I Can Haz Productivity: May 2013 Month in Review

Travel was the name of the game in May. See my post recappig my travels here.

Still, I was determined to bang out more of my SciFi YA so I committed to a lofty goal. In the last few months my goal was to write 300 words a day. This month, in order to finish my WIP I needed to write 1,000 words a day.

Here’s an action shot of this writer in the wild.

Again, I failed to hit 1,000 words a day. I’m not sure what I was thinking. 1k a day is a lofty goal. I bit off more than I could chew, for sure.

But it wasn’t a wasted month by any means. I was able to write. I fit words in while we were in the car, while waiting for my flights, and late nights after everyone else went to bed.

The resulting productivity is as follows:
14 blog posts, including:
2 reviews
2 author interviews
1 cover reveal
and my very first guest post on a writer blog (eek!)
4 new chapters in my WIP
2 novels started (one YA and one Adult. Para Romance – something different)

For a total of 11,625 words. What what? That’s my highest word count in one month since NANO. Check out how I did in April and March.

Woo hoo!

I feel like I’m getting better at fitting writing into my dialing life. I’m still learning what a good ‘stretch’ goal will be for words per day/month. A thousand seems too lofty but three hundred too small.

How do you determine you daily word goals?

Adventures, I've had you

What do carbs, inflatable fish, and rollercoasters have in common? You're thinking I'm crazy. Wait for it, I'm not crazy. Or too crazy I should say.

They were all part of my month of May.

This month has been a challenging writing month for me. First, because I’ve exhausted my outline and am at a loss for how to move my story forward. Second, because my month was full of mini breaks and family visits: more happy than sad, though, so that’s good.

I’m originally form the STL (yes, I still call it that) and both my family and my husband’s family still live there. This month I made the trip to STL twice (once for a funeral and again for an extended weekend to celebrate my sister’s graduation from nursing school.

But wait, there’s more! I spent the holiday weekend in Ohio for my sister’s bridal shower. I should have tracked my miles like I track my word count.

We had some adventures this month:

A trip to Arch Park – if you haven’t been, you absolutely should go (I’m not biased or anything…). It’s really cool. This pic doesn't really do it justice.


A Cardinals game in the beautiful, new, Busch stadium. Go Cards!


Here’s an action shot of my beautiful sister graduating from nursing school #proudsister


And a pic of our friendly, inflatable house bass partaking in the grad party. #likeaboss #likeabass. LOL


A trip to the King’s Island. You know it’s an Amusement Park if you can eat giant turkey legs like a barbarian.


No trip to Ohio is complete without some Skyline Chili. I’m a pescaterian, the only meat I eat is fish, but I made a special exception for Skyline. It’s the food of the gods.


If you know King’s Island you know The Beast. A giant wooden (read, rickety and terrifying) rollercoaster. I got this beautiful bruise from The Beast. #ouch Follow my #bruisewatch2013 tweets here.


*sight* I’m a little tired just recounting it all. It’s been busy. All this travel AND my Day Job daily grind. I dealt with the stress by grazing on carbs.



I was lucky to slip any words in at all.

How do you fit writing into you summer travels?

Book Review: Walking Disaster

Like a lot of people I enjoyed McGuire’s first Disaster novel. So no surprise, I was eagerly looking forward to the Travis Maddox experience promised in the sequel.

Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire



However, I was disappointed with the Travis Maddox installment for two reasons *Warning*Spoilers*:

1. Walking Disaster was literally a retelling of Beautiful Disaster. The dialogue was the same. The story was the same. It was completely, utterly boring – not because of any failing by McGuire – because I’d already read Beautiful Disaster. If I had wanted to read it again I would have.

It’s also hard to suspend my disbelief at this point. I just can’t believe hot-headed Travis remembered everything the same way as Pidge. Btw, I flipping hate that nickname. It actually makes my skin crawl. Mist people agree that pigeons are dirty rats with wings that spread disease. It’s not a term of endearment as far as I’m concerned. I only use it here because I can't remember her real name.

But I digress. My point is this: I’ve been married for 7 years and my husband and I never, EVER, remember things the same way. It’s beyond implausible that Travis and Pidge would remember the events the same way – especially the dialogue. I could not suspend my disbelief.

2. The mystery is gone. Abso-freaking-lutely gone. Part of the thrill of reading Beautiful Disaster was always wondering what the heck Travis was thinking. Now that I know, and the knowing was nothing earth-shattering amazing, the mystery has fizzled out.


Walking Disaster wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t new or exciting.

What did you think? Share your thoughts here: