The last few weeks...

Man, I've been flying through January! I can't believe it's already almost over.

Before I begin, let me just say I'm going to work extra hard to keep up this blog. I'm sorry that I haven't written much, so I'm going to go ahead and tell you everything that's been going on. (This will be a long entry, since there's a lot to catch up on.)

First of all, I've been working on e-publishing my first novel, "Eternity Game." When I'm finished, it'll be free to download on at least the Kindle and the Nook. The first book will be free, so I'm hoping, when I publish the second and third, those that like it will show their support by buying them. I still need to design a cover and change the format of the manuscript. I've downloaded the program "Calibri" to convert the Word document into e-book format (I know, it doesn't do Word documents, but it does do RTFs, which you can make through Word). I've heard good things about it. I also proofread the manuscript one more time. I'm sure I didn't catch everything, but I feel confident that it at least doesn't look unprofessional. This process will probably take a few more weeks, but I think it will be finished, or very close to being finished, by February.

I've also started trying to promote myself through more than just this blog. I just joined Twitter under the name WriterNancyGray. I've also made an account on Amwriting.org. Even though I've really just gotten started on these things, I'm hoping to keep them up as well. The next step is joining forums I enjoy and becoming more involved on the Amwriting site, which I plan to do. I've been wanting to become more involved in the writing community anyway, this e-pub stuff just kind of made me quit dragging my feet.

Christmas went pretty well. We threw one party which was a lot of fun, and went to a New Years party with our friends which was also very fun. We spent some time with our families, and most of the presents we got this year were things that we really needed. It's a telltale sign that you're getting older when the gifts you get the most excited about are a new comforter for the bed, an electric can opener, a punch bowl, and a rug shampooer. Still, it wasn't all good this time around. Sadly, the next day, the snow day, one of our cats died. We don't know how it happened. We think it happened in the middle of the night, and it was probably pretty sudden, possibly from a heart attack or aneurysm. She was a young cat, and we miss her very much. Even though I've been taking it pretty hard, the way I see it, taking care of her was a gift from God. We were lucky we got to be her steward, and we'll see her again someday. It was very sad though.

I didn't really make many resolutions for New Years. My only resolution for this year was to get pregnant. I think that will probably happen soon. I got off the pills in December and I'm letting nature take it's course. Wish me luck. Since I'll be looking to have a baby, I can't really make a resolution to lose weight, so I didn't. Still, I've decided that I'm going to try to get back into exercising everyday and start getting up early. Getting up early has been difficult, but I've been doing it. That will probably go out the window when I get pregnant though. As for the exercise, I've been using my exercise bike almost every day, but what I'd really like to do is take some sort of dance class. We'll see.

I'm still writing on that fantasy story. So far, I don't think it's too bad. Like I said, it's an experiment in writing in the first person. I'm on page 70, about 27,000 words into it. So far, so good. I might put a writing sample from it up in the near future. It's a very dark story, to the point that I feel it's almost too dark. It needs some sort of relief, maybe not comic relief, but some sort of lull in the abuse of the main character. I'll have to think on it. Still, I'm glad to say that I'm finally inspired to write again and the writer's block is (for now) officially over. Thank you, Jesus!

I guess that pretty much catches me up to where I am now. Like I said, I'll try to be more diligent on writing in this blog. Like I said, my goal is once a week, and this is, mind you, a goal not a resolution. Everyone breaks their New Year's resolutions, but I try to take my goals seriously. (And, before you start pointing fingers and asking, "What about that web comic?" Let me clarify, I take goals seriously only if they are attainable and don't make me feel bad about myself. I've finally admitted that I've lost my touch at graphic design. Hopefully, I won't lose my touch on writing.