Where I am at.

I'm excited! I have a plan, goals and self imposed deadlines that I feel confident I'm going to be able to meet.

With my Young Adult Christian book, I have started writing it again. I am currently in the middle of writing chapter seven. I have a rough outline for chapters eight and nine and I know where I want the rest of the story to go.

At the rate I'm going now, I should have a completed rough draft in less than three weeks. I get tingles down my spine when I say that. I have completed every book I have ever tried to write. One in high school and five in the last year (all between twelve and thirty-one chapters long, but none of the five are publishable.). It just gives me great confidence and I know I'm going to finish this one.

My plan is to have it written and gone over by both my beta readers before November first, because I plan to participate in Nanowrimo again. I've got a story in mind. It would be secular and would be for the mass market, yet I plan to keep it clean. I've got the prologue and most of the first chapter written, but I'm holding off on doing more so I can use it for Nanowrimo. I won't be counting the words I've already written, but the book will be well over 50,000 words.

So far, I have two people who are beta reading my Christian story for me. One is an amazing friend and aspiring author that I met online. The other is my daughter who is in the age bracket of my target audience. I trust both of them to be honest about what they are reading. And so far, they both really like it.

I'm going to the enter the Readers Digest short story competition. I have two short stories that I plan to enter, but I need to bulk them up a bit. I want to get as close to the 1500 word maximum as I can, and I want to self edit some more and possibly submit one or both of the stories to a critique group for their opinions first.

So, YA Christian book done and first edit finished by November first. Two short stories just under 1500 submitted in the Reader's Digest short story contest before December. Get 50,000 words written for new book in the month of November. Hopefully more words than that and finish it to be put aside for a while. Work on first book, editing and revising until satisfied, then work on submitting to publishers in January. Get second book fixed up and have it ready by May of next year to be submitted to publishers.

I shall let everyone know when I fail or succeed at anyone of my goals. :)