Thursday, February 2, 2012

Goals: I haz them.

I didn’t write a New Year’s resolution post because I didn’t feel like I’d achieved much in 2010/2011. I sorta figured I was hella lucky to have a novella out in 2012 and shouldn’t push that luck. Plus I go through this thing periodically where I feel like I suck.

Then an old friend sent me a card. Inside, she had cut and pasted (as in actually cut and pasted, with paper and scissors and—I assume—paste) a dozen little quotes and images that reminded her of me. It made me laugh. It totally made me feel like I didn’t suck.

So I got back to writing, and my short little bonus fic turned into another novella. Sold novella to publisher. Rocked out to The Offspring in my living room. Realized it was only January and that this could get interesting.

Below are a list of my goals for 2012. I’m going to do my best to achieve them. I’m not going to beat myself up over it if I don’t. I'm also going to be flexible and open to change.

I think it’s going to be a good year.

  • Updates to the website

    • I didn’t put up any additions to Best of Rowan’s Ramblings for 2011, and there were some pretty good ones. (Check: 2-16-11)

    • I’m thinking of doing a bit of a redesign to the overall look and navigation to the site. For a while there I never had more than three published books out at a time, but I’m up to seven now so I think it’s fair to say that the trend is good and over. My book list is starting to look a little unruly.

    • I’d also like to make the place more mobile friendly. As is, it doesn’t look too bad on phones because the original design took into account smaller laptop/monitor screens, but a mobile option could make things cleaner and easier to navigate on a phone.


  • Updates to Stories

    • This is the year I finish The Jascian’s Toy. I can feel it.

    • Write One Good Verse, which will bring the One Good series to three. I do like that number. Plus I’ve been working on it forever and I’m really digging the world right now.

    • Maybe Touching Fire: Asher's Magic. Asher Croft is so very hot and his story should be a lot of fun.

    • If things go well with Drayner series, #1: Just Perfect, maybe I’ll get the green light on #2: Just Wait, the rough of which is already done.

    • Get Want Me into e-book format. XD


  • Conventions

    • DragonCon, if any. I ditch it for something else this year there's a certain group of friends who will probably murder me in my sleep.


  • Blogging

    • I’m going to try and get into a regular schedule. Maybe {gasp} write a few posts ahead of time, so I can have them set to upload automatically. Most likely Thursdays. Of course, all bets are off if I’m on a roll with the story section above.

    • Post parts 2 and 3 of my 2011 YaoiCon wrap-up before YaoiCon 2012. *headdesk*



I think that’s the plan. There’s some tweaks I want to make to my own attitude, which brings us to one of the quotes my friend sent me:

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
--Marilyn Monroe


There was a time when I wrote fearlessly, when—no matter how crazy the idea—I would take what came to me and run with it. Didn’t matter whether it was thirty-five foot giant alien teenagers kidnapping humans to be their toys, or hell-bent roommates sucking the life out of the objects of their desire. They were the stories inside me, and I had every confidence I could tell them.

That’s the big goal. The one I’m going to work hardest on. I want to write madly, brilliantly, ridiculously. I want to be the person in that carefully crafted card.

And I want to have a blast doing it.

7 comments:

Allt said...

Those are some exciting goals! I'm especially happy at the possibility that I could be reading Asher's Magic sometime this year! Good luck, I'll be rooting for you and I'm really looking forward to reading more of your stories!

Rowan McBride said...

@Allt - Thank you! It should be a lot of fun!

Dave said...

I'm very excited to see that you feel like you're going to finish Jascian's Toy. I love that story and I'm curious to see where it all ends. There's something about the relationship between Blake and Gavin that just gets me.

Have you ever considered putting a contribute button on your blog?

Rowan McBride said...

@Dave - Ahh! With my writing habits, adding a contribute button is just asking for trouble. Money doesn't really motivate me (I like it, *need* it, but it doesn't do much to inspire me), and I'd hate for people to give their hard earned cash in the hopes that I'll write faster when it doesn't work that way for me.

But Blake and Gavin get to me, too, and I think that'll be more than enough motivation to finish the story. ;)

Dee said...

I am also excited at the prospect of reading Asher's Magic sometime this year! Paul's Dream is one of my favorites, and I am eager to see what comes next. I like the fact that in Paul's Dream the relationship between Paul and Kian is hot without being based on kink - I think it takes more writing talent to make gentle, sweet relationships exciting and passionate than relying on the 'naughty' factor associated with spanking and biting and so on. I look forward to seeing what you do next!

Rowan McBride said...

@Dee - Ohhh. I like biters. Seth was definitely one of those. lol.

My favorite part about Paul and Kian was that they both really, really wanted a relationship. It was just that neither of them had a clue as to how to go about building such a thing. XD

I'm very much looking forward to exploring the Asher/Zakai dynamic.

Dee said...

Kinky... now you're getting me excited! LOL

Oh, I enjoy it all, now and then. I just enjoyed coming across something that was a little different. I hope you are enjoying the writing and that you are satisfied with the way the story is turning out.

That way I can look forward to reading it soon!

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