It's been a while (8 months, to be precise!) since my last ROW80 post - back then, I was in Germany, finishing up a 2-week long course in the Bavarian mountain town of Garmisch - now I'm writing from my latest home-away-from home at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
That's life when your full-time job is as an officer of Marines, and writing is something you squeeze in where you can! Suffice to say that I've been very busy standing up a new unit and deploying with them half-way around the world - on top of that, I'm teaching a college class and a French class out here to help my fellow Marines and Soldiers advance their careers - so, why ROW80 on top of all that?
Simple! I really do need to get back to writing, and I've found that nothing is as good for maintaining accountability and progress on the literary front as weekly ROW80 check-ins!
So, here are my initial goals for this Round of Words...
WRITING
- Post one Chapter of The Perfidious Mister Wickham each week.
- Write one Chapter of my Learning Indonesian book each week.
- Finish The Artillerists (short story)
- Finish Merry Christmas, Mister Washington (short story)
- Finish Ho B-52 (short story)
PUBLISHING
- Start the Parasol Books imprint
FITNESS
- Add 5 lbs per week to my Bench Press
- Drop 1/2 percent bodyfat each week
LANGUAGE
- Five hours of studying French per week
NETWORKING
- Work on establishing a better social media presence.
- Add 2 people to my "Core Group" each week.
A key difference in this round as opposed to previous iterations is that I have tried to tie the majority of my goals to weekly progress - rather than say, "I'm going to write 10 chapters" I've said "a chapter a week" - that gives me something to focus on and it's progress that can't be "put off" more than a few days. We shall see if that results in a more productive Round of Words this time.
Well, that's that! I wish you all a wonderful and productive Round Two, and look forward to popping in to your blogs to check out your progress as the Round progresses!
Best regards,
Edward
p.s. If you are a Jane Austen fan, I cordially invite you to take a peek at the prologue to The Perfidious Mister Wickham - not a continuation, nor an adaptation, this unique work looks at Mister Darcy, the Bennet family, and a wide array of late Georgian and early Regency historical and literary figures through the eyes of the eponymous scoundrel! See what wickedness Wickham was up to before he arrived in Meryton, how he seduced (or was seduced by) Lydia Bennet in Brighton, and what became of their scandalously patched-up marriage after their carriage rolled away from Longbourn.
