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RESOLVED! 2 for 1/2! Plus Upgrades

1/2/2017

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It feels good to be off to a great start writing in the new year. 

And so far, two of my resolutions are checked off.

First, I wanted to write more blog posts, and although I did not specify and make any certain plans known in my original resoultion post, secretly I made a challenge to myself to write (and publish) a piece for three consecutive days. Today's post is the third. 

I'm not sure I'll be able to continue writing daily posts once I start working both jobs again (and, Goddess help me, I'm considering trying to start freelancing in editing and proofreading as a third job). But the challenge I have set for myself is at least one per week. 

The other resolved resolution was writing more creative fiction and poetry. My grandmother always said that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you will do for the rest of the year. So I worked on and completed a poem from my Priority WIP poem list (more on that in another post). I also started, but didn't finish, a new poem and some future blog posts. 

Today, I will begin fulfilling another of my goals for the year. I will choose a book on writing and editng craft from the five I picked out from my collection of books on craft that I was either given or bought, but haven't yet read. Everyday, I plan to read a chapter or two from each of the five books. Today, I have chosen to read the first chapter of a book that has been on my shelf since shortly after I moved into my current apartment four years ago. Revision and Self-Editing is written by James Scott Bell and published by Writer's Digest Press. I think I got it for some ridiculously low price when I subscribed to Writer's Digest.

There are also some upgrades to my resolutions. I intend to seek out opportunities for beginning my editing and proofreading career. I hope to save enough money to be able to have my first paying issue of The Were-Travler (information, here). I am hoping to soon sign on to a monthly membership of the gym at the high-rise office building where my new office at the public media company will be located. I want to keep losing weight and feel better. I plan on a long long overdue visit at the dentist (as soon as I get some decent dental insurance) and do something about these awful broken and painful teeth of mine. 

That's it, folks. Just a few excited lines of success in the first week of the new year. I am hoping to receive some long awaited news about some poetry and fiction submissions made in the past. A nice acceptance email would be a great harbinger of 2017. I would blog about that, for sure. 

I hope your pursuits will all be successful as well. 

Peace--

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J.K. Rowling: "The Fringe Benefits of Failure"

1/1/2017

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A shorter clip of this was posted on Facebook earlier in the year, and it resonated with me. So I decided to watch the longer version of the YouTube clip of a commencement speech given by J.K. Rowling on the subject of the unexpected benefits of failure. 

The beginning of the New Year is typically the time we begin to re-evaluate the past year and make up our minds to better ourselves in the future. But we often have difficulty admitting defeat, even to ourselves, because in our modern society failure carries a negative connotation rather than a positive one. But perhpas it should be different. It's normal to feel some negativity and self-loathing after failing, but that should not last long. It should be soon followed by positive re-focusing of one's energies to strive to be better next time. Joanne nails these points in her own brilliant way. 

It's a little longer than the clip posted on Facebook, but well worth watching. The author of the famous Harry Potter series talks about the most valuable lesson she ever learned in one of the best commencement speeches I've ever heard. 

I've been meaning to post this talk of Joanne's for awhile now, but today it hits home more, so I'm finishing this post and sharing it with the world. Because sometimes you need silver linings when the rainbow fades to pale. 

​May we shoulder onward through our defeats and come out victorious in the end!
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New Year's Ressies for 2017

12/31/2016

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Happy End of 2016! Sayonara, you crap excuse of a year!  Here’s my plan for the coming year:
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  1. I know I say this every damn year, but I really need to blog more. My last post was two months ago on October 3rd. That is unacceptable. I need to find things to say and freaking say them, on my web log. End of. This will be a priority. To blog weekly or every other week.
  2. Read more. I had a reading goal of 100 books on Goodreads in 2016 and I fell well short of that goal. I hang my head in sorrowful shame. There are a few books I am determined to read this coming year, books that will strengthen me as a writer/poet, editor, proofreader, and publisher. I want to read a chapter a day (or as much as I can daily) of each of the following books of the craft:
    1. The Editor’s Companion, by Steve Dunham
    2. The Subversive Copy Editor, by Carol Fisher Saller
    3. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler
    4. Revision and Self-Editing, by James Scott Bell
    5. poemcrazy, by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
      1. I will only schedule 5 craft-help books to read from daily, leaving the weekend free to pursue writing and reading fiction. I have some fiction reading goals as well: 
      2. Finish:
        1. Archivist Wasp, by Nicole Kornher-Stace, and;
        2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
        3. Read the following fiction books:
          1. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
          2. Collected Stories, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
          3. Best American Fantasy, ed. by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
          4. The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, ed. by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer
  3. Live more, laugh more, worry less. Times will be difficult. We have an infantile idiot in charge of our country. We can protest, but we can also find joy in our every day experiences.
  4. I’m going to pursue freelance work with a passion, while I continue to work both of my other jobs.
  5. I’m going to write, write, write. I need to get some more fiction accomplished, so that I have something good to send grad schools.  
  6. Study for the GRE, take it, and pass the damn thing.
  7. Keep on breathing. Keep on, keepin’ on. Very important, this one. Because when we stop, we die.

My wishes for you for 2017:
  • May you find joy when you look for it. And here’s a bit of interesting news, if you dig thinking about the Chinese zodiac as I do. The Year of the Fire Monkey (2016) was pretty shitty. The Year of the Fire Rooster (2017) may not be that much better. In 2018, though, we begin a new element cycle, with the year of the Earth Dog, so things could start turning around then. I hope. I don’t believe in these things, really, but I love thinking about them. It’s the creative Wood Snake in me. ;)

This is it, really. Going to continue to pursue better health, but not listing that as a goal because I’m doing it already and I’m going to continue.


Heiwa! Peace!
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A Flight Plan for Future Days: 2016

12/31/2015

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​It wouldn’t be end-of-year blogging without some goal-setting. My Year 2015 Post was about looking behind at the year that was. This post is about looking forward to events as yet unfolded, and trying to orchestrate some good out of what may come. 

Last years goals were a mixture of health and success (academic, financial, and writing) related objectives. I began walking more. Even though I haven’t seen the results of all that walking in much weight loss, I will continue to try hard with my exercise. I also graduated Summa Cum Laude with my Bachelors Degree from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and that was an unexpected plus for the year. 

So where do we go from here? Well…here is everything I hope to accomplish in the coming year. 
  1. Get some more hours at either job whenever I can. I need the money for taking the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and applying to graduate programs.
  2. Pass the GRE (get brushed up on the maths and nail this thing in one go!)
  3. Apply to the 5-6 graduate programs I’m interested in.
  4. Blog more. It’s not that I didn’t blog much in 2015. I did a helluva lot of blogging last semester for my Senior Portfolio class. So I have some posts to steal from there to make up for lost time. But I also need to blog fresh good stuff on here. 
  5. Read more. I read 126 books in 2015. My goal was 75. I would like to set a goal higher than 126 for 2016 and blow that one sky high as well. 
  6. Get the few completed short stories I have sitting around edited and in decent shape for submitting to magazines. 
  7. GET PUBLISHED BIG TIME IN 2016! That means a decently paying market. 
  8. Write more. Now that I’m not writing for academia anymore, I would like to start making sweet words with my muse again. We have missed one another. 
  9. Keep walking. Try to finally invest in a stationery bike or look at getting a membership at the City Gym I pass by every day. I need to get really in shape if I expect to be cruising big-ass campuses like Florida State or Iowa or USF Tampa. 
  10. Keep breathing. That's very important. 

That’s it, really. I’m sure there are other things I need to do, but I’ll deal with all that stuff as we roll along. 

As for you all, I hope you manage to slay your 2016 Resolutions List like the bosses you are. 

Peace and Joy and Love. 
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2015: Turn and face the strange changes.

12/31/2014

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Happy New Year, friends. 

Going to make this brief. This the new website embracing a new persona. I'm still working on it so don't trip over any power cords and please wear your safety helmets at all times. Pardon the dust and din. Creating a new persona is messy and loud. But I feel at this point, it's time to make a little noise. 

I don't have a whole lot of goals for this year. But the ones I do have embrace the changes I've ended this past year on. Nothing less than a complete remake of self, starting with a semi-psuedonym. I was going to go all out and call myself something completely different. I have in the past. I have a secret male pseudonym who is responsible for all of my darkest stuff. Not secret anymore. Coming out of that pseudonym closet and going to embrace another, less private one. Sort of. Same first initial and same last name. Only change it to the middle initial. A is not a cool initial. M.A. Kelly is not a cool pen name. X is cool. X marks the spot where the hidden treasure is buried. X is radical and visionary. X stands for Brand New Me. 

That's that for the name enhancement. 

Now for these 2015 goal thingys. The list is short and sweet. 

In 2015, I will endeavor to:

  1. Keep breathing and living. Important when you start getting up there in years. I need to get healthier. Will make changes toward this goal, no matter how painful and uncomfortable. 
  2. Write, write, write. Need to get more writing in (other than academic writing) for the year. 
  3. FINISH the stories I started late in 2014. They came from excellent ideas and have the potential to be some of the best stuff I've ever written, but I need to get on with them and bring them CLOSURE! That means writing "END" after the last word drops. Capped and centered. Ready to edit and send flying into slush piles all over the World Wide Webby.
  4. Find a way to make more money. 2014 is the most unprosperous year I've had in awhile. Don't want a sequel of that. 
  5. Find a way to make it up to all those friends who helped me get through the shitstorm that was 2014. 

And that's it really. 

I hope all of your dreams and aspirations come true in 2015, and I hope you hold strong and stay committed to your own resolutions. 

Change is a good thing. 
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