New Year, New Goals and New Format

It is a new year and time to roll out the new. But first: a quick Salute to 2013! And a great big Welcome 2014!

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I didn't do much blogging in 2013 in general. I did the change over from It's in the Book on this one, to Fiction and Fitness but haven't done a whole lot after the April blog challenge. But it's a new year and time to get the blog up and running in a more effective and useful manner. And with that, a new background and new post formats. I still plan to do goal type posts at the beginning of each month, but no more Insecure Writing posts. Hope all who take part in the blog hop continue to do well. I have a few other ideas I'm bringing to the blog though.

First, I am going to do a couple more posts on health and fitness. This includes a focus on vegetables segment, which will probably first be in another post, then two weeks later I will post some recipes I tried that incorporated the vegetable showcased.  Thinking twice a month for now on that feature.

Then there is the writing. Aside from talking about my goals for writing each month, at least twice a month after that I need to post updates. This will in particular focus on what I've written, edited, submitted and any books/publications I've read.

The big thing is simply, blog on a regular basis. Now for the goals part of the blog.

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I did goals for 2013. Here is the results of those goals.
Writing (novels)
Edit TT and SG, send to test readers, prepare for submission (edited TT, sent to test readers, on final edit, however just started SG edit barely).
Finish first draft of AF, OiEM, LtW and/or AD, TK, GaD (Finished TK and almost done with AF).
Try not to start new novel at least until November if at all (Fail but by accident, shorts became novel ideas).
Be closer to submitting by my birthday (Was closer though not there yet).

Reading
read 50 books/manga/etc (Not even close, with manga and such think the total is 20).

Life
Eat healthier (eh, need to write this goal better for next year, be more precise)
Make progress in life plans (In ways yes but always room for improvement).


Now for 2014 Goals

Writing
Finish final TT Edit.
Edit SG.
Finish first draft of 2 YA Novels.
Submit more short fiction to markets. (this breaks a goal making rule, but I am not specific for my year goal because each month I plan to make a specific goal for this item)
Read 15 books
Blog once a week minimum, taking all blogs into consideration.

Fitness
Change diet over from fast and cheap, to vegetables and home cooked but cheap.
Do a physical activity for 30 minutes 3 days a week, not counting work.
Lose 25 lbs. (Current weight is 217).



January Goals
Write 4 short stories
Submit 5 items to publications.
Finish writing AF
Work on TT Edit
Start Vegetable focus using canned, frozen and fresh veggies.



How did 2013 go for you?
Do you have any goals for 2014? Any goals just for January?

New Name, Slight Change

As some may have noticed, the title of this blog has changed along with the link. This used to be It's In The Book, located at itsinthbookde.blogspot.com. However, the time came for a change. I'm still writing and hope to be ready to submit in search of an agent this year. I still will blog about my writing here, and general writing topics over at dawnembers.blogspot.com and am trying to get to a regular blogging schedule. This change is for the good, to give me a good place to focus my energy and stay motivated in my goals for the year, along with life.


Some might think it's a strange or bad move to put two different focuses on the same blog, since they say a blog should focus on one topic only. I disagree because the two topics have a connection and in a way this is the closest thing to a diary I will ever have since I don't like writing about myself most of the time. I have to break that here, but it's a challenge, and I'm going to accept that fact. Now instead of rambling, I should actually get to the explanation.

Image links:

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ampersand image

fitness image

The blog is now: Fiction & Fitness

There are a few reasons behind this change that require me to give some personal information about myself. As I discussed on an April post for the A to Z challenge once, I am short. I don't know the conversion to my height, but for where I live, I'm 4 feet, 11.5 inches. So, almost 5 feet tall but never quite made it. I am female, if my pen name doesn't give that away and like many people I am overweight. (Now it sounds like one of those anonymous support groups...) While writing is great, it's not the most active venture. I can spend hours just sitting on the computer writing or pretending I'm writing. I'm not the most active and certainly not in shape, and despite the years of sports as a kid/pre-teen/teen, have never been in shape or fit. So, I decided time for a change.

I struggled to come up with a title for this blog because I wanted to combine my focus on writing and my focus on getting healthier into the same place. I could have started a blog for just health but I have too many blogs already and think this combination will work out in its own way. When it comes down to it, the real issue is what I am going to make priorities in my life and I want both. I want to both write novels and have a healthy life.

The name came after quite a struggle. I considered things like writing to a healthy life and what not but each one I thought of made it sound like I was writing books about health. To clarify, no I'm not writing a health book. A search through the dictionary showed "fitness" as a synonym to the word "health". I thought about it and liked the idea of Fiction and Fitness. I hope that this doesn't confuse anyone and it showcases that this blog is about my writing fiction and my journey to a fit life. That is my intentions in the end.

That is why this blog has the new name and focus. Next I will post about my goals in a couple of days, some things I want to accomplish, how to accomplish them, and I might even consider posting pictures. Have to wait to find out.