Goals!

Goals!

It’s the end of the first quarter of the year and time to see how I’m doing on my goals.

  1. SECOND STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY:
    1. Finish editing through it: It stands at 163 pages at the moment.  I’d like to get it down to at least 143 pages, the length of the first screenplay.  DONE
    2. Submit it to my screenplay critique group.
    3. Make changes based on the feedback from my screenplay critique group.
  2. UPDATE FRIST STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY BASED ON CHANGES TO FIRST NOVEL: This actually shouldn’t take that long.  I’ll do it while my screenplay critique group goes through my second screenplay.
  3. START WRITING SECOND STEAMPUNK NOVEL: This I can do once I finish going through the second screenplay after my critique group reviews it.
    1. Break down screenplay into chapters.
    2. Write Chapter One by 2/19/23 Oops!  I’m behind.  Plan to catch up by end of month.  See last week’s blog.
    3. Write Chapter Two by 3/21/23
    4. Write Chapter Three by 3/16/23
    5. Write Chapter Four by 4/9/23
    6. Write Chapter Five by 4/23/23
    7. Write Chapter Six by 5/14/23
    8. Write Chapter Seven by 5/28/23
    9. Witte Chapter Eight by 6/11/23
    10. Write Chapter Nine by 6/25/23
    11. Write Chapter Ten by 7/9/23
    12. Write Chapter Eleven by 7/23/23
    13. Write Chapter Twelve by 8/6/23
    14. Write Chapter Thirteen by 8/20/23
    15. Write Chapter Fourteen by 9/3/23
    16. Write Chapter Fifteen by 9/17/23
    17. Write Chapter Sixteen by 10/1/23
    18. Write Chapter Seventeen by 10/15/23
    19. Write Chapter Eighteen by 10/28/23
    20. Write Chapter Nineteen by 11/12/23
  4. SAVE UP FOR A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR FOR MY FIRST NOVEL: I hope it will go better than last year.
  5. SUBMIT MY NOVEL TO A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: I already have one in mind, but it will depend on the above.
  6. START WRITING MY THIRD STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY: Actually, I already have the first 36 pages done.
    1. Start on my “String of Pearls” – that’s a whole other blog – and I have covered it.
    2. Put those pearls in an outline.
    3. Start filling out the screenplay.
    4. Finish the first draft. This may sound obvious, but it’s a big deal to actually finish a project, even if it is the first (vomit) draft.
  7. READ BOOKS: Twelve books in a year didn’t work out so well last year.  I only read three.  That also didn’t include keeping up with comic books.  So, let’s try something different.  I have a stack of books on my nightstand that is 17.5” tall.  Let’s try to get it down to 5.5” by the end of the year.  That’s an inch a month.  And that means I’ve got to keep up with any new books and comic books I buy.  And I just ordered two books from Amazon.
    1. End of January, 16.5”: 16.25”
    2. End of February, 15.5”: 14.5”
    3. End of March, 14.5”: 13.5”  Exactly one inch and one month ahead of schedule.The good news is this was my March reading…I found that if you read a few pages a night when you go to bed, you can read a book in a month.  Who knew?  This book is by a friend of mine, Brandie June.  It’s a retelling of the Rumplestilskin tale, vastly different from the original, but with all the key points.  Now I can’t wait to buy her second book, “Curse Undone”.  Don’t tell her I just got around to reading this now, I bought it from her a year and a half ago at Loscon.  The bad news is this is what I added to my reading pile…
  8. READ MY BIBLE: Picking up from where I left off last year, so I’m starting almost three months ahead.
    1. Keeping up with January’s reading:  DONE
    2. Keeping up with February’s reading:  DONE
    3. Keeping up with March’s reading: Fallen behind, but can catch up by next month.
    4. Keeping up with April’s reading:
    5. Keeping up with May’s reading:
    6. Keeping up with June’s reading:
    7. Keeping up with July’s reading:
    8. Keeping up with August’s reading:
    9. Keeping up with September’s reading:
    10. Keeping up with October’s reading:
    11. Keeping up with November’s reading:
    12. Keeping up with December’s reading:
  9. TRY TWELVE NEW RECIPES: Last year there were some months I missed, but overall, I tried eighteen new recipes.  So, I’m not going to do them by months, I’m just going to number them out.
    1. First new recipe: 01/14/23 Hashbrown Casserole
    2. Second new recipe: 01/15/23 Ground Beef Vegetable Soup
    3. Third new recipe: 01/15/23 Old Fashioned Cloverleaf Rolls
    4. Fourth new recipe: 1/28/23 Baked Meatball Parmesan
    5. Fifth new recipe: 1/28/23 Crockpot Taco Soup
    6. Sixth new recipe: 1/28/23 Billion Dollar Buttery Biscuits
    7. Seventh new recipe: 2/3/23 Pizza Grilled Cheese
    8. Eighth new recipe: 2/4/23 Mexican Taco Meatloaf
    9. Ninth new recipe: 2/4/23 Chili mac and Cheese
    10. Tenth new recipe: 2/25/23 Hawaiian Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
    11. Eleventh new recipe: 3/5/23 Hearty Crockpot Cowboy Soup
    12. Twelfth new recipe: 3/19/23 Honey BBQ Meatloaf
    13. Thirteenth new recipe: 3/31/23 Oven-Baked Sheet pan Chicken Quesadillas
    14. Fourteenth new recipe: 4/1/23 Crock Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni – see below for Vicent’s reviews.
  10. GET DOWN TO 190 POUNDS: Let’s try that weight loss thing again.  I know I can do it if I stay on top of it.  Using the scale at the warehouse at work, I’m down to 205.  I had been down to 199 in June.   Now I have a home scale, which means I can weigh myself au natural – which was frowned upon at work.  This should be more accurate.  Right now, it’s showing that I weigh 202.8 pounds.
    1. Down to 201 by end of January: 199.2 lbs.
    2. Down to 200 by end of February: 201.6 lbs.  Curse you Girl Scout Cookies!
    3. Down to 199 by end of March: 196.8 lbs.  The Girl Scout Cookies are gone.
    4. Down to 198 by end of April:
    5. Down to 197 by end of May:
    6. Down to 196 by end of June:
    7. Down to 195 by end of July:
    8. Down to 194 by end of August:
    9. Down to 193 by end of September:
    10. Down to 192 by end of October:
    11. Down to 191 by end of November:
    12. Down to 190 by end of December:
  11. MAKE SIX BLOOD DONATIONS: This could be whole blood donations or double reds, which count as two.
    1. First blood donation: JANUARY 21st
    2. Second blood donation: APRIL 1st – no joke!
    3. Third blood donation:
    4. Fourth blood donation:
    5. Fifth blood donation:
    6. Sixth blood donation:
  12. RUN THE BLOOD DRIVE AT WESTERCON THIS YEAR:  Kris and I have been running the blood drive at Loscon for 32 years.  We also ran three blood drives at Gallifrey, until they got too big and couldn’t afford to give us a panel room for an entire day.  We’ve also done two Worldcons, a Westercon and Phil and Ed’s Excellent Convention.  Now we have an opportunity to run a blood drive at this year’s Westercon in Anaheim in July.
    1. Attend first con committee on January 14th: 1/15/23 DONE
    2. Initiate contact with the American Red Cross in Anaheim: 1/16/23 DONE
    3. Attend second con committee meeting: Drive Ready for Scheduling – The Westercon blood drive is now online on the Red Cross website.
    4. Whatever other con committee meetings:
  13. UPDATE MY WEBSITE: Actually, my IT Department (Kris) is already working on this.  This includes checking backdoor WordPress thingies, link thingies, background thingies and other technical thingies.  (This is why I need Kris as my IT Department.)  Some background upkeeping.
  14. CREATE AND PRINT BUSINESS CARDS: I want to have them by the August writers conference.

Dennis

 

157th blog completed.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words.  <– I have to get this number moving again.

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk novel:  73,675 words.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Need to update with notes from the novelization.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

“This was a busy cooking weekend for Dennis.  It started Friday with Oven-Baked Sheet Pan Chicken Quesadillas. https://www.foodtalkdaily.com/recipes/breads/wraps/oven-baked-sheet-pan-chicken-quesadillas-44552818These came out exceptionally good, crispy and loaded with cheese and chicken.  The only suggestion for next time would be to have something to dip them in like salsa, sour cream or green slime – sorry, Kris calls it guacamole.  Be warned, these come out hot from the oven and retain their heat.  Allow five to ten minutes to cool before biting.  I burned my proboscis on this one.

Next was Crock Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni https://www.facebook.com/171768376249627/posts/6295646693861734/   This was like a very cheezy Hamburger Helper.  Really good and makes about a gallon.  I guess you could cut the recipe in half, but it’s hard to cut a can of cream of potato soup in half.  Dennis served it with Monkey Bread, an old but favorite recipe.

And tonight we had Chicken Rice Soup  https://www.thereciperebel.com/chicken-rice-soup  To quote Kris, ‘Oh, crap, this is good.’  It’s a hearty, thick soup and the evaporated milk at the end gives it an extra creaminess.Three winners in one weekend.” – Vincent Reinhart

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