Back Bedroom Rehab Project Progress 2

I didn't keep great notes or photos for the work I did in January. I do remember doing an Internet search to learn that once paneling warps there is no way to flatten it back out. All of it was covered in mildew, so yanking out was the way to go. I started with the sheet rock on the ceiling and got what was left up there down.

And then the camera started being a butt again, so I didn't take any pictures of tearing off the paneling. But I found old termite damage on the ceiling, so the scope of the project expanded. The rest of the sheet rock need to come down so I can see if there is any structural damage to the wood holding up the roof.

Plenty of nasty stuff hit the floor, so I borrowed my parents' shop vac for the duration. Oh boy, I'm going to be so spoiled going back to the regular vacuum cleaner. I'm so tempted to clean the whole house with the shop vac.

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The BookWorm

The Force Awakens

Once, a few decades ago, here in this galaxy… my father took me to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. So when the Force Awakens was given a December 2015 release date, it was inevitable as a Sith apprentice killing his master that I was taking him to it for Christmas. We went Saturday Dec. 19th and it has taken me this long to blog about it. :p

And here's the obligatory warning for spoilers and relentless gushing of my first fandom. Turn back at the Death Star and proceed back to hyperspace.

2015 My Year In Fic

2015 My Year in Fic

2015 Fiction Word Count

Progress Bar from Writertopia

This year was interesting. It seems like I forgot my plans halfway through the year and then lost that time. And I did this while having the plans plastered eye-level at my desk right where I couldn't miss them.

It also explains why after I wrapped up edits around November, I got that restless antsy feeling. Luckily, a conversation with a friend made me remember that Strix: Forget the Sun was outlined and ready to write, so I dived into its rough draft to make the antsy go away. But it was only this week as I pulled my trackers and metrics together that I realized I hadn't wrote anything since May!

Yeah, I'm lucky I didn't go bonkers on people way earlier than that. Other changes to this year: working on the laptop. In all honesty, I can't point to more words written as proof of improvement and there was a time period where I didn't pull it out while at the paying job (crossing fingers that the layoff merry-go-round is finished for the next four years at least). But overall, I think it helps not having my progress ground to a screeching halt whenever I travel. We'll say 2015 was my learning year and see what my results are in 2016.

Stories I Finished:

Signs and Portents: Trinity was finished and published at the Library, AO3, and FF.net.

Part of the Night: The One Rule is posted at the Library. My edits are done for it to go up at FF.net and new copy is ready to go up at AO3.

Part of the Night: The Wayne Legacy is posted at the Library. My edits are done for it to go up at FF.net and new copy is ready to go up at AO3.

Stories I Didn't Finish:

Strix: Forget the Sun counts here because I picked it up again. The Zy's Universe counts here because I dropped it so utterly.

My favorite story this year: Signs and Portents: Trinity. It's a Man of Steel fix-it fic, but I love the little things in it so much. And the flash mob reenacting "Welcome Christmas."

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Signs and Portents: Trinity hasn't gotten the reviews that other stories in the series had, but the reader I dedicated it to saw it so it's all good.

Most fun story: The Wayne Legacy, I had so much fun Nolan-izing the Batman canon.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: Signs and Portents: Trinity took me way too long to come up with a framework for the story.

Hardest story to write:

Biggest disappointment: That I forgot about Zy's Universe.

Biggest surprise: Having gone from May to December without writing anything.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? WAY less.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I learned how to best use my laptop.

Did you meet last year's goals?

• Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe. -- I never finished my read-throughs and didn't get to edits.
• Submit a horror short story to an anthology. -- I must have missed all the deadlines for this.
• Finish The Wayne Legacy -- Done, except for posting at FF.net
• Finish the last story in the Signs and Portents series -- Done
• Post 12 updates to Facebook -- I set this one up to get over my dislike of using Facebook. Yeah, that didn't work.
• Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank -- That just didn't work but I'm not sure why.
• Make changes to the BookWorm's Library -- Okay, I did do these.

Do you have any goals for the coming year? The goals from my 2016 one-page business plan are:

• Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe.
  • Edit Stellar Gift of Death to a draft ready for beta reading
  • Edit "Words of Parting" according to the feedback I got
  • Edit "Blue Man on the Porch" to a draft ready for beta reading
  • Write a short story on Xeryl's background
  • Write the Ail 12 on vacation case that ended in a shootout (new take on the "Case of the Hideous Medallion")
  • Plot two sequels to Stellar Gift of Death
  • Begin writing the next novel in the series
• Finish rough draft of Strix: Forget the Sun
• Establish a dedicated writing hour
• Post 12 updates on Facebook. Proving I am a glutton for punishment, this is back on the list. But I did give myself an out by just cross posting stuff I wrote in the blog.
• Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank
• Redevelop FanFiction Garret -- Basically it died because I couldn't keep the back end updated. I've got new tools now, and it's also lowest on the list of priorities here.

Here's to 2016. It can only get better.

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The BookWorm