Regular readers will recall that I did not post goals for November. Right around the first I was much preoccupied with life, and writing a progress and goals report was beyond my capabilities. But it’s now a new month. I’m writing this on Dec. 1st to post on the 2nd, and I’ll do my end of the month normal post.

First, the goals, for which you have to go way back to October to see.

• Complete some significant work on The Key To Time Travel. I will have four days (starting today) where I will be somewhat cloistered, and hope to write 4,000 words those days. For the month I’ll double that and set a goal of 8,000 words. With a little discipline, that is quite do-able. Alas, I did almost nothing the last two months, not even on those “cloistered days.” I did some editing based on critique group comments, but almost no new writing.
• Finish the Bible study A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I should get a report on viability soon. Indeed, a preliminary report on that indicates it is good. Note that, if I’m not mistaken, this is a renumbering of the Bible study, splitting part 1 into two and renumbering those after it. I did nothing on this. I finally heard back from a beta reader, and he proclaimed it good.
• Attend three writers meetings, all in person. Actually, I may fit in a fourth meeting. I’m also considering joining in on an on-line group. I attended my regular meetings in October and November. There were a couple of more I could have gone to, but was satisfied with the ones I did attend. I also had two author events in November, which took up time.

What about goals for December?

• Finish The Key To Time Travel. I know, I know. I can hear my regular readers laughing, after all the failures to achieve even modest goal for this book. But my special projects are done; only a few straggler items remain to be put in place. So I should be able to spend a lot of time on it. Monday to Thursday this week, I wrote over 5,000 words on it. I’m on a roll. I have most of the plot items reasonably well worked out. I hope to finish this and give it to my grandchildren to read before the end of the month.
• Blog twice a week, Monday and Friday.
• Attend three writers’ meetings. I may even slip in a fourth.
• Read at least some of the Bible study I’ve set aside. I’m going to read it for my own morning devotions. Since it’s been around six months since I’ve even looked at it, I’ll be coming at it kind of cold, so it might be a good test of how well the Bible study reads for its daily reading feature.

That’s it. See you all on January 2 with a report.

Yes, the last day of the month is here. Time to give a report of my stewardship of my time and reveal what I got done for the month and what I didn’t. Also time to set some goals for October. First, the progress.

• Attend 3 writers group meetings, all in person, including making a presentation at the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society on 9/13. Did this, and my presentation at the NWALWS went well, with reasonably good attendance.
• Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday, as always. Got this done, with no filler posts
• Concentrate my limited writing time on The Key To Time Travel. I won’t put a word or chapter goal. I’m in the middle of Chapter 2 currently. I worked very little on this. I looked at it, read it all over, made some edits. But I don’t think I added more than 200 words. Next month should be better.
• Figure out how to make a trailer for my Bible study, Death Kindly Stopped For Me. It will be a simple trailer, but lots to study to make it happen. I worked on this, but wasn’t able to get it done. I have a power point done, but can’t figure out how to make it run automatically.
• Hopefully, get back to work on the two Bible studies I set aside a couple of months ago. One needs only an introduction and maybe 1,000 more words in the narrative to be finished. The other I estimate at 70 percent finished. Sure would be nice to find an hour here and there to work on them. Did not work on this at all, other than to touch base with the retired pastor who is reviewing one of them, to see when I might have his input.

So, it wasn’t a very productive month in terms of writing. But, in terms of special project, it was productive. I finished the Stars and Stripes inventory on Monday. On Wednesday I had a very good day digitizing letters, and am close to the end of the notebook I’ve been working on. The overall project is a long way from being done, but progress is being made. I’m at the point where soon I’ll feel good about backing off somewhat and getting back to writing.

And so, here are my goals for October.

• Complete some significant work on The Key To Time Travel. I will have four days (starting today) where I will be somewhat cloistered, and hope to write 4,000 words those days. For the month I’ll double that and set a goal of 8,000 words. With a little discipline, that is quite do-able.
• Finish the Bible study A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I should get a report on viability soon. Indeed, a preliminary report on that indicates it is good. Note that, if I’m not mistaken, this is a renumbering of the Bible study, splitting part 1 into two and renumbering those after it.
• Attend three writers meetings, all in person. Actually, I may fit in a fourth meeting. I’m also considering joining in on an on-line group from time to time. Just considering, for right now.
• Blog twice a week. I have a number of book reviews lined up.
• Continue with special projects. That’s not necessarily writing related. In October, I expect to finish digitizing the letters notebook I’m working on, and to finish proofreading the Kuwait Letters book. I’d like to say I will also finish adding photos to it and reformatting it, but that might be a bit much.

So there it is. A little more ambitious than the September goals. We’ll see if I can pull it off.

It’s time for progress and new goals. I’ll say right off that I didn’t make as much progress last month as I’d hoped. I got things done, but not all on my list. The busyness may be easing a little, and perhaps June will be more productive.

• Finish preparing for my presentation to the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society at the May 10 meeting. I finished the preparation in good time and made the presentation. Alas, only two people showed up: our leader, and one a friend of mine from church who came to hear me. Possibly I’ll give this presentation again someday.
• Complete all tasks and publish There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Very do-able, I think. We are so close on this. I began writing this post and this item long before the day of posting. Possibly I’ll be able to edit this, before the post goes live, and say “Done!”
• Attend writers meetings. There will be 5 or 6 this month, two in person and three or four on-line. I attended the two in-person meetings, and they were good. I decided to back off a little and am taking a break from the on-line group for a while. I attended the first two and left off the last two.
• Make good progress on the second Bible study while I wait to hear from my beta reader on the first. No, I didn’t get a lot done on this. The unexpected Centennial work, combined with things I had to do around the house, kept me from concentrating enough to complete these. Also, a glitch of some kind meant my beta reader never received the document to review. That’s been corrected now and I’m awaiting that review.
• Finish those website updates. I think I have less than 30 minutes of work on this. Not done. Such a small item. Will go on the list for June.
• Complete work on the Centennial research notes. I think this will be another 2 or possibly 3 hours of work. I was not able to find the little bit of time needed to do this. Partly that was due to the Committee asking me to help with a new task, which took a lot more than the couple of hours I wanted to devote to the research notes. Put it on next month’s to-do list.
• As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Yes, got this done. In something of a rhythm now.

So much for what I accomplished in May. What’s planned—or hoped for—in June? Some of it will sound much like May’s list.

• Work on my unfinished Bible study, A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 3. Although I still don’t have feedback on Part 4 (I know, this is another out-of-order situation with my writing), I want to at least finish this part.
• Take a long look at my writing and sales, and decide which of several major projects comes next. I have several directions to go. I don’t anticipate being able to actually start on my next project this month. It would be good, however, to finish the month at least knowing what it is.
• Finish the Centennial research notes.
• Finish the updates to my website. That will include adding the new book to my list of publications.
• Attend two in-person writers groups, or three if you include the letter writers society. I’m not sure when I’ll be getting back to the on-line group.
• Work on Tales Of A Vagabond. I’ll have to devote a post to this.

Writing this on May 3 for posting on May 6. Lots done last month, ambitious goals for this month.

• More work on those pesky research notes for the church Centennial book. I don’t know that I’ll worry about whether I finish it or not. Another hour or two will result in being close to done. I did what I said I would. Spent some time on it. It’s not done, but it’s further along.
• Continue inching along with There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Not much for me to do but work with the cover creator and do a little more editing, by myself and with the critique group. And, inching along it continues. I made another editing pass, heard back a little from beta readers, and the cover artist/creator made significant progress. I think it will be published in May. I hope it will.
• Work on the two Bible studies hand-in-hand. I anticipate finishing the “guts” of the one for this year, on Gethsemane and Arrest. The one on the Last Supper I don’t expect to finish, but who knows? I’m actually ahead of where I expected to be by this time, so maybe I can get the “guts” of it done too. I did finish the one on Gethsemane and Arrest. I also made significant progress on the other, but nowhere near finishing.
• Attend writers groups.  Three will be in-person, and three on-line.  Done. Missed two due to the heart diagnostic procedure.
• Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. Done, with a little help from writing ahead and scheduling the posts.
• Continue work on the “Available Works” part of my web site. Based on how much I have done, I ought to be able to do this. I’m not quite sure what I had in mind when I made this a goal. I was able to do more work on that section of my website, though it’s not quite done. Something for next month, I suppose.
• One irregular item: Work on and finish the presentation I’m scheduled to make to the Northwest Arkansas Letter Writers Society on May 10. I have what I want to say planned out, have begun writing it, and have pulled together some graphics for a power point presentation. I worked on this but did not finish it. That may be my main work for the next week.

As for May goals, I’m not sure it will be a very productive month, but will set ambitious goals.

• Finish preparing for my presentation to the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society at the May 10 meeting. I would say that as of the date of this writing (May 3), I’m 50% done with prep work.
• Complete all tasks and publish There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Very do-able, I think.
• Attend writers meetings. There will be 5 or 6 this month, two in person and three or four on-line.
• Make good progress on the second Bible study while I wait to hear from my beta reader on the first.
• Finish those website updates. I think I have less than 30 minutes of work on this.
• Complete work on the Centennial research notes. I think this will be another 2 or possibly 3 hours of work.
• As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday.