It's good to have goals

My goal, during this week of vacation, was to get to the end of Part One of this first draft of The Sorcerer's Daughter.




It took a little longer than I anticipated, but I made it, just a few minutes ago. And I'm exhausted.


The best part of setting and achieving a goal, though? The opportunity to reward oneself when one hits it.




Now I'm going to celebrate by giving myself a couple of days off from it. I'm going to work on painting and drawing, and catching up on my reading.


Right now I'm reading Berserker's Star, by Fred Saberhagen. If you're not familiar with the Berserker series, I suggest you check it out. The initial idea behind the stories--doomsday machines built by a long extinct civilization, haunting the Galaxy, wiping out life when they find it--is quite interesting to me.


I went out this morning and took some photos of some beautiful lilies that are blooming on the property around here, with an eye towards painting and/or drawing them. That'll be enough to keep me busy for a long while, I think.


I also did a fairly decent colored pencil drawing of a rose, based on a picture a friend sent me. Roses are really hard--there are a ton of subtle details you have to get just right or it won't look like a rose. This one does, sort of. I tried to post a picture of it here but for some reason Google won't let me. Dammit. Well, you're not missing anything, actually, but I was proud of it.


What's my next goal? I want to be finished with Part Two by the end of next month. There will be five parts, altogether, but I've found taking it one piece at a time is the best way to handle this sort of thing. All the while keeping the ending in mind, of course.


But first I'm going to let it rest for two or three days. We all could use the break, I think.