April 2019 Updates, Goals

April 2019 Updates, Goals

Happy belated Persian New Year to all! :) Very often it’s after I’ve declared a section “done” that I start getting the flood of ideas I wish I’d gotten when I was first drafting the thing. “Hey, wouldn’t it be better if [x] happened instead?!” Yes, yes it would. I usually go back and make those changes immediately, especially if they precipitate changes that will carry forward through the rest of the manuscript. I also make sure to correct any…

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March 2019 Updates, Goals

March 2019 Updates, Goals

It’s rare indeed that I can say I got to enjoy sunshine and birds singing on my birthday, which is nestled deep in the most hopeless stretch of winter. A welcome surprise in the moment—but also ominous, what with climate change and all. More and more, our weather has been more reminiscent of Florida than Pennsylvania … more on that in a bit. Writing Updates I have the informal goal of drafting a chapter roughly every 2 weeks, giving myself…

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February 2019 Updates, Goals

February 2019 Updates, Goals

I saw a tweet the other day (sadly, I forget by whom) about how we Americans obsess over productivity and efficiency gains when the most rewarding things we’ll ever do in life—for instance, learning something new or producing something creative—are extremely inefficient processes. It really made me sit back and go, “Huh.” I like to envision my creative process as whittling a statue from a block of marble: put in time and effort, and voila! Finished product. Only it’s not…

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Ellis’ 2019 Goals

Ellis’ 2019 Goals

I’m happy to report that, aside from epilepsy, my medical adventures have ended for the moment. Surgery is over, all biopsies have come back benign, I’m back on my feet—thank goodness! The past few months have been rough, and even though I tried to keep up with writing and such, I simply didn’t have much focus or creativity in me. While drafting, I lost track of things like who said what to whom and when. I have to go back…

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October 2018 Updates, Goals

October 2018 Updates, Goals

October wasn’t any less turbulent than September. My second surprise biopsy in as many months (benign, thankfully, but I had to wait 2 weeks to hear that), accidentally injuring my foot and damaging my car in unrelated incidents, my husband out of town for multiple weeks (still not back yet), and a shooting that makes international news happening half a mile from my house. The past few days have been surreal. I need to cry once in a while, but…

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September 2018 Updates, Goals

September 2018 Updates, Goals

This was a crazy month. A great deal of phone calls, appointments, tests, waiting, tears, and panic have led to the following conclusion: I have a benign tumor that, because of its positioning, needs to come out. Surgery is penciled in for November. It’s an outpatient procedure and shouldn’t be a huge deal—assuming I clear the final hurdle where they biopsy what they take out to make 100% sure there’s no malignancy. The chance of that is low, but not…

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August 2018 Updates, Goals

August 2018 Updates, Goals

Happy long weekend for those celebrating Labor Day! With highs in the 90s here, it certainly doesn’t feel like summer’s ending yet. I’m looking forward to fall, if or when it arrives! Writing Updates My latest Book 3 draft: 6 chapters/24K words in the can, now working on chapter 7. At this point I’m doing more rewriting from scratch than editing, incorporating details from my earlier drafts that are salvageable, but those are becoming few and far between. I do…

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July 2018 Updates, Goals

July 2018 Updates, Goals

This past Saturday, my city shut down a loop of streets to traffic and opened them up to walkers, runners, and bikers. I happen to live near that loop, so it was easy to head out and join the fun. What a turnout! I’ve never seen so many cyclists in one place before. It was a lot of fun walking directly on some of the major thoroughfares in our city :) Why didn’t I join the cyclists? I’ve told this…

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June 2018 Updates, Goals

June 2018 Updates, Goals

My favorite local coffee shop is changing ownership! The owner is selling his business to a chain. As of this week, the menu offerings, staff, and atmosphere will be completely different. No more local art and photography on the walls. No more chats with the employees and owner when things are slow. I’m rather bummed, as the owner was one of the people who encouraged me to get out of the full-time corporate rat race. It’s not something everyone can…

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April/May 2018 Updates, Goals

April/May 2018 Updates, Goals

Part of the Servian Wall … right outside Termini station! What can I say about this Roman vacation that would do it justice? I saw the Alps and the Mediterranean from my airplane window. I fell in love with stone pine trees, which are great to sit under for shade. I geeked out about Latin and the wonders of ancient Rome for a whole week straight. Everything was so charming, and there were so many surprises around every corner, that…

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