As I may have mentioned, I am a goal-oriented person. I have yearly goals, monthly goals, and even weekly goals. I attend a weekly productivity meeting, just so I can check in and keep myself on track. This year, things are going okay. I knew it would be something of a transitional year for me, but I’m moving along at a reasonable pace.
The exception to this has been my blog. My goal for 2026 was to write twenty-four (24) blog posts; two per month. While the year started out with some leeway, thanks to the manatee expedition, I racked up a few posts to keep me comfortable. I am sad to say that advantage has passed. With this post, I have eighteen (18) blog posts. This means in the remaining eight weeks of 2026, I need to crank out a post around once a week. The last post of the year will be my 2026 goals recap, so that means five original topics to go. I had better get to doing something interesting.
In my last blog post, at the end of September, most of my art had returned home from the Pacific Artists’ Co-Op Gallery. One painting did go out again; Presence went to the fall Watercolor Society of Oregon show. Coincidently, today it’s coming back.
Since then, I have neglected painting. I needed some down time. I did some journal scribbles. I made progress on my latest sculpture. I made some walnut paint and played with it. No real idea why.
Most of my attention has been fixed on writing. With the extra time from not working at the gallery, I’ve made good progress on book 4 (now titled Sniffed Out).
I also took a query class during the month of October. For those who don’t know, a query is a short letter to an agent or publisher requesting representation. There are tons of dos and donts and doing a good one is an art. The class ended with a “pitch in the round”. Basically, in front of a bunch of people, you get a chance to have your query letter read by a literary agent and then the agent critiques it. I was so pleased with my nice, tight, short query letter. The feedback was… (drumroll)… the book summary needs to be longer and tell us more.
Well, it’s good I’m working on it now rather than when it’s necessary. I guess.
As a bonus, I have a short video below on the progress of my latest sculpture, Marcellus II. He’s not done yet, but I’m hoping for good things.