WRITING!
And now the new and improved Cacey....
RUNNING!
So now at least I have two whole things I'm going to post about. And I think I will keep posting, sporadically. I feel like twice a year is a good goal for now (har har.)
So let's start with the first update: writing. I'm usually not one for New Year's resolutions, but I do think it's always a good time to re-evaluate some things in life. My number one goal for this year is to finish my third book and self-publish once again. I suppose it's pretty hard to find motivation some days when you are a self-published author. There are no deadlines, no editors breathing down your necks, no over-eager fans impatiently waiting for you book's release. Okay, I have a few fans waiting for the release of my third book, sure. Anyway, I quickly decided that I needed to set aside some time every day to write and therefore speed the process along some. The kids' school takes up far more time than it used to, which I've always anticipated. My afternoons are usually spent doing chores, working out, showering and such. So that left me with evenings. From now on eight o' clock to nine o' clock is set aside for writing, editing or doing anything that has to do with my book. To make this work, I decided to make that hour also internet free. Unless I'm google-ing something for research for writing purposes, I don't use the internet. I actually found this so helpful, and so freeing that I decided to go completely unplugged from the internet every night starting at eight. It's not as hard as you would think. I put away the iPhone, shut of the wireless on my kindle and forget about it.
This past week I've written a couple thousand words, worked a little on editing and addions. I confess last night I mostly worked on my "soundtrack" but that's just something to keep me inspired. I'm about fifteen chapters in to Final Redemption, and sitting comfortably at 50K words. London Escape was 60K, Finding Sanctuary was 70K, so I'm shooting for somewhere between 70 and 80 this time. Since it's the last of the trilogy (I'm not going to say last of the series, because I'm just not ready to say goodbye yet!) I've got quite a few loose ends to tie up. It should be fun!
Pretty soon I will have to get in touch with the person who designed my cover, but I'm already thinking of a concept. Something like this... (That is Hong Kong, in case you didn't know! That super tall building was the one used in The Dark Knight.)
And now on to our last subject...
I ran my fifth (I can't believe it's my fifth already!) race down in Florida the week after Christmas. All of my races so far have been 5Ks, but this one was a four-miler. My dad (who was running with me) kept checking the weather the days leading up to the race and it never looked good. We woke up Saturday morning to a pretty steady rain, not to mention it was windy and cold. (When you say cold in Florida, that means 50 y'all.) But we went anyway, because we're crazy like that! Fortunately for us, right before the race started, it cleared up enough so that we wouldn't be running in the rain. The first two miles out were downwind, but since it was an out-and-back, as soon as we turned to go back there was a pretty strong headwind. On top of that, in my last mile it started raining! Still, I managed to finish with a fantastic time of 32:47 (that's a 8:11 average yo!). As soon as the race was finished we quickly changed into some dry clothes and waited around for the race results. We were both pretty thrilled to see once the results were posted that we had both won our age groups! I finished 24th overall, and 6th overall female. Needless to say on the way home I was already plotting when I could race again!
Next up for me is the Museum of Avaiton 5K next Saturday. I'm super nervous about this one, because last year they had about 450 people running the 5K alone. Basically I will be lucky if I place in my age group, let alone win it like I have in my previous races. Trying to do some speedwork, so we'll see! Also, on the same day they will be having a half-marathon and a marathon. I'd really like to run the half there next year so I'm excited to scope things out a bit. I really enjoy running in the cooler weather, so I think it's my best option. I also have plans to run the Cantrell Center 5K here in Warner Robins on Feb. 22nd and also might be signing up for my first 10K in March! I'm trying to do about one race a month, just because it's so much fun! I've also been doing a 10K training program on my Nike app. I've run six miles before, so it would be my goal to run and PR, which right now would mean running it in under 57:24.
Me and my dad after the Flora-Bama. The coffee mugs were our prizes for winning. Personally I think medals are much cooler, but oh well! (Don't make fun of my pants, you know they are super cool!)
Until next time! Say...around July?
