threw off my productivity a lot more than I thought it would. After setting some long-term goals, though, I think I can find a better way to structure my writing.

In ten years (2022), I want to…

have 25+ published novels.
earn a solid middle-class income through my writing.
be married and have kids.
own a house.
live in the United States.

My lifetime goal is to publish 100+ novels, which is actually a lot more doable than it sounds. It means writing a minimum of two novels a year, though, so I’m going to have to follow Heinlein’s rules a lot closer than I have been in the past. That’s the trouble with keeping a daily word count: it made me look a lot more productive when I was in revisions, so I spent more time doing that than writing new work.

In three years (2015), I want to…

have at least 10 published novels.
make enough with my writing not to need another job.
be married or engaged.
have lived for at least three months in 3+ countries (not including USA).

I want to settle back down in the States eventually, but before that I want to get around and see the world a bit. The absolute coolest thing would be to marry another world traveler and make enough on the writing to have a bunch of adventures together. I’m not sure if I’ll find her in Georgia, but I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open.

As for short-term goals, I’m still trying to work them out. Here’s what I have so far:

Quarterly Goals:

Start at least 2 new projects.
Finish at least 2 first drafts.
Publish at least 2 titles (print and ebook counts as two).

I think this is enough to stretch me while still being doable. By my count, in the first quarter of this year I did 2-2-1, in the second quarter I did 2-2-0, and in the current quarter, I’m at 2-0-5 so far. Of course, this includes all the Star Wanderers novelettes and novellas, which I hope to expand in the future.

I’m not going to count revisions as progress, except as part of the publishing stage. Some stuff needs a lot of revision, other stuff, not so much. What I really want to do is train myself to produce high quality work on the first or second write-through. Of course, I’ll still use test readers to gauge my work before publishing anything.

Monthly Goals:

Finish at least 2 projects (first draft or revision).
Write at least 15k words of new material.

I can write a lot more than 15k words in a month, of course, but I figure this is a good starting point. The key is that this is for new material. When I looked back at my word counts, I found that months of revision would go by before I actually worked on something new. I want to change that, but I still need to allow for longer projects that might require several weeks of revision (while emphasizing the need to produce new material, of course).

Weekly/Daily Goals:

Keep all project deadlines.
Start each day with writing.

I’ve found that if I don’t start off each day with writing, I keep putting it off until I’ve spent more time and energy angsting about it than actually doing it. For a short period of time this summer, I put my butt in the chair and my hands on the keyboard first thing after waking up (even before getting dressed). It was amazing how much of a difference that made.

Beyond that, I’m not really sure what other goals to set. I want to plan things out on a project to project basis, but beyond that I haven’t yet figured out what kind of a daily structure I need to build.

It’s probably a good idea to keep things flexible at this point, though, since I have no idea what my schedule is going to be like once I’m in Georgia. I do know a little bit about my next placement–more on that later–but for the first half of September, I’m going to be all over the place. Ani, Tusheti, Kars, Akhaltsikhe, Tbilisi, Baghdati, and Istanbul–it’s going to be crazy!

For this next week, my goal is to finish the revisions for Star Wanderers: Sacrifice (Part III) and send that out to my beta readers. I’ve been struggling with it all month, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of where I need to go with it. I’m going to finish chapter 3 tomorrow, then rewrite chapters 4 and 5 from scratch.

After that…another Caucasian adventure! 🙂

Stars of Blood and Glory 2.0 is finished!

On Tuesday, I finished the second draft of my latest writing project, Stars of Blood and Glory! Here are the basic stats:

words: 78,746
pages: 372
chapters: 20, epilogue, and prologue
start date: 3 July 2012
end date: 24 July 2012

Also, this is probably really dorky, but I made a logo for the title:

They say to use only Courier or Times New Roman in your manuscript, but whatever. I think it looks pretty cool.

This was a lightning-fast revision, compared with the ones I did for Bringing Stella Home and Desert Stars. Part of that is because I want to try and follow Heinlein’s rules more closely. I recently looked back at how I’ve spent my writing time over the past three years, and found out that as much as 3/4ths of it was tied up in revisions, not in producing new material. Yeah…that’s something that needs to change.

For this draft, I resisted the urge to do a line-by-line edit, and instead focused on rearranging the scenes in their proper order and inserting new ones that were essential to the story but missing from the first draft. That’s probably why it only took three weeks to finish.

I don’t think there are any glaring holes in the story, but if my first readers find any, I’ll probably do another scene rearranging draft much like this one. If they give me the green light, though, I’ll do a quick pass to fix any errors and send it off to my editor to start the publication process.

Two things about Stars of Blood and Glory have really surprised me: first, how little time it’s taken to write it (two months for the first draft, a little less than one for this one), and second, how short it is. Even with five viewpoint characters, it’s less than 80k (Bringing Stella Home was 110k). The pacing feels right, though, so that’s probably its natural length–it’s just that I seem to be writing shorter and shorter novels lately instead of longer ones. Maybe it has something to do with all those David Gemmell novels I love to read.

There’s more I could say, but I don’t want to bore you guys too much. Besides, you probably want me to move on to the next one.

My next writing project is Star Wanderers: Part II, which should take me about a week to revise and another week or two to finalize and publish. If any of you want to help me proofread the final draft, let me know–I’m willing to exchange services and/or give you a free copy.

In the meantime, I’d better get back to writing.

Form rejection and WOTF closure

So I finally got an email from the Writers of the Future contest. It reads:

Dear Entrant,

Your story has now been judged and did not win or place in the 1st quarter. Even though you have never had to wait for results in order to submit for the next quarter, this hopefully gives you incentive to submit again. The more often you enter, the better chance you have of winning, and improving your skills.

I do urge you to join our forum if you have not already, or subscribe to our judge, David Farland’s newsletter. Lots of great tips at both locations to help you.

I do hope you are already working on that next story and do let me know that you did get this e-mail.

Best regards,

Joni Labaqui

I’m not going to lie: it’s a pretty disappointing way to end an 8+ month wait. But when you’re a writer, rejection is just a normal part of the business. I was hoping to get at least an honorable mention, but oh well.

Stories are fundamentally subjective: what might work really well for one reader might not for another. The important thing is to write the best stories that you can, and to send them out into the world until they grow into their audience. I still feel confident that Star Wanderers represents some of my best work to date, so I plan to make it available as soon as I can.

I’m flying back to the States on Friday, but Part I is already edited and formatted, so I’ll probably publish it over the weekend. In the meantime, I’ll finish the first draft of the complete novel somewhere between Tbilisi and New York. That’s one good thing about the long wait–it helped me to finish the story and work out some of the kinks before publishing it.

So yeah, the WOTF rejection is a bit of a setback, but at the same time, it’s also quite liberating. All I really wanted was to get this story out to the readers, and now I can finally do that! If you like my other stories, I think this is one you’re really going to enjoy.

Expect to hear more about it soon!

Blurb and cover for Star Wanderers

So the first quarter finalists for the Writers of the Future contest were finally announced (finally!), and I wasn’t among them. Oh well. But the good news is that I can move ahead now to publish part 1 of Star Wanderers!

First, though, I need to work out a killer blurb. This is what I’ve got so far:

When Jeremiah arrived at Megiddo Station, all he wanted was to make some trades and resupply his starship. He never thought he’d come away from the frontier outpost with a wife.

Before he knows it, he’s back on his ship again, alone with his accidental bride. Since neither of them speak the same language, he has no way to tell her that there’s been a terrible mistake. And because of the deadly famine that has ravaged her home, there’s no going back either. The only way forward lies across a dozen parsecs of cold, empty space.

Jeremiah wasn’t looking for someone to keep him warm on the long voyages, and he certainly isn’t ready to settle down. He’s a star wanderer, roaming the Outworlds in search of his fortune. But there’s a dark side to his wandering–a loneliness that threatens to destroy him. His unexpected passenger may be willing to end that, but how can she when they barely understand each other?

So what do you think? Does it tickle your fancy? Are you intrigued to read more? Or are you thinking it’s kind of “meh”? Any feedback would be much appreciated, even if it’s just “this reminds me of _____.”

By the way, here’s the cover:

I’m experimenting a lot with this next novel. The plan is to release it in a serial format first, then publish the full-length novel once I’ve serialized the sequel (more of a parallax actually. The tentative title for that one is Star Home, and it’s the story from the girl’s perspective).

Here’s how I plan to publish it:

Release Part I for $2.99.
Give newsletter subscribers a two week coupon code on Smashwords to download Part I for free.
Release Part II for $2.99 and drop Part I to free.
Give newsletter subscribers a two week coupon code on Smashwords to download Part II for free.
Release Part III for $2.99 and drop Part II to $.99. Keep Part I at free.
Give newsletter subscribers a two week coupon code on Smashwords to download Part III for free.
Release Part IV for $2.99 and drop Part III to $.99. Keep Part II at $.99 and Part I at free.
Give newsletter subscribers a two week coupon code on Smashwords to download Part IV for free.
Publish the full-length novel at $4.95.

This way, no one has to pay more than five bucks for the whole thing, and people who subscribe to the newsletter get a really sweet deal. There shouldn’t be more than a month or two between release dates–Part II is almost ready to go, and I plan on finishing the complete first draft in the next couple of days.

So yeah, that’s the plan. I’m excited to finally get this story out to you! I really had a blast writing it, and I think you’ll enjoy reading it, especially if (like me!) you’re a fan of science fiction romance.

More to come!

Quick update (yes, I’m still alive)

I just had an awesome weekend. Saw the most amazing cave complex of my life, toured Kakheti o a TLG excursion, met a bunch of really cool people, and hung out with them in Tbilisi for a while. I’ll have to save all that for another blog post, though, probably in a couple of days.

Rumor has it that the judging was finished for the first quarter Writers of the Future contest over the weekend, and all the finalists were contacted. I didn’t get a call or an email, so I’m probably not a finalist this time around. Oh well.

In any case, I’m very much looking forward to getting the results so that I can finally publish this dang story! It’s been way too long since I published anything, and while there have been reasons for that (moving to another country, starting a second career), I really need to be publishing new stuff more regularly.

Here’s what I want to publish before the end of the year:

First and second parts of Star Wanderers (my Writers of the Future story). This is a novel I plan to publish in four parts, with each part being its own self-contained story. I blogged about it a while ago…more on that later.
A companion novella to Desert Stars. This is still just in the planning stages, but there’s plenty of backstory to draw from, and I really would like to revisit that corner of the Gaia Nova universe.
Either Heart of the Nebula or Stars of Blood and Glory.

That last one is going to be an ambitious undertaking, since both of them are still in the alpha-reading phases right now. Also, I don’t now whether I’ll have regular access to a reliable source of electricity in the fall, which will further complicate things. However, I do believe it’s possible to put out one or the other before the end of the year, though probably not both.

All of this is still up in the air, though, and I can’t promise anything except to get Star Wanderers: Part I up as soon as the results come in for the Writers of the Future contest. It’s already formatted and ready to go, just need to fine tune the blurb and hit “publish.”

And of course, before I move on to any of these other projects, I have to finish the one I’m currently working on. So so long! I’m off to the library to write.

Summer To Do list

They say that the three main perks to being a teacher are June, July, and August, and that’s as true for TEFL teachers as it is for any other kind. I’m spending June in Georgia, but for July and August, I’ll be back in the States. Instead of vacationing, though, I plan to be working hard at my main career, which is writing.

Here’s what I hope to accomplish:

Set up a separate business checking account.
Release POD editions of Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars.
Set up an online bookstore to sell direct.
~~Redo cover art for~~ ~~Bringing Stella Home.~~ Completed 2 June 2012.
Redo blurbs for all titles.
Identify and submit Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars to prominent sf&f book bloggers.
Organize a summer blog tour.
Research translation options for all titles.
Put proper copyright pages in all titles.
Track down all invoices and royalty statements.
Switch to the new Kobo publishing platform.
Fill out all sections in business plan.

The list might seem a little daunting, but two months should be enough to do most of it, especially considering that I don’t really have any other obligations. Basically, I want to get everything done that needs to be done in the States, then get back out and spend the rest of the year abroad.

As for writing, don’t worry! I plan to do that too, as always. Here’s what my project list currently looks like:

Finish the unnamed WOTF project and start publishing it serially.
Finish the 3.0 draft of Heart of the Nebula.
Send out Stars of Blood and Glory to first readers.
Get ready to start Edenfall in the fall.

That last one might be of interest to fans of Genesis Earth. The reason I haven’t finished Edenfall yet is because…well, this might sound kind of wishy-washy, but it’s because the story hasn’t really called out to me. For that reason, I decided to put it off and work on other projects that have.

Recently, however, I’ve started to feel the whispering of an intimation that it’s time–that the story is almost ready to come onto the page. Once it does, I have a feeling that it’s going to be quick–much like the first draft of Genesis Earth.

It’s hard to tell, though, and it may still be too early to know for sure. The unnamed WOTF project has something to do with it, as well as living here in Georgia. I have a feeling that rereading Genesis Earth is going to make everything fall into place, but it’s impossible to say. I’ll try doing it at the end of the summer, after I’ve cleaned up my plate a bit, and see what happens from there.

Gah, this sounds so wishy-washy! I’m a professional writer, after all–why can’t I just pound words out on demand? But as a creative-type, I’ve learned that that just isn’t the way I work. There’s such a thing as starting a book too early, and for Edenfall to really shine, I feel like I need to give it a little more time–just a little.

I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting, but don’t worry! I definitely haven’t forgotten about it. And once Edenfall comes to me, I have a feeling that the final book in the trilogy, The Stars of Redemption, won’t be far behind.

That’s the plan for now, anyway. It’s definitely going to be a busy summer!