Progress and Plans

I am halfway done with my current edit readthrough of The Flower of Knighthood. I spent a lot of time on it last night and this morning, so I am more on track for my deadline of having it ready next week for the LA Times book festival at UCLA. The book fair is the same weekend as the Coachella music festival, which I have to miss this year; I'd love to go, but I feel like with my current priorities, I really need to attend the publishing event. I feel good about my progress in general. I planned the first half of this year starting in December and January, and I've done everything I set out to do. I attended the San Diego writer's conference and the Santa Barbara poetry conference, took a great music industry overview class at UCLA, took seminars at local community colleges and Mediabistro, worked on my book, published a few magazine articles, started this and my music blog, and booked and paid for the Arthurian conference in France and the flight to get there. I am not planning anything else major until that is behind me, because I still have to dedicate a few hundred more dollars to hotel balances, a train ticket and other trip expenses. I also want to keep a lot of time free to get the book ready by then, and I am researching travel magazines to pitch for this once-in-a-lifetime journey, so I am not booking any more classes in the near future. I may be participating in a panel discussion at the Lightning in a Bottle festival in Santa Barbara in May, and I do hope I get the editorial project gig at the music magazine, but that's plenty to keep me busy until after the big trip in July. For the second half of the year, I am planning to purchase my computer, I need to work on editing my second book, and I hope to attend the Brooklyn Book Fair in September. I need to go to NYC anyway, so I am trying to make my own plans coincide with that event. There is also a writer's conference at Yosemite in August that I am looking at. I need to do more research to see if it would benefit me, but I love Yosemite, so it might be worth my while just for the R&R. Once I have the computer, I will prioritize pitching some new magazines and working on music.