Is that all?

I’ve decided on a compromise. I will tell you a bit about my writing lately and then I will cover some of my goals that I’ve been working at and some that I’ve finished this past seven or eight months.

To the story writing first. I’m less the thrilled with my level of writing on some of this so far, and I need to really apply myself better to it, but at the same time some of my work is really interesting and fun. The fairy tale format is wonderful to work in and I have a feeling that it is something I will revisit even after the few I’ve started for this venture. I think part of me is disheartened by the number of projects I’ve started and yet find little myself wanting more feedback to. I would really love to see more donations go to http://www.firstgiving.com/rovingjack . As it stands now I have one donation from a person in an online community. He has my great thanks for it.

On top of that I posted some sample hand drawn mazes as reward for donations and advertising for an e-book of mazes I plan to release online for sale in the future and that too has gone with no comment.

So part of my struggle right now is that this entire thing is like laughing in an empty room. Fun at first but then you just seem crazy.

But Part of the up side of these writings is I’m getting practice, and testing new directions for myself. Growing as an artist. Also I am finding several story settings that appeal to me as worthy of revisiting in new stories, sequels and further world building.

I think my muses are enjoying the new playgrounds. Maybe I should build one solely for them or at least one where they can take up residence when they like. I don’t know are muses like house elves, let go when presented with a gift?

Well anyway the long and short of it is that it’s hard and a struggle but a fun struggle. At times that seems to be building a road to a future for my writings.

As to the other list of things I’m doing…

Shortly after starting my list of goals at the big fun scary challenge I rediscovered a site I’d forgotten about some months before. It seemed like a compatible site with what I was doing with my life, so I joined a site called http://www.43things.com where you build a list of 43 things you want to do and mark them off when you have completed them. You can search goals and find others doing the same things and post updates on your progress.

So far I’ve been able to mark off as completed:
Attend a lecture on Renaissance medicine. (That was an easy and enjoyable one)
Designed and crafted my own signet ring. (I used it to stamp the top of my message in a bottle)
Make a set of runes (similar to my signet ring, and lead me to thing of a new line of jewelry that I really must get to work on sometime soon, I’m not much of a business man though)
Make a star wars lightsaber out of simple cheap materials that I might be able to turn into a workshop at the next convention.
Wrote a letter to my future self. (This was someoneelses idea but I loved it).
Make a blog (if you can’t find it …)
Run my panel at connecticon. (I ran four and enjoy all of the rest I could get to)
Create a website (http://www.minisite.com/rovingjack)
Message in a bottle (I’m hoping to see this project grow)
Make dorodango (shiny mud balls, a Japanese thing, really kind of fun, google it.)
And while it ran I participated in something called art challenge. Where members would post a one sentence or word topic and the challenge was to create something in a form of art to do with the topic. I hadn’t done any poetry in years and so I picked that as my format, and we managed to get three topics I think before everybody got too busy to keep up.

I had rather enjoyed the challenge. But I marked it done so that I could move on when no more topics came up. I’ve been thinking for some time on another type of challenge. I like creating art and items from found materials and thought it might be fun to set a container out or invite mailed in entries. People send me random things and I create art or jewelry from them, post up the pictures and sell the item online. The final sale price being part of the challenge. Those that donate get credit toward buying anything I create.

I did sort of start a request for some stuff. I posted that I wanted to get people to donate cleaned and dried fruit pits. You know like peaches and plums and apricots and dates. I’d even take certain seeds like apple and citrus. Basically anything stony (avocado is like a giant nut and not good for much, but if challenged I could work with that too). No takers yet. Maybe I’ll post a separate blog post just detailing that idea.

Anyway, that’s just what I’ve completed, I have thirty some odd others I’m still working on. More about those some other time. Tonight I’ve got some things to do to prep for the yard sale tomorrow.

Look for a post by Monday. Until then…
Take care of yourselves,Roving Jack