Oops, I was so busy gallivanting around Washington state, I forgot to do my monthly New Year's Resolution check-in, so I'm going to combine two months worth of productivity (or lack thereof)...
If you're just joining the blog, last Dec 31st I posted my Goals for 2017... and at the beginning of each month I have posted my progress on this blog. So, here goes...
1) Take More Photos (at least 2 per Week)
My skills as a photographer are negligible, but I am happy to report that I took a lot of photos during summer break. You might be wondering, "Why don't you post some of these pictures, Wade?!" Well, I am slow and lazy about these posts, lately, but I'll try to put up some good ones over the course of the next few weeks.
But as a sign of good faith, here are a couple from June... The first is a view from a hammock in my brother-in-law's backyard...
And then here's the reverse of that shot, a selfie with me and Emily!
Achievement: 58.5% Complete
2) Write / Sell a New Picture Book:
I was incredibly lucky that this one was accomplished early in the year. I can't remember if I announced the title of this project... but since it has been listed in Publisher's Weekly, I can make it official.
The new book is PAPA BEAR'S PAGE FRIGHT... and it's coming to bookstores Spring 2018.
Perhaps coolest of all, it will be illustrated by fellow client of the Red Fox Literary Agency: Mary Ann Fraser.
By the way, Mary Ann has a cool new biography coming out this month! Woo-hoo!
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.
3) Generate New Idea for Next Big Project (Complete 25%)
It has been an interesting spring and summer. I have had a lot of false starts and dead ends, trying to decide what new novel to begin working on... And then I started kicking around ideas for chapter books... or even an attempt at continuing Duck Town with a sequel graphic novel (even though nothing has yet happened with Book One.)
Ultimately, I decided that I wanted my Big Summer Project to be a whole bunch of little projects. At the end of June I challenged myself with the task of creating 31 Picture Books in 31 Days... and I am happy to report that on July 31st I completed that endeavor. So, even though it's not a novel, I am going to say that the Short Story Collection was the Next Big Project... and I'm calling it done!
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
4) Work on a Creative Project with My Daughters
I am still dabbling with ideas... But we haven't really done anything but dabble... Emily does encourage me to sing with her, but she gets frustrated because she's awesome at harmonizing, but it throws me off key!
Emily has been working on her ukulele, and has recently filmed a video... I don't think she's posted it yet.
And Mackenzie kept a video journal of our trip to Washington. They are great little videos and perfect for helping us remember some of the highlights of our vacation.
Achievement: Pending
5) Show my appreciation more often / strengthen relationships and communication
This one still isn't easy for me to quantify... but I have a lot of room to improve before the year comes to an end. I did meet a lot of cool people at SCBWI, reconnecting with a lot of writer and illustrator friends... so I'm going to say I've made a little progress in this category.
Achievement: 15%
6) Lose ten pounds
Amazingly, I didn't gain back much weight during my vacation up north... This is surprising since there was so much food available to us when we were at Lake Chelan for a week! I thought I doubled my weight with all those Red Vines I ate! But I weighed myself on the scale today and I'm at: 165 pounds... So, I'm still good... and now that I'm back home I'll cut back on the junk food and get it a little lower, somewhere between 158 and 163.
Achievement: Still Unlocked (whew!)
So, that's the run down... The real challenge will be the last leg of the year, because I'll be knee-deep in grading essays. But so far, so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment