Updates and Machina Mortis News

Morning everyone! Clear skies today - perfect to take out the air balloon!

After a week of nothing less than chaotic, it's good to have the weekend here with sunshine and moments of relaxation. Hubby and I spent all day Saturday together. We enjoyed a glass of wine down by the riverfront, grilled steaks for dinner, and sipped apple spiced hooch in front of the firepit. A wonderful way to let go of the brain numbing week I'd had.

All last week I was in test mode. I had a test Tuesday, two tests on Thursday (back to back), and a test on Friday. I don't think there should ever be more than one test in a week, you know - the sanity thing? I barely had time for anything except homework and studying. But no tests this week, so it should be a more balanced week for hitting my goals.

The goals I'd set for round two:
1) Polish my steampunk novel so it is ready to send to an agent. At this time the first 40 pages are deep-edited and polished. It's another ten pages from last week, and all I had time to do.

2) Complete rough draft of steampunk WIP#2. I managed 3500 words - so I'm happy.

3) Blog at least 3 times a week. This is a long term goal. I'm looking at around the second week of May to start this.

4) Exercise 3 - 4 times a week. Once again I worked out all 5 days :)

5) Submit steampunk short story. I didn't get a chance to check over format and final read through thanks to all the studying for tests. This is on the agenda to complete this week.

6) Read 30 minutes daily. Yes! I finished North of Beautiful, Divergent, Blood Rights, and I'm starting on Retribution Falls today.

The novel edits are coming along and I'm continuing to write no less than 500 words a day. I'm okay with where I'm at because there wasn't much I could do about it last week. I plan to rev up that word count this week.

I did receive some very good news! My steampunk horror story Clockwork Carousel will be included in the Machina Mortis anthology :) I'm super excited! Here's a peek at the awesome cover:

What do you think?

I hope everyone else is doing well with their goals! I'll be stopping by other blogs this week to send cheers and cyber incentives :)

Need help to stay motivated? Crave encouragement? If so, join ROW80. All the info is at that link.

And to end my post I'm leaving you with some steampunkery goodness:

Seriously cool iPhone station that functions as a night light, charging station and audio station. For more about this cool invention, click Here




And from Dr. Grymm's Laboratories - nautilus goggles!

Dr. Grymm has a ton of fantastic inventions - be sure to stop by his Laboratory to ooh and ahh!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Marie

Goal Updates for the Week

Happy Sunday everyone! This past week has been nothing short of crazy and action-packed. Sunday evening the family and I went to see Lacuna Coil at the Aladdin Theater in Portland. They put on an amazing show, playing all of the fan favorites from their albums. I danced hard. As a result, it took me days to recover.

Tuesday I took my first mid-term test. I think I did well, but I won't know until Tuesday. Here's hoping.

Thursday was my son's birthday. He asked me to keep it low-key, and I did my best to comply. But I'm mom. You know? I'm so proud of him. The whole day I reflected on all the proud mama moments over the years. What can I say, I'm a bit of a sap ;)

This was also my first week of being healthy - finally. No flu, no cold, and no fuzzy head feeling. Good thing, too, because all of the assignments got harder and I have two tests coming up to study for. I'm really not a fan of tests. But I want to do well in all my classes, that is one of my many goals.

And speaking of goals...

My goals for round two are:
1) Polish my steampunk novel so it is ready to send to an agent. At this time the first 30 pages are deep-edited and polished. So, another ten pages from last week. It's a slow process, but works for me.

2) Complete rough draft of steampunk WIP#2. This is a longer term goal, but I did spend time working on this, finally. I managed about 3k.

3) Blog at least 3 times a week. This is another long term goal. I'm looking at around the second week of May to start this. I have two different themed days I'd like to make into regular weekly posts, in addition to the Sunday goal update. I might start with just the one before committing to both.

4) Exercise 3 - 4 times a week. This week, even with the concert where I definitely boogied for hours, I worked out all five days. I'm walking a lot, lifting weights, doing pilates and yoga. What has been working for me is putting on my workout clothes right when I get up. I put them on, go about my business for about an hour, and then I work out. The idea is that I'd feel pretty silly if I got the clothes on and then didn't workout. I mean come on, what would be the point? So this is going well, and I'm actually looking forward to doing the workouts. I think the warmer weather helps a little bit too.

5) Submit steampunk short story. I plan to submit it this week.

6) Read 30 minutes daily. Yes! Like my writing time each day, I'm a stickler to reading for no less than 30 minutes. I don't seem to have one full half hour to do this, so I break it up into reading with my breakfast and tea, between classes, and while dinner is doing its thing. I'm just finishing North of Beautiful, and then I'm starting Divergent, followed by Clockwork Angel.

My review of Dead Iron is now up at Clockwork Reviews.

School is still a huge time suck, and next week I add a new evening class for 4 weeks, and in a couple weeks I add a morning class on Fridays. So actually, it will become an even bigger time suck. Still, I'm plugging along, staying on track with goals, and keeping a positive attitude. I'll have to take extra time for studying, but no matter what I'm getting in no less than 500 words a day on writing, and continuing on the edits.

I hope everyone else is doing well with their goals! I'll be stopping by other blogs this week to send cheers and cyber incentives :)

Need help to stay motivated? Crave encouragement? If so, join ROW80. All the info is at that link.

And to end my post I'm leaving you with some steampunkery goodness:

A very worthwhile interview with author Theresa Meyers found Here

Fractal Clockwork Project by Brent Thome found Here

Steampunk Notebooks by Diarment. Check out more cool creations by Diarment Here

Always a pleasure to have you stop by!

See you next week :)

Marie Andrews

Staying Steady

Happy Sunday! Hope you've all been enjoying your weekend :) I've officially been a student at the college for two weeks. All ready I have a mid-term coming up, but that's because one class is five weeks long. So this weekend I've been studying to get ready.

I'm still adjusting to the change, and really missing those fifteen extra hours I had in my week. At the same time, I'm enjoying my classes and learning new subjects.

After careful consideration, I've decided to only post my weekly update on Sundays. It allows me more time to reflect on what I've done, and falls at the same time when I'm updating all of my other goal sheets and lists that I keep track of. I have my daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, and more.

And speaking of goals...

My goals for round two include:
1) Polish my steampunk novel so it is ready to send to an agent. At this time the first 20 pages are deep-edited and polished.

2) Complete rough draft of steampunk WIP#2. This is a longer term goal, and I haven't been able to put attention to this.

3) Blog at least 3 times a week. Not this week, and again this is a long term goal - so I'm looking at around the first or second week of May to start this. I have two different themed days I'd like to make into regular weekly posts, in addition to the Sunday update.

4) Exercise 3 - 4 times a week. I'm walking a lot, lifting weights, doing pilates and yoga.

5) Submit steampunk short story. Well, I'm happy with the final draft but decided to wait. I haven't looked at it for the last few days and want to give myself another few days before I look it over again, in case I missed something. So, I expect to submit it in the next week and a half.

6) Read 30 minutes daily. Yes!

I'm also taking a workshop that is more intensive than I realized, but I'm learning so much.

Quick reminder - my review of Dead Iron will go live on April 19th at Clockwork Reviews.

I'm on track, staying busy, and still trying to figure out better time management with the school schedule added in. The weather is warming up and it definitely boosts my mood as well.

My son's birthday is on the 19th. He's going to be 19. I can't believe it.

How about you? Did you accomplish what you were looking to do this week? Need help to stay motivated? Crave encouragement? If so, join ROW80. All the info is at that link.

And to end my post I'm leaving you with some steampunkery goodness:

By Frank Buchwald

By Datamancer

By James Richardson-Brown

March Madness

I find I work better with a swift kick in the butt every now and then. While I think I'm good at motivating myself, and I try to stay organized and keep lists and write down daily goals, I need that accountability motivation, too.

And my dear friend Angelina Hansen is always so pumped about #wipmadness.

So, I realize now is a good time to seek out that extra motivation.


My goals:

Wake up and write!
Continue edits on my steampunk novel
Write 1 blog article per week
Get caught up on my TBR pile
Write a review
Submit a short story

I'm looking forward to this extra boost!

To learn more about March Madness, visit Denise Jaden's blog Here

Marie