MyNoEdMo Spotlight: Kim Foley

This is the last of the Spotlights for this round of MyNoEdMo. Big thanks to Kim, Sean & Cynthia for sharing their time and their projects with us, and good luckto everyone in chasing down their goals!

Name: Kim Foley

Blog: Musings From a Painted Sky

Tell us a little about yourself:

I live in Littleton, Colorado and have been married for 19 years. We have two teenage boys and a spoiled 9-year old chocolate labrador named Sophie. I am a graphic artist and my husband and I own and run a print shop together. In the summer I like to garden and ride my bike, in the winter I like to ski. Oh, and I really love wine.

Tell us about your project:

My WIP, "All that Remains" (I just recently changed the title for about the fifth time) is a story that has been growing in my mind for about 25 years. I finally got it down on paper in a (very) rough draft during NaNoWriMo 2008 (yikes, it's been a long time). I've since been trying to mold it into a respectable novel, which has proven to be a staggering task for me so far.

What do you hope to accomplish by taking part in MyNoEdMo?

Well, I've already tried to tackle revisions in a month's time, and failed miserably. So now I've decided to slow it down and break off just one chapter a time. My goal is to complete one chapter a week. I'm on chapter two now, so progress is being made a snail's pace, but it's progress, so I'll take it.

What's your biggest challenge about getting it done this month?

Owning a business and chasing after two boys has forever slowed down my writing. June is one of our busiest months at the shop, and the boys are off of school. But they're old enough to earn their keep now, so I've put them to work.

Any parting words?

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't tell myself I have no business trying to write a novel -- the negative dialogue in my brain is endless. "You're too old ... you're too busy ... you should give it up a get a part time job ... this story sucks ... you SUCK." But there is something inside of me that refuses to give it up. Some days it's easier to beat down those demons and believe in myself than others, but the point is I keep beating them down and I keep believing. And someday, I'll get there.

MyNoEdMo Spotlight: Sean Locke

Each Friday Monday in June (for as long as I have participants to fill the slot), I'll be spotlighting one of the fab and fabulously motivated folks who signed up to keep me company on this month-long goal-chasing quest. If you'd like to join us in achieving your own big goal by the end of June, and subsequently see yourself and your blog spotlighted here, it's not too late to sign up!

Name: Sean

Blog: Sean M. Locke

Tell us a little about yourself:

I'm a family man, a salary man, and I recognize how utterly anonymous that can make someone. Raising a family properly and maintaining a career are fine enough goals of themselves, but I want a little more. I want to be remembered for having done something interesting. Specifically I want to see my name on some paperbacks at Borders. But, you know, there are some steps I need to take before that happens.

Tell us about your project:

My current project is a novel I'm calling _Reciprocity_. It's meant to be a crime novel set in a fantasy Victorian world, or maybe it's a fantasy steampunk novel with crime/noir elements. It was a Nanowrimo project for 2009, and it really needed an overhaul, so that's what I'm doing now. I aim to get a first draft complete by October, so that I have room in my head for outlining Nanowrimo 2010 before November.

What do you hope to accomplish by taking part in MyNoEdMo?

I would like to get this draft finished. I know that completing it in the month of June is pretty much impossible. I intend to use June to re-establish some good writing habits so I can really rock the house in July and going forward.

What's your biggest challenge about getting it done this month?

My biggest challenge is going to be my own laziness, to be honest. I won't use my family or my job as excuses for not getting the writing done. Lots of people maintain a day job and a family and still write a lot. Video games and the like are so much easier to do than writing, and so I will need to keep myself accountable somehow or another!

Any parting words?

Parting words? You've got your threescore and ten, or however long you get, and no more than that. Do something awesome with them, and let people remember your name after you're long gone.

MyNoEdMo Spotlight: Cynthia Thorp

Each Friday in June (for as long as I have participants to fill the slot), I'll be spotlighting one of the fab and fabulously motivated folks who signed up to keep me company on this month-long goal-chasing quest. If you'd like to join us in achieving your own big goal by the end of June, and subsequently see yourself and your blog spotlighted here, it's not too late to sign up!

Name: Coffeegirl88, aka Cynthia or Cyn

Blog: It's a Coffee Coloured World

Tell us a little about yourself:

A little about me . . . okay I'm drawing a blank on that one. Oh wait, I'm creative, artistic, and short. Yeah that about sums it up.

Tell us about your project:

My project is one of a couple of reunion stories I have. This one is the reunion of Tatiana, a costume designer, and Rick, a musican/actor. They met a decade ago when Tatiana was first in college. Life/careers pulled them apart and now fate has put them together on the same project.

What do you hope to accomplish by taking part in MyNoEdMo?

I want to get this manuscript to at least 80,000 words. In the process I hope it's polished enough that I can start the agent hunt in full.

What's your biggest challenge about getting it done this month?

It's the beginning of summer and well, the heat will pull all creativity from me if we have too many warm days. Did I mention I live in a house with no AC? Yeah, 90+ degree days are brutal here.

Any parting words?

I wish us all luck and much good fortune.