Progress Report: Week 4, July 2017

Even though last week was the first week back at university, I still managed a bit on the writing and publishing front – but now I know I’m in for a heavy few weeks. This semester, with no supervisors anywhere to be found for any of the nine questions I’d be interested in chasing for an Honours or PhD, I’m gearing up to go writing full-time next year. This semester, I can’t afford to put my writing and publishing on the back-burner in favour of my academics. Things are going to get “interesting”.
 

Week 4 Progress

• New words produced: 6,329
• Outlines and Notes: 0
• Works completed: 1 (Wheelchair Mermaid)
• Works completely edited: 1 (C.M. Simpson: Short Works from 2014, Vol. 3 – Fantasy & Urban Fantasy)
• Covers created: 1 (Fate in the Sun)
• Works published: 0
• Works submitted: 0
• Competitions Entered: 0
• Bloggery: 6,150 (all now deleted as I cannot sustain the work required for that series of blogs for the next four months)
• University Prep and Assignments: 0 words (DO NOT ASK about the hours put in, though.)

Writing News

Last week saw me complete Wheelchair Mermaid, a young adult chapter book about a girl, a mermaid, and a chance meeting at a beach.

Of last week’s priorities, that was the only one I completed – apart from keeping up with class preparations for three subjects. I came close on the CreateSpace upload for C.M. Simpson: Short Works from 2014, Volume 3 (Fantasy & Urban Fantasy), but ran out of time. This week’s goals will need to be trimmed accordingly.

In addition, I completed a cover for the science fiction short story, Fate in the Sun.

 

June-July Challenge: Babes in London

Last week saw me complete nothing on this project. It moves to the top of the list for next week.

If you like this adventure and want to play it, please go buy the official rulebooks from somewhere where the original creators and publisher of the setting will be paid. I got mine from a Melbourne game store, but I’ve found PDF versions of the Player's Handbook and the Gamemaster's Handbook are now available from DriveThruFiction. If you enjoy their world, this is the best way to thank them.

Ingress Updates

This week’s Ingress was an important part of bringing my fitness back on-line. It took only 2 weeks of not walking for my back to start to go, and for my general creativity and fitness to take a noticeable nose-dive. Right, message understood: I need to walk.

In response to that, I managed to walk an hour a day, every day, last week. I also spent writing breaks working on Operation Portal Recon. (This is probably not best practice, so I’ll have to set aside a block of time and stick to it, rather than do it when I should be stretching and giving my eyes a break from the screen.)

So, Ingress achievements, last week, consisted of:

• Bronze Recon medal
• Silver Recon medal
• Gold Engineer medal.

PokemonGo Updates

Last week’s PokemonGo was tied in to last week’s Ingress. What can I say? I hate just walking for the sake of walking… and this helps me break the unhealthy mental cycle of going over bad past events that I couldn’t stop, couldn’t change, and can’t fix the consequences of now.

Last week’s PokemonGo achievements were as follows:

• Filled another gap in the Kanto pokedex by evolving Blastoise
• Filled another two gaps in the Johto pokedex by hatching Tyrogue and evolving Piloswine.
• Earned my first golden gym badge.

 

Priorities:

• maintain walking of an hour a day minimum;
• Finalise the CreateSpace format and upload for C.M. Simpson: Short Works from 2014, Volume 3 (Fantasy & Urban Fantasy);
• Finalise the pre-order uploads for C.M. Simpson: Short Works from 2014, Volume 3 (Fantasy & Urban Fantasy);
• Begin the CreateSpace format and upload for C.M. Simpson: Short Works from 2015-2016, Volume 1 (Science Fiction)
• Keep up with class preparation for three university subjects