Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn If I had an orchard, I'd work 'til I'm sore
-Fleet Foxes, "Helplessness Blues"
I'm trying to forgive myself for being so inconsistent with these posts. The 40/40 Challenge was something that sounded like a really great idea before a pandemic landed on our shores and changed everything. The funny thing is that I'm actually doing a pretty darn good job of sticking to the challenge, even if I'm doing terribly at writing about it and documenting my time trying to better myself.
For instance, here are my revised goals:
Lose 75 lbs
Publish 2 novels digitally for any ole' person to love on.
Grow a good garden
Post a blog everyday
I've already lost about 20 pounds, which is more than I'd lost prior to quarantine. I guess making my own food really does affect how much I eat. I've already started the process of delivering my sci-fi adventure serial Black Stag, White Doe one chapter at a time to my newsletter subscribers, and I'm starting to edit my horror epic The Greatest Show on Earth for release in October. At this point, I'm solidly on track to achieve my second goal. But I've actually taken it a step further by revamping my whole website to better deliver new fiction content, so I've also released 2 short stories, a poetry collection, and a short film script, making this probably my most prolific half year since 2012.
To top off the writing challenge, I've posted a blog nearly everyday since going into quarantine. Sometimes I miss a day or two, but over-all I'm doing really well with it. I've even started on a new novel, and a couple of new short stories.
My garden is coming along too, with my green beans and blueberry vine starting to produce, and my tomato and zucchini plants popping up nicely. By summer I should have a good number of veggies to munch on.
So, in all I've been doing well with my challenges, even if I've done a shit job of writing about them.