Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of February:

1. Launch my first book!
2. Continue work on my current outline.
3. Get back to editing my second book.
4. Meet up with a few friends to catch up.
5. Go see a movie with my mom.
6. Finish reading at least two books
7. Give blood.
8. Celebrate Valentine’s Day!
9. Continue decluttering.

I’m so excited to launch my first book! Thanks to everyone for their support so far. I really appreciate it! I’m making the final touches on the paperback and ebook. I plan to celebrate a little bit as well.

Our next blood drive is this Saturday. We are getting ready to celebrate 23 years of blood drives soon!

I’m excited to take a few days off of work soon. I’m spending some time with several friends, and I’m looking forward to taking my mom to a movie and enjoying time with her.

My goal for decluttering this month is to clean off the couch in my office, find homes for everything, and start reading there more frequently.

What about you? Do you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

I had a very successful January!

I made major progress with my book. I learned about formatting and a lot of other stuff with Amazon KDP. It’s really easy once you spend some time in it. There are videos and guides for everything!

We enjoyed celebrating Al’s birthday. His parents came down the weekend before. We went to The Bier Garden, an excellent German restaurant in downtown Portsmouth. On his actual birthday later the following week, we did surf and turf, his favorite. Yum!

I worked a bit more on my office. I also went through all the paperwork and mail that we had in various places. There’s a large shred pile now. My next goal is to completely clean off the couch in my office and find homes for everything.

What about you? Did you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of January:

1. Continue preparations for launching my first book!
2. Celebrate Al’s birthday!
3. Schedule more blog posts.
4. Continue decluttering.

Yes, you read that right. I’m finally publishing my first book! As of this writing, I just created a new page here on Hot Shot Headlines for my books – Check out the Books page for more information. I’m looking forward to launching my book, What Happens at Camp … in about a month’s time. Keep an eye out on February 21, 2023! I appreciate everyone’s support here on the blog for many, many years. It’s finally happening!!

I’ve been so busy with the holidays and preparing to launch my book that I haven’t posted very much on here. I hope to get back to a regular posting schedule in the next few weeks.

When I haven’t been working or deep into learning everything about Kindle Direct Publishing, I’ve been decluttering my house. I went through all my clothes and closet. I donated three huge garbage bags full of clothes and shoes. We bought another Shark vacuum which is the exclusive upstairs vacuum.

I’m anticipating another closet clean-out when it gets warmer. The next step is my office, and then the garage.

What about you? Do you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of August:

1. Donate blood. — Accomplished!
2. Celebrate my birthday! — Accomplished!
3. Recap my Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022 efforts. — Accomplished!
4. Write my annual Reflections On My Birthday blog post. — Accomplished!
5. Publish one Book Review. — Did not accomplish yet.
6. Read before bed at least 2-3 times per week. — Semi-Achieved.
7. Continue my writing sprints and work on book #4. — Semi-Achieved.

I was able to donate at our last drive. My iron was off the charts, yay! I couldn’t quite fill the bag, but it happens.

My birthday was wonderful. Relaxing. I’m glad I took a couple of days off work to have a long weekend.

I was very successful with Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022! I enjoyed working on my third book. I felt like I was getting close to the end!

I celebrated on August 21st. After several more writing sprints, I called the first draft of my third book finished. It clocks in at 109,000 words. The most I’ve ever written!

I haven’t started working on book #4 yet, but hopefully soon!

I’ve started reading again at night. My mom gave me another book for my birthday, and I’ve been enjoying that one.

Come back tomorrow to see my goals for September!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of August:

1. Donate blood.
2. Celebrate my birthday!
3. Recap my Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022 efforts.
4. Write my annual Reflections On My Birthday blog post.
5. Publish one Book Review.
6. Read before bed at least 2-3 times per week.
7. Continue my writing sprints and work on book #4.

What about you? Do you have any goals for the month of August?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of July:

1. Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022. — Accomplished!
2. Publish at least one Book Review. — Did not accomplish yet.
3. Spend some time away, take vacation! — Accomplished!
4. Clean off the couch in my office. — Did not accomplish yet.
5. Participate in the 2022-2023 P.E.O. Convention Committee Transition meeting. — Accomplished!
6. Finish my part of the 2022 P.E.O. Virginia State Convention committee report. — Semi-Achieved.
7. Send off my thredUP Clean Out Kit. — Did not accomplish yet.

I had a blast with Camp NaNoWriMo this month. Look for a recap post about that tomorrow!

I’m slowing getting back to my reading. It feels good.

We took a long weekend and enjoyed time with Al’s parents. It wasn’t long enough, but it inspired us to book a longer vacation in the fall. Did we actually decide / commit to taking a whole week of vacation for the first time in six years? Yes please!

The P.E.O. Convention Committee Transition meeting was great! There were lots of good questions, and a good time was had by all. The 2023 Convention Committee is supremely organized! Looking forward to seeing their work next year in Richmond!

I’m working away on the committee report. I’m planning to be done by the end of August!

What about you? Did you have any goals for the month of July?

Come back tomorrow to see my August Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of July:

1. Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022.
2. Publish at least one Book Review.
3. Spend some time away, take vacation!
4. Clean off the couch in my office.
5. Participate in the 2022-2023 P.E.O. Convention Committee Transition meeting.
6. Finish my part of the 2022 P.E.O. Virginia State Convention committee report.
7. Send off my thredUP Clean Out Kit.

What about you? Do you have any goals for the month of July?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of June:

1. Donate blood. — Accomplished!
2. Clean off the couch in my office and keep it clean. — Did not accomplish yet.
3. Make progress with cleaning and organizing the garage. — Did not accomplish yet.
4. Submit my ancestryDNA kit. — Accomplished!
5. Donate a lot of American Girl items to Trey’s Dolls. — Accomplished!
6. Continue reading most nights before bed. — Did not accomplish yet.
7. Send off my thredUP Clean Out Kit. — Did not accomplish yet.
8. Publish at least one Book Review. — Did not accomplish yet.
9. Make progress in editing book #2. — Did not accomplish yet.
10. Prepare for Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022! — Accomplished!

June flew by. I can’t believe July starts tomorrow. 2022 is already half over!

I was able to successfully donate blood at our drive on June 4th. My iron was really high – 14! We found out after the drive ended that we passed a milestone – 8,000 units collected since starting the drives in April 2000. We’ll be celebrating that at the August drive!

I finally submitted my ancestryDNA kit! I should get the results 6-8 weeks from when I mailed it in. Once I get the results, I’ll likely make a post about it.

I boxed up a beautiful Kirsten doll and two big boxes of American Girl clothes, shoes, hangers, and a few accessories, and shipped it to Trey’s Dolls. Vicki was so sweet and posted photos on the AG Obsessed Facebook group. I’m glad it got there safely. I still have more organizing to do at home, but I’m happy that my load / haul has been lightened, and it’s all going to a great cause! It turns out that they had just gotten a Tenney doll to rehab and donate, but didn’t have any clothes for her. I sent several Tenney outfits in my shipment, so Vicki was over the moon about that.

I’m very excited to kick off Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022 tomorrow! My goal is to write 30,000 more words and finish the first draft of book #3, which I started during NaNoWriMo 2014. I’ve worked on it off and on since then. I made the biggest progress with this one during NaNoWriMo 2021, where I crushed the 50,000 word goal for the first time ever. I ended up writing 53,793 words during November 2021, and I was astounded. Look for a recap post about Camp at the beginning of August!

What about you? Did you have any goals for the month of June?

Come back tomorrow to see my July Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂