And now, I'm serious. (A Landmark Announcement)

For those of you who are wondering, I'm posting the Paying Forward winners on Monday. I have about 8 people left who still need to claim their prize. If they don't claim over the weekend, I'll post the names anyway, because you'll need to hassle them into contacting me. We don't want any of our sponsors to feel like they're any less appreciated than they are. ;-)

Now... on today's rant post. *Sweet smile*

I almost do want to rant. I actually want to go to a nice solitary place and scream my lungs out. Why? Because... well... the industry I'm in for my main job sometimes drives me apeshit.

People I have to work with are... well... not your average sort of person. While I have met wonderful people in the same industry as me, going through a dip in the market is showing the dark side of three of them. In one week. And when I say dark-side, I'm talking about them being willing to do serious harm to other people's businesses in order to get a few inches ahead. I'm not going to go into more detail, since I think it would be unprofessional.

But suffice it to say, I'm seriously tired of this nonsense.  See... I actually own a quarter of the business I work for. Which means that I'm beyond pissed off that people are trying this crap. Worst of all, we just need to grin and bear it, because that's what will get us ahead in the long run.

Yeah. I know. Being a strategic thinker sucks when you want to drive a few miles and beat someone's face in with a shovel. Or his telephone. Or his laptop. Yeah... laptop would have the right sort of ring for my writing soul. Since most of the aggravation comes from the e-mails I have to read.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway. The business is fine. We're smarter than to allow a few idiots to do damage. Still, I know that turning into a big green rage monster every two or three days isn't healthy when you're not Bruce Banner.

So. I need to focus on something else. Like... say... my new alternate career, writing. Yeah... that's a much healthier thing to work on at the moment. But I also know that I don't work at it nearly hard enough when I don't have some sort of goal or incentive.

Therefore, I now have a goal. Within the next five years, I want this writing gig I have to be a viable alternative career. In other words. I want to be able to produce enough, of good enough quality, to make royalties to the value of $7500. Every. Single. Month. For at least a year.

Dun dun dun...

Now I know some people are spitting coffee onto their screens. She's gone mad! Mercenary! In an industry where writing's done for the love... 

Let me put you at ease. I'm not going to write for the money. I'm just using a goal in order to get myself to get more writing done. I'm not going to sit here and be complacent with my current publishing deal. Yes. Publishing the series is awesome. But. Except for the series, I have four completed rough drafts, three rough drafts in process, and about eight viable stories that I want to draft out. Not to mention the twenty or so ideas milling around waiting to get some attention. And what did I do with them in the past four months? Nothing. Not a single thing.

And that's what I want to change. Because I know that I'm currently writing stuff people are looking for. Not because they're looking for it, but because I have these amazing ideas. Even if something turns into a slow seller, it doesn't matter. Because then at least, it's done. And it'll be out there.

So why am I telling you this? Well...

Remember when I put a count-down timer for my edits? And when I told you when I'd self-publish by if I didn't sell or get an agent for my book? This is exactly the same thing. Holding myself accountable to you my readers and blogging friends keeps me going.

The more insane the task, the bigger the incentive. Because if there's one thing I hate, it's falling on my face in front of a lot of people.

I know quite a lot of people will think me insane. And hey, I might be. But you know what? A lot of people tuned in to the Misha Show to see if I'd sell my first book. I did. And my second.

Now it's time to up the stakes.