Posts
8/2/2011
The busiest month of my life may be upon me. The month of August looks from the outset like it is going to be one of the busiest I have ever had in my entire life. If I can get through it in one piece and accomplish everything that I am setting out to accomplish, then I will truly be worthy of your praise and adoration. I may even be worthy or recruiting a couple minions. Not many mind you. But a few. If I can accomplish my goals for 2011 THEN, I will be worthy of a grand following of minions. I will limit this blog to just what I wish to accomplish this month.
I’ll begin with the items I am more or less obliged to do and move on to the items that mean the most to me, yet are somehow relegated to the “if I can get to them pile”. How is that cool? Life ain’t fair when we have to put off what we truly love and want to do in order to do the more mundane things that we have to do?
I’ve made a plan. And in order to swap these want to dos and have to dos, I am taking the next couple steps this month. But like I said, I’ll start with the have to dos, since that is still the stage of life I am in.
Have to dos.
1) 1) I must keep my accounting job, no matter how mundane it is. No matter how little a challenge it provides me. I am beyond the point in my career where I am actually looking for challenges. I will still accept new tasks when presented or offer help if it benefits a coworker – because I genuinely like my coworkers. I’m just not looking for any new challenges right now. Status quo is what I am all about for the remainder of the year. At least where the day job is concerned. I would like to add that I am scheduled for a business trip that is going to take me out of state for a week this month. As you read on, this may just be the death blow to all my “want to do” plans. But I am going to give it my bestest to not let it win. I can pull anything off.
2) 2) I have side consulting accounting work. This is somewhere in the no man’s land between have to and want to. In the purest sense of the word this is not a have to. I do not depend on this to survive. I will not, however allow it to interfere with anything that is going to follow . I feel an obligation to this company since they are the first company in San Antonio that gave me a chance. I don’t think I am going to be required more than 15-20 hours this week and possibly next week. Either way, that is good guaranteed $$ in the bank.
3) 3) My Saturday nights are claimed for an indefinite length of time. I will be slinging classic cocktails, such as Sazeracs and Moscow Mules, as well as contemporary masterpieces such as Cucumber Martinis and True Azuls. The Green Lantern bar is a great place to hang out. I get to drink all night for free and people pay me to make drinks for them. Kinda sounds like a “want to do” huh? I am loyal to the owner of the bar and my coworkers there, so I am going to put this in the “have to dos”. But just barely.
Want to dos.
4) 4) I am starting to bartend a couple nights a week (Thursday and Friday) starting next week at a new place for me. It is not a new bar (in fact it is the oldest bar on the San Antonio Riverwalk), but it is new for me. I will probably make in two nights what I make in one at the other bar. But still, I am not going to scoff at possibly another $1000/month.
5) 5) I will hash out the financial details with the artist I have been talking to about the cover of Just Another Zombie love story.
6) 6) I need to find a professional editor for Just another Zombie Love Story. I am not an English major. I’m an accountant. I just have a ton of stories locked in my head clamoring to get out. I need to find someone who is far better with the English language than myself to scrub my manuscript one more time.
7) 7) This is a tad out of order, but those last two just flowed together well. Before sending JAZLS to a professional editor I am going to scrub it at least four more times myself. I don’t want to send crap to an editor that has plot holes and plot contradictions. Hell, I have been known to switch character names halfway through a story. Time to move to the big leagues. Or at least Triple A.
8) 8) This brings me to my biggest focus for the month. The one item that is driving almost my entire existence at the moment. And with my ADDOS (Attention Deficit Dis… Oh Shiny), this is saying a lot, considering that I have wanted this for awhile now. I am going to write the sequel to JAZLS in the month of August. I know professional writers tend to frown upon NaNoWriMo(google it if you don’t know what it is), but I definitely use it as a motivating tool for writing. And until writing is an everyday thing for me, I need every bit of motivation I can get. My goal is 2500 words written in the manuscript every single day of the month. If I can average that, then I will have another completed first draft by the end of the month.
Would be nice to dos.
9) 9) Get to 1000 friends on Facebook. Instant market #1 for my book(s). I am actually almost there and this should be completed by this weekend with little effort.
10 10) Get to 2500 followers on Twitter. Instant market #2 for my book(s). This one is going to take a bit more effort, but as you can see from the above “to do” list, I do not shy away from effort. Besides, I am sort of addicted to Twitter right now. I just need to keep searching for the zombie loving horrorphiles in the Twittersphere.
So, all I ask is that you wish me luck and forgive me if I seem a tad on the grumpy side this month. But if I succeed in all these plans, then I will be taking applications for minions in the month of September.
Stay scared my friends,
My little Demon
Myltldmn@gmail.com
