Eek!! Welcome to AUGUST

I really, truly, and COMPLETELY cannot believe that July is over and done with. And here it is, August 1: the birthday of HALF A DOZEN of my FB friends - and my aunt. And as wonderful as all those events are, that is NOT what this post is about.

No, my friends, this post is about how I did for my goals for July, and what my goals for August are. (But happy birthday anyway, Jill, Leah, Jennifer, Tracy, Terrie, D. Rajan Immanuel, and Aunt Tzippy!)

But, I digress. Back to business. My goals for July were:

1. Write 10,000 words in my current WIP, Handmaiden to a Princess.
2. Tighten up/perfect/prepare my manuscript Ailing Body, Nourished Soul for pitching.
3. Begin putting together the paperwork I'll need (proposal? etc.) to pitch my book.
4. Post to my blog twice a week
5. Enter the Faithwriters' challenge in July (though this one will be the first "to go" if I can't handle all this stuff!

Well - there they are. And, yeah, I was afraid of that. Didn't do so great. Guess I'll go one by one.
1 - Made a bit more than half of that - check the counter below to see. But that's okay - cuz my emphasis REALLY needed to be on Ailing Body, Nourished Soul

5360 / 10000 words. 54% done!
2- Worked on it quite a bit. Not done - in fact, there is much to do, partly because of a very dear and well-respected friend looking it over and giving me some EXCELLENT advice that I truly feel called to input.
3 - Now THIS took up a lot of my time. Once I saw how elaborate and in-depth the proposal was, a good deal of my time went here. I am QUITE close to finished with the rough draft of this-need to finish the comparables and add some more to the marketing plan, and that's it.
4 - I am pleased to say that I posted AT LEAST two posts a week - a total of 12 for the month. woo!
5 - I said this would be first to go - and it was. No challenge entry this month.

But July is behind me - time to focus on AUGUST! And that would be the month of the FaithWriters' conference - in Livonia, Michigan August 13 and 14, where I'll be pitching Ailing Body, Nourished Soul. Yeah, I'm nervous. But I MAY have my pitch, my proposal is almost done, and I WILL get at least my sample chapters up to snuff by then.

So...my goals for August are

1. Write 3,000 words in my current WIP, Handmaiden to a Princess (do NOT wanna stop the momentum!)
2. Finish my book proposal for Ailing Body, Nourished Soul (no later than August 10)
3. "Fix" my three proposal chapters of ABNS no later than August 7, and continue working on the remaining chapters until they are done.
4. Enter Ailing Body, Nourished Soul in the Houston Writers' Guild Fall Novel/Screenplay Contest (deadline is September 3 - and it has to go through snail mail)
5. Post a minimum of twice a week to my blog
6. Enter the FaithWriters' Writing Challenge once in August.

Well, there they are folks. I'm REALLY appreciative of your prayer (and am gonna need them especially this month!). And, just FYI, the ticker on my sidebar this month will not be counting words in my WIP, but will, instead, be keeping track of chapters "fixed." Ailing Body, Nourished Soul is 30 chapters - please cheer me on as I plug away!

Paving Rough Roads With God's Presence