The month started out well enough, then my body decided to abandon me(more than one trip to the hospital to check baby was doing better than I was and fortunately she was fine even though I was not) and by the time I recovered from that my life decided it needed some more drama on top of that – but let’s not get bogged down in that.

I achieved goal #5(start my newsletter). Yes goal #5 is completed. Done and dusted at last and you can sign up here and get the free bonus ebook of ‘Stolen Hearts’.

Goal #4 (writing and submitting short stories) I wrote 6,000 new words in two different short stories. One(working title: Light In The Deep) was intended for a specific anthology but I blew the word count out of the water and haven’t even finished the first draft so I (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ and started writing another story(working title: The Broken Mirror) since to trim Light In The Deep down to word count would take out too much of what I love about the story.

Also – kind of goal #4 related – both Short Circuit and Stolen Hearts were listed as honourable mentions for Twelfth Planet Press’ Years Best Speculative Fiction 2013 anthology. I totally would have missed that without the keen eyes of Shane Halbach (thank you 😀 ).

Goal #6(keep learning) was furthered by watching a Holly Lisle webinar and joining Critters (but because of the drama I’ve fallen behind 🙁 ) so I’m working hard on that as always.

And lastly goal #1(being a good president to my writers group) kept me busy with trying to reorganise a new meeting date since our usual ‘first Sunday of the month’ meeting day was Easter Sunday. Still don’t know for sure if I’m doing a great job, but no one’s tried to depose me yet ;p

For such a short month I was surprisingly busy, but at least I managed to get a lot done.

For goal #1 (being a good president to my writer’s group) we’ve commenced work on an anthology to celebrate 20 years of Vision Writers writing and critiquing one another. The anniversary is next year, but as most people who know about publishing are aware it’s not as simple as snap your fingers and done, so we’ve a long road.

I also organised and ran my first writers retreat. It was all Vision Writers members, but it wasn’t an official Vision event. We all had a great time and you can find out a little more about it here if you’re interested. I would like to do it again, but not any time too soon – not with baby on the way ;p There’s so much organisation that you might not realise is involved.

In regards to goal #2 (final revision and editing for Storybook Perfect) I still haven’t started it, but that’s because I only want to revise one book at a time, and I’m working on goal #3 which is the revision of Written By The Stars. I’ve been using holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel course to help me get as much done in one pass as possible. For most of last year I was stymied by the massive world building lesson, lesson 7, but I finally defeated the daunting lesson and moved through another 6, I’m almost finished 😀

Regarding goal #4 (writing and submitting more short fiction) as usual I killed it. I think I’m very much in love with short fiction, which is funny considering one of my very early posts about finding them difficult ;p

I wrote an extra 3000 words in ‘Foxworth'(previously known as Tubby) based on the group’s feedback, and according to those who gave the story a second read through made it even better. I also finished ‘Couples Counselling’ at a total of 3358 words and submitted it to my writers group for critique. Then I wrote a new flash fiction piece called Ella’s Baby (500 words) and did some editing on the novella ‘The Troll’s Toll’. Because of The Troll’s Toll’s larger length I’m seriously considering self publishing it as it’s length makes it a hard sell to just about every market I know of.

I’ve been working towards goal#5(starting a mailing list) too – finally! I have formatted two ebooks and made my first cover, all working towards the freebie for signing up. I’m repackaging a competition winning story that’s now out of print. You’ll see the results very soon.

Goal #6 (keep learning), well I learned lots through goals 1, 3 and 5 and even (as you always do from good feedback) some from goal 4, so still chugging along.

On wonderful, but slightly less goal orientated notes, I enjoyed my 3 year blogiversary and I added Goodreads buttons all over the website 🙂

How’d you go with the shortest month of the year?