May Update: 2026 Goal Progress Monthly Update

Project Progress

Project #1: book 2 in my main series

I am on the final rounds of edits and it's all looking good. The pace is slow because after 11 years of writing on and off, it's hard to keep on reading it. Hopefully, it just me and not the actual story.

Changes

I've changed the main female character's name to something more elegant. It's a really nice name and suits her more than the first name. Then I'm also working on the cover design. I may add some tattoos to the Hero and main love interest. He is currently shirtless so I'm thinking putting him in a teeshirt or something.

New issues, risks, blockers: None at the moment, I just need to keep on.

Project #8 Complete LinkedIn Learning course or gain 40 CPD/CPE credits
I've now completed 21.8 CPD/CPE credits out of 40 credits. One course proved useful for a job interview so I'm glad I did it.

New issues, risks, blockers: None apart from boredom.

Project Review

Project #7 Watching Instructional videos on BBC Mastro

Yes, I'm doing them slowly. I've done one but I have no real time with everything that I have on. I guess I will start blogging about it, that should help.

I did the Jojo Moyes course and she is quite interesting, then now I'm doing the Lee Child course. I might need to narrow down my goals.

Other Project Status

Project #3: Review romance conference material On Hold
Project #4: Review Jericho conference material On Hold
Project #6: Genre exploration On Hold
Project #9 The cover design course On Hold

Completed

Project #2: Publish my novella Completed
Project #5: Google Drive Review & consolidate tentatively Completed for now.

Comments

Had coffee with a fellow writer, went to an exhibition on West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song at the British Library.

There was a massive Disney Christmas tree at St Pancras Station. I thought I'd start with that picture. Implemented Accounting Guru Genius (AGG) method this morning. I mentioned yesterdays she showed me her way of planning. Well it's kinda like project management critical path and working back but in AGG's way. Well the results where what I sort of knew but it's official. I do too much. I've got so much on that I have make very slow progress with anything then end up procrastinating. So I really need to learn and get this planning and time management method under my belt. The only reason is that it's kinda the only thing I actually got. When AGG first did it, I was amazed. It was so impressive. I kinda forgot about it but it's coming up to the end of the year, and I've made great progress with some goals and projects but others are still hanging. Anyway after putting in all my hours I realised I only had a certain amount of free time. Not a...

The Scale (Martha's Way 1) by Mika Jolie

This is one of the of the best romances I've read in a LONG TIME. I loved it! It's brilliant and even writing a review will not give it justice, but I'll try. Just get it because it's that good, positive and uplifting with a good ending. It’s also funny at times. About the story Most women (or me) can all relate to Minka, the main female character, who like most of us, defines herself by her flaws/issues - a few pounds overweight, insecurity about her body, confidence issues (which thanks goodness doesn't stop her from jumping into bed with Jason) and loves her glass of wine with a nice dessert, and likes to feel sorry for herself at times. And she is supposedly in love with an old college crush - the one she thinks that got away (you’ll need to read the book for more details). So we can all relate to her in one way or another, including her stubbornness in clinging to those issues and using them as an excuse not to get on with her life or even make the way...

Problems with revising my novel and adopting the Chuck Wendig Plan of how to revise your novel.

So I'm still struggling with editing my novel. I took some time out to have a break doing other things. One of them was moaning about editing on this blog and other was looking at ways to tell the story. Now I realise the problem with my story is I have nothing to say. It's as simple as that. I don't really have anything to say give I've completed a novel. To write something you must have something to say - well I don't really. So there lies the problem. You can only revise and edit something if you have an aim in mind. All I want is just to complete the novel which I have. So maybe now I just have to figure what the novel is about. So I discovered Chuck Wendig a novelist and games designer ( Terrible Minds blog ) who swears like a trooper in his blog however has given freely valid and great advice on how to edit a novel. His post called How To Karate Your Novel And Edit That Motherfucker Hard: A No-Foolin’ Fix-That-Shit Editing Plan To Finish The Goddamn Jo...

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