Read this on galpod.com. The holidays' rush is definitely palpable now. What with Christmas concerts and parties and pantos and lights and ice skating, our family's schedule is pretty full. We try to get everything in before we head to Israel for the break, and it's been a mad dash so far. And December is looking similar. Goals for November Go over the LP manuscript again, read aloud. Not yet, but I'm close. Should be done by the end of the week. Finish a first draft of The M

Read this on galpod.com. It's been a busy month. We had half-term (a week with the kids at home), plus my son turned 10(!), so there was much celebration. And then, of course, Halloween, our favourite holiday, to cap everything up. As always, I haven't met all my goals. Here's the rundown. Goals for October Finish re-writing LP manuscript in the first person. YES! I did! I still need to go over everything and make it more literary, but it's all in the first person now. Pick f

Read this on galpod.com. It's been an interesting month. I'll jump right in with going over the goals I set for myself for September, and I'll talk a little about how it's going in the end. September Goals Progress 1. Re-write the main scenes in LP: I've done the re-write of three more scenes. Initially, I wanted to do the main ones first, but then I decided to go by order. The thing about re-writing a story is that it's never done, so I think I need to be more precise about

Read this on galpod.com. For me, the school year is much more significant than the calendar year. It has to do with a lot of things, including having kids and being out-of-commission writing-wise throughout school holidays, but also the fact we don't celebrate Christmas and New Year isn't such a big deal for us, and possibly being in school for such a long time (12 years regular school + 10 in university). So, I've decided to spend some time thinking about the projects I'm ta

Read this on galpod.com. I read quite a few books in Hebrew over the last month. I started both because my mom was here and brought me some new shiny books and because I was behind on my reading challenge. I can write a PhD in English and live my life in English, but I still read about three times faster in Hebrew. Funny how our brains work. So, for the sake of having a list, this month in fiction I've finished up The Hate You Give (5 starts, go read it). I also read in Hebre

Read this on galpod.com. I've debated for a while about whether to write this post. I didn't get to do any fiction writing in October, which I hate. I feel like my creativity is running dry. But, then again, I've been here before, and it has always worked out in the end, so I'm trying my best not to stress. It requires a lot of chocolate. Anyways. My goals for October were: 1. Finish the academic paper I'm working on. I haven't quite finished, but I'm nearly there. I do think

Read this on galpod.com. About a third into this month, I had a breakthrough with the book I'm working on. It's a good thing, of course. But because I needed to do a lot more research, it meant a lot less writing. I hit about 40% of my word goals for the book. But I'm reading an excellent book that looks like it was written especially for me. It's telling me exactly what I wanted to know, plus there are books and blogs listed that I'm going to check once I'm done with the boo

Read this on galpod.com. One of the reasons summer holidays freak me out (and freaked me out as a kid) is that I love my routine. I need to know what's going to happen next. It helps me get through the day. I would love to be spontaneous and go with the flow, but I'm just not that person. With time (and experience) I learned to accept that. And once I accepted that I needed routine and schedule in order to be productive and thrived, I started scheduling most of my day, almost

Read this on galpod.com. As you can probably tell, I've been thinking a lot about my plans for the summer. I've had two amazing days in which grandparents took the kids out, and I had the day to myself. I got a lot done. But the next few weeks are going to be different. The kids are home, and I'm not yet willing to sit them in front of a screen all day. Also, it won't be more than a day or two before I'll have cranky kids. So that's not a good plan for us. I also want to take

Read this on galpod.com. Today is the last day of the school year. When I was in school, it was always a sad day for me. I loved going to school. I think now that what I liked about school was how routine it was. You get up at the same time every day. You catch the school bus at the same time. You know how your day is going to look like. I still like knowing how my day's going to look like, but I'm a lot more flexible now. So now, it's a mixed-emotions kind of day. I'm feelin

Read this on galpod.com. Right. I had set myself five goals for June. I failed on four of them. If you followed the blog this month, this is not a surprise. Today, I'll talk a little bit about what worked and what didn't. I find there aren't many blog posts out there that talk about people failing their goals, so hopefully, this post can fill up the gap 😊. I'll start by reviewing the goals, and how I did on each, then I'll talk a little bit about why and what July is going t

Read this on galpod.com. May has been an exciting month. I kept a journal for the whole month. I completed the Ninja Writers Challenge, which was fantastic. I wrote and read every single day. I put up a new website and started blogging daily. I have seven subscribers on my blog (THANK YOU!) and 12 followers on Medium (THANK YOU!). It’s a decent start. 🙂 I wrote a total of 9,558 words, not including this post. I’m still figuring out my tracking and my goals, but that’s a whol

Read this on galpod.com. Hello! I'm experimenting with blogging every day. Because I'm very new to this, I need your help. Please take a minute to drop me a line and let me know what you think. I will post stories, thoughts, and possibly recipes (if I'm having an off day). Here's the post for today. I've been reading some writing advice and blogs lately. Just a few (or twenty). I've been advised to have a long-term goal and a five-year plan a lot. Which makes sense, really. Y