Oh, Hello 2017

I didn't you standing there. I suppose we should get acquainted, yes?

(What I find on my Camera when I give it to my sister to take pictures at the zoo.)

What is it about years? Always sneaking up on us, then running away just when you were making progress with them. Sigh.

Well, 2016 is over, and what a year it was. I don't remember most of it. I think it was mostly work and editing. A bit of writing. I fulfilled my goal of publishing LDTD, though it was a headache and a half to pull off. I can't say that I did very well with any of my other goals. (Refers back to last year's list)

Uh ... focusing ... eheheheh. Occasionally, when the stars aligned properly.
Multitasking smarter. Try being completely insane and heaping far too many new projects on myself instead.
Meeting Goals. I released a book when I said I would. I can claim nothing more than that.
Staying Accountable. I ... tried? Well, I have a group of friends (aka, former beta readers who refuse to abandon a chat thread because I occasionally dangle snippets in front of them) who I've stayed mostly accountable, but I still hesitate to admit how much I've been playing games. I might have spent most of yesterday afternoon doing that.
Promotion. I ... entered WPFP into a contest! (Which it didn't win. Which I didn't mind so much, save for the fact that the book it lost to ... I'd read a few months before and had been very meh about.) I also ran a blog party and a blog tour. Neither were as spectacular as I had hoped.

Some highlights this year include meeting one of my beta readers in real life, finally graduating FINALLY getting behind the wheel to learn to drive (unfortunately, schedules have not been conducive to keeping my practice up, and I'm afraid that I may have forgotten half of what I learned. *growl*), and making good progress on Love and Memory, The Worth of a King, and ROCKS. Also, this year, my mom took on some friends' kids three to four days a week for homeschooling, my job drove me insane, and some personal issues led to my sister having to go live with our Grandparents. This was RIGHT after I fell and sprained my ankle. Oh, and my old computer died and I replaced it with a new one, and now I need money to pay for it.

So last year was a mixed bag. I don't hold hard feelings against it, but I hope this next year will be much better.

Speaking of which, here's my agenda!

School
Yes, I've graduated, no, I'm not done learning. In fact, I intend for this year to be pretty intense, learning-wise. I still need to finish Streams of Civilization II for history, and my parents invested in a year's subscription to Schoolhouse Teachers and I'm expected to take as many courses as I can. I'm currently working on one for Graphic Design.

Editing
Last summer, I invested in a year's subscription to Grammarly pro, and while I have it, I intend to run all of my previously-published books through it. Sew, and possibly some others, will be receiving a slightly stiffer edit as well. I'll be editing them in publication order, and as I finish them, I'll be looking for reviewers. You can probably expect a form for this later this week.

Writing:
Mostly Worth and LaM, as I need to finish both this books this year. I'd been hoping to be able to publish Worth this year, but it's not going to happen. Now I'm hoping for early next year. LaM is going to need two drafts (although it's turning out to not be as messy as I'd wanted it to be, so maybe not ...), and I'm hoping for a September/October publication following Worth. (Worth will come first, any way we slice it.)

I also plan to finish three short stories and get them published - "Poison Kiss," "Gift Exchange," and "Saffron's Even Bigger Plan."

Oh, and I have two new co-author plans on my plate, both involving Laura. No details on either, as we speak, but stay tuned.

Blogging/Promotion.
I'd like to blog here at least once a week, the AA at least once a month, and the O.Scarlett as often as I can. I have a coupld for the AA in a notebook, so all I have to do is type them up. And I'm down to only three "have to" reviews for the O.Scarlett.

With no big releases on my plate, I don't have any tours planned ... but I do have this:

I have this planned for late March. (Not April. My brain messed up. Again.) So far, only a few authors have joined, but I know of several more who hope to, once they have a better idea of their April schedules. If you're a self-publishing author and would like to join - or an editor, cover designer, indie game developer, indie musician... you can click this link.

I also intend to tweet daily and Instagram weekly. For an extrovert, I'm terrible at social media ... and I don't need to loose contanct with my readers. I just need to figure out what to say ...

Life:
With my sister out of the house, chores are a thing (ie, a bigger thing than normal). Also, I'm not working and I have a computer to pay for. I either need to find a job that is conducive to my writing/ride situation, or I need to find a way to make adequet money from home.

If everyone would just buy my books, though, that'd be awesome.

...

I think that's everything. Kendra out.

*falls off the car.*

Hello 2016

My calendar tells me that we just entered a new year. I wasn't done with the last one yet. Give it back!!!!

This last year has been a mixed bag. On one hand, I did publish My Kingdom for a Quest and Water Princess, Fire Prince, which have been my best books thus far, but on the other hand, I didn't accomplish that much else.

I'm going to first link up with the Beautiful People link up that Cait and Skye have issued, themed on my writing goals for 2016.


What were your writing achievements last year?

I published two books! I believe I mentioned that before. I didn't get a whole lot of writing done, apart from parts 1-3 of Lady Dragon, Tela Du, but I'm mostly satisfied with that. I also had a job. Jobs steal your time.

Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?

Finishing Lady Dragon, Tela Du and getting it published sometime in October. This means that I need to finish writing it by my birthday next month. Can I do this? If I focus. I'm also going to try to have the Beta Reader call up by that point, and part 1 mostly edited. 

List 5 areas you’d like to work the hardest to improve this year.

1. Focusing - Dug from Up is my spirit animal. I am SO easily distracted. This year, I'm going to to work on staying on task.

2. Multitasking smarter - As extension of being easily distracted, I love piling projects on top of myself and subsequently drowning. I'm going to try to smarter about this in 2016 so that I don't drown.

3. Meeting Goals - I'm a published author with a fanbase clamoring for sequels. This means I need to get them their sequels in a timely fashion. 

4. Staying accountable - I don't like admitting the real truth about why I don't meet my goals. "I'm sorry this post didn't go up ... work ... brain broke ..." while in honesty, it didn't get done because I was goofing off playing a computer game. I played a really fun Hidden Object Adventure based on Snow White the other week. That was fun.

5. Promotion. I doubled - nearly tripled my fanbase last year, but if I'm going to become independent off of my writing, I need a larger fanbase. So this year, I'm going to get serious and actually shell out money to promote myself. I'm also going to get serious contacting reviewers to see if they want to read Water Princess, Fire Prince.

Are you participating in any writing challenges?

NaNo for certain - I've already nearly settled on Sing, Aling for this year, my Sci-fi retelling of Peter Pan. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to do Camp NaNo. If I do, it will be with either book 3 or The New Division.

Five Something Something. I didn't get Poison Kiss done in time this year, so I'm going to try again this year. If they do Little Mermaid (which is my #1 guess ... either that or Rapunzel), I have something picked out. Otherwise, we'll see what I come up with when I see the cover. 

What's your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?

I have a few girls who are reading LDTD by the part as I write it, but I'll be issuing a call for betas sometime next month, hopefully. Beta readers of book 1 will be contacted directly. It'll be a bit more tricky for newcomers, but not impossible.

Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research?

Not really. Well, I have a small slew of writing/publishing/promotion how-to books on my kindle. Maybe I should read them.

Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?

Aling of Sing, Aling. She's the Tinkerbell character, and is half-elf and half-fairy, and loves tinkering. I'm going to write her book. It will be awesome.

Do you plan to edit or query, and what’s your plan of attack?

I'm going to edit. You'd better bet I'm going to edit. Querying isn't in my plans, though, not until I have a book ready that I'd be willing to let a publishing company control.

Plan of attack ... uh ... same as I always edit. Without mercy.

Toni Morrison once said, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

There is a severe shortage of books by Kendra E. Ardnek. Only SEVEN!! I need to rectify that.

What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2016?

LDTD published, Poison Kiss published. New Division written and ready for revision and publication 2017, Sing, Aling written, and put together a series of children's books about essential oils. This is a new project that I was discussing with my aunt the other week, but basically ... I'm going to personify the various oils, and write stories that will help kids learn about their various uses.

I would also like to get the Bookania collection finished ... but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Maybe next year. I don't want to abandon Bookania, but right now, Rizkaland and its surrounding novels have me captured, heart and soul. It might not be until I have RL Book 3 out before I can focus on the Bookanian characters again. I need to prioritize, after all.

Also, I'm coming up on Sew's fifth birthday this summer, as well as my 7th blogoversary. There will be a party. It's too soon for me to know the details, but it will be awesome. I do know that this is when I plan to publish Poison Kiss.

My Great Plans ...

First off, if anyone is interested, I'm giving away a free kindle copy of Trust over here. All you have to do is comment asking Molly a question about her writing or something else of that nature.

With everyone laying out their plans for 2014 for all the world to see, I've decided to join the band wagon.

First off and most importantly, school. I want to be done with high school by the end of spring. Hopefully, that won't be too hard, as that only involves finishing two and a half Apologia science books (Physics, Chemistry, and half of Biology), mastering all of the math section of Khan's academy,  finish all of the states in U.S. Geography, and watch a lot of videos about history. The math will probably be the most difficult, not necessarily because I'm not good at math, but because it's the most involved. Can't wait. (Although I may have forgotten a subject. Mom is welcome to remind me if I have.)

Frankly, I should have been done with school two years ago, as I started kindergarten at four (I was bored with preschool). But I distracted myself with writing ... and look where I am now. Of course the fact that I like to squeeze every drop I can out of any particular subject didn't help. I probably have a college education in some of the subjects that interest me.

Secondly, which I'm sure you're far more interested in than my education, my writting goals. Since winter and spring will be dedicated mostly to learning, don't expect any books to appear on Amazon. However, I do want to publish at least two books this year.

Firstly I want to release the short story collection that I promised last year. The four - no, five, I added one - short stories are still unfinished, though at least I have very good progress on all but "Saffron's Even Bigger Plan." I just can't figure out how to get that one started, though I foresee it becoming quite a sweet little story, just like its predecessor. The other four stories are coming along not too badly, though I keep getting stuck on them. I have only two more challenges planned for "CinderEddy," and the next two are the exciting ones. Maybe once I get to them, it'll just fly out of my fingers. "The Sun Jewel Adventure" is coming along nicely, though I haven't written on it in a few days. No fault of its, however. I've been focusing on another project. "Woodcutter Quince" is about to have Eric show up, and I'm pretty sure that scene will work out beautifully. "Gift Exchange" however ... well ... it has a cover art! (Lower left-hand corner)

I also want to publish My Kingdom for a Quest this year. Having become frustrated with what I had written for NaNo'12, I have started over in a notebook. I'm liking how it's coming together this time, far less choppy. Although, the other day, I noticed a weird pattern in the Bookania quests. In book 1, R&R escape a castle in chapter three. In book 2, Arthur and the old man escape a castle in chapter 2. In book 3, there's a castle escape in chapter 1! And each time, the stakes surrounding that escape are higher. Very interesting, and definitely not done on purpose.

I also have a few book that I intend to finish. Water Princess, Fire Prince is so close to being done (maybe five chapters if I really stretch the upcoming battle scene) I'd like to be done really soon so I can write up a plan of attack for draft two and begin it. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to publish it come fall of 2015. And then I'll cry because I'll have to say good-bye to Clara and Andrew because they won't be back until book 4, and that'll be only a cameo appearance. But then I'll get to work with Petra, and I do miss Petra. And Ashna. Sweet, sweet Ashna. I've missed her interesting outlook on life. Oh, and Summer ... can't forget Summer ...

Some of you may have heard me mention that Miss Jack and I are writing a book together, Worth of a King, which is coming together quite beautifully. We've decided that we're going to make it a goal to finish its first draft by the end of the year. The last two chapters came out pretty quickly, so at the moment, we're both pretty optimistic. Although I dreamed the other night that she completely messed up the story. I was pretty annoyed with her for a few minutes until I realized that it hadn't actually happened ... and that I still hadn't sent her my chapter, so it was frankly impossible.

I want to finish my NaNo from last year. I'm over half-way, but without the NaNo oomph, it's become buried under some of my other projects. I need to get back to it, because I really do love the story and all of the characters, even John, who was, admittedly, a bit flat. I'm sure he'll improve in later books.

I'm not going to break this down and schedule myself like I did last year.

Last year I wrote over 180,000 words (give or take) This year, I'm gonna try for 250,000.

As for reading goals, I read nearly ninety books. This year, I'm going to try for 150, and I want to make sure I read a very good variety of books, including contemporary which is, quite frankly, my current out-of-comfort zone.

I also would like to make it a goal to publish at least two reviews on O.Scarlett each month. I'd like to do more, but since I'm currently the only one of the original trio still doing it ... Hum. Maybe I should look for another partner? Clara has declared that she intends to publish at least one review a month over at her blog. I told her good luck. (But really, I need to get back on the ball with that blog.)

On another note, I've been considering steeling an blogging idea from Anne Elizabeth Stengl. Actually, I've been considering it since last year, but anyways. You see, last December, she did a read through with her first book, and she did another one this December with her second book. Here's her blog, if you want to see what she did (you only need to go a few posts back, since she only just finished.)

I was thinking of doing something similar with Sew, It's a Quest this February. If you'd like me to, comment below with your pleas. If enough people ask, I'll be back later with more details!

September Goals

My Mom wants me to write down my goals for this September. So ... I guess it won't hurt me to do so.

Right now our house is chaos ... well almost so. We're trying to get it rearanged so that an aunt can move into the middle trailer this October. Have I ever mentioned that my family lives in three trailers/mobile homes stuck right up against each other, two of them are connected ... the other, isn't.

But that's not the point, the point is that we're loosing the middle trailer this October, and therefore we need to get all of our stuff out of it. It's complicated. Check out my Mom's blog if you want to look for details. I'm Story over there, if you do check it out.

So ... what are my personal goals amidst the chaos that is my life?

School:

1. Finish reading Howard Pyle's Robin Hood and G.A. Henty's Wulf the Saxon. I'm almost done with both,  it's all a matter of actually looking them back up on my Kindle for PC and finishing them.
2. Finish reading The Second American Revolution by something Whitehead. I can't think of the guy's first name off the top of my head, and I don't feel like looking for the book at the present second. This is for government.
3. Two chapters in Chemistry and Physical Science. Yeah, I'm going through two science books at once. When I finish with them, I've got Biology and Physics. Then I'm done with science. Yay!

My Room:

1. Empty the three four boxes and reclaim my floor.
2. Clean off my two desks. Yes. I have two desks. A knitting table and a normal desk. I also have a cabinet with a door that folds down - this makes an excellent stand up desk.

Chores:

1. Find the garden. It got devoured by weeds during the rainy season.
2. Find my school desk. This is the desk that is not in my room. And it's currently buried.
3. I'm sure my mom will come up with more projects for me.

Writing and Blogging:

1. Have Do You Take This Quest? sent to at least one of my editors. My Grandma probably. This is more for grammar editing. I've got to get the plot stuff done on my own. It's giving me a headache.
2. Write and post at least ten reviews on the O!Scarlett blog. (link can be found above in my pages bar) I have books read, I just need to write up reveiws.
3. Post at least 15 blog entries here. I'm sitting at four if I remember right, so I'm ahead at the moment.
4. Finish reading David Copperfield so that Clara can post a review for it on her blog. (Clara's Classics, again see above.) I've seen the BBC movie (TWICE) but I haven't finished reading the book.

There, that sounds good enough.