2024 - a crazy year in review

Can I do it again it 2025?

When I look back at this past year, I shake my head because what I have managed to do blows my mind. Did I plan all of this? But more importantly, can I do it again?

Honestly, I have no idea how I managed all of that. Of course, I plan things, like we all do, but to have actually done it—I have no words.

But let me show you what I am talking about. This is the list of stuff I managed to complete in 2024:

Work: I am self-employed but contracted as a safety certification engineer by a testing authority in Pretoria. And I managed to do 59 jobs for them in 2024. That is more than one per week! Practically, that means that I did several jobs in parallel because the average time for the work I do is about three weeks, with some jobs taking two to three months.

Business: I also do consulting work for South African companies who want to export their high-tech products. I assisted with 9 technical construction files for EU and UK exports.

Books read: I love the Goodreads reading challenge, and 2024 was a fiction year for me. I did read one or two non-fiction books, but I wanted to read more fiction, and cosy mystery is my genre of choice. I would read when I was eating breakfast alone or had to wait for people. My Kindle lives in my handbag, so it is always at hand for those unplanned minutes. And by doing this, I managed 145 books. I cannot tell you how that happened, but it did!

Books published: Thanks to my fantastic editor, Vanessa Wright, I got two novels in The Nations of Peace series published in 2024. You can check them out here: A Memory for Love (book 7), and Prime Pledge (book 8).

Words written: I've been keeping track of the number of words I write since 2014. I have been writing since 2000, so getting that first number of words for the spreadsheet took some effort. In 2024, I wrote 163,000 words. I have managed more in previous years, but in my defence, I have been busy with other things.

The good news is that the series' ninth book is on my priority list to finish formatting and send it to Vanessa next week for editing. It is scheduled for publication in April 2025.

Art projects: I did one commission (6 drawings) in 2024. I finished the Inktober challenge in October (I post my drawings to Instagram), about 10 pieces in a sketchbook, and completed 13 paintings. I didn't participate in any exhibitions last year but may do so again this year.

Other projects: I love building models and finished two in December. I bought a few items to make an apothecary cabinet, which I received this past week. There will be some construction work, and I am considering sharing my process in a few blog posts.

When I look at this list, I shake my head mainly because I cannot comprehend how I managed everything. Am I particularly motivated or productive? Definitely not. But once I get stuck in on a project, whether it is work or a painting, I get it done.

I put everything I have to do every week in my planner, mostly so I don't forget to do the laundry, but it helps a lot.

I don't plan the number of jobs; that is out of my control, nor do I plan the number of art projects. I lead an art group, so I have to plan projects for them, but I also belong to a group where there are two challenges every month. All these activities keep the artistic and creative juices flowing.

Writing has been in my blood for so long that I no longer think about it. Several ideas are on my list, so I am never short of ideas when the muse strikes me with the urge to pen a few words.

This post is getting long, so I will share my 2025 goals in another post.

Have you had a year like I had in 2024? What was your secret to getting everything (and more) done?

Do something creative. It's good for you. 😂 Until next time!

💜 Linzé

What happened to my ideas in 2023 - part 2

 The good, the bad and the delayed (Part 2 of 3)

Last week I mentioned that I went through my journal of 2023 and found 44 ideas I had - to write, paint or draw, or generally improve my creative life. This week I want to tell you what happened to those ideas.

Some ideas happen when I am playing in a
sketchbook. I used gouache for this one.

I am sure that you are like me, hoping that every idea we have will be a great one, but reality tells a different story. Some ideas should be discarded, others tried out to see if they could lead somewhere, and then there are the ideas for which the time is simply not right. And this last group of ideas can sometimes make us impatient even though we know full well that bad timing can be as bad as a terrible decision.

From my list of ideas, the business ideas definitely fell into this last category. There are things I have to do first before I can implement these ideas, so they are on a future to-do list.

I also found an idea I wrote down without adding any details of what I had in mind. Why I did that escapes me, so that one is a bust. That will teach me. LOL!

As for the rest:

* Three ideas were not used. These were for art projects that I did finish, but I didn't use the idea I wrote down in my journal.

* Twenty-three ideas were implemented. These were a mix of art and writing. That makes it 52% of the list, and not bad I would say.

* The remaining 17 ideas ended up as follows: 

- For future implementation: 5

- Rethink (maybe not such good ideas?): 6

- On my todo list right now (for doing in the next 4 to 8 weeks): 6

In Part 3 I will expand more on how I handle future todo's and share a few thoughts for capturing those journal ideas in 2024.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

What happened to my ideas in 2023 - part 1

There were more ideas than I thought (Part 1 of 3)

Over the years I have found that ideas for creative projects often happened while I was writing down my thoughts in my journal. If I didn't do something with the ideas, they were “lost” because I don't read past entries in my journals.

This year I had a plan: I would mark the idea in the text with a symbol (I chose a smiley face) and also record the page numbers in front of my journal so I could find them later on.

The inside cover pages of my 2023 journal

Most of the time ideas related to a book I was busy with were incorporated into the story within a few days because they were part of a story close to finishing. But they were not the only ideas. Then I had a brainwave: maybe I should check out my list and see what happened to these ideas I had this year.

A few surprises popped up:

1. There were more smiley faces than I had page numbers on my list. This meant that I was so into the flow of writing down the idea that I forgot to add the page number to my list.

2. While working throught the list, I also found ideas where I didn't add a smily face. Since I mentioned that I don't reread my journals, how could I know there were more ideas? The names of characters caught my eye. Since I don't use the names of actual people I know in my stories, it wasn't hard to figure out that I was “thinking” about a scene in a book.

3. I even had a few ideas related to my business. The ideas themselves didn't surprise me, but that they came to me while I was writing about non-business things was the surprise.

I am not going to give away my ideas, but I thought to summarise the number and types of ideas I had.

1. Book ideas - ideas for a new story: 3

2. Book ideas - ideas for scenes in stories already in process: 14

3. Books - cover ideas: 3

4. Art ideas for new/finishing paintings: 9

5. Art ideas for experimenting: 3

6. Art practice ideas to learn/master a new skill or technique: 2

7. Writing/journal organising ideas: 3

8. Organising ideas - studio and home office: 1

9. Bookbinding and other book art/craft ideas: 1

10. Business ideas: 2

11. Other: 3

TOTAL: 44 😳

In Part 2 I will expand on what happened with these ideas.

Until next time!

💜🇿🇦Linzé

Guest Post: The Writing Life by Walter Salvadore Pereira

My writing life has been a topsy-turvy one. On some days the mind is fertile and brimming with amazing ideas. You are literally flying and spoiled for options for even a complex situation. On the other hand, on a bad day progress is pedestrian and you struggle for even a simple solution.

Buy Link: AMAZON

This is universal and not an odd case. So, how does one balance it? The way I tackle it, I spend longer spells in writing on good days and curtail it on the off days or even skip it and instead, go for long walks to rejuvenate the mind. It would be a good idea to indulge in reading on those days, which goes a long way in fertilizing the mind.

In case the knots refuse to loosen up, it is best to lay-off the writing altogether for a few days, letting the mind to recoup. Personally, I have gone through the entire gamut of emotions while writing my first book, “Bheem – The Saga of Madhavpur”. It took me a mammoth five years to complete, which includes a break of over a year when I was stuck for direction at a crucial juncture of the story. Midway, I struggled in vain to steer it in a satisfactory direction and even reached a stage where I was thinking of shelving it. But the very thought of the humongous amount of time spent on the book, brought to the fore the will to continue. I needed time to steer the mind back on track and they say time is a great healer. So, I decided to leave in on the back burner and left it there for almost a year.

In the intervening period, I hit upon the idea of a scientist being hounded by a powerful mafia gang – a protagonist, against a powerful antagonist - a formula that I had hit upon with success in all my four books. The result was my first published book titled “This Nightmare is for Real”. To me it was a great story and I naturally I dreamed that a few publishers would vie to publish it. Little did I know that the experience was going to be traumatic! The wait was long and in the end, my dreams were dashed as I received rejection letters from a few publishers, while others didn’t even bother to acknowledge.

I wasn’t going to let my book go into obscurity. That made me clutch at every straw I found. Consequently, in that gloomy period, I was easy prey for vultures with soothing words how I was getting a raw deal from the traditional publishers and how they can help publish my book! They were supporting so many new authors and the irrefutable proof the number of new authors finding their books in print. Of course, they couldn’t manage to do it entirely on their own and I would have to share the cost. Also, on the brighter side, the royalties were generous as compared to those offered by the traditional publisher and I stood every chance of recovering my cost swiftly. Much later, I came across an apt summation from an experienced author about the self-publishers: When someone receives his or her full remuneration in advance, there is nothing left to gain by putting in additional efforts!

I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but with an earnest prayer that God forbid you tread that path laden with pain and despair, ending with utter disappointment, not to mention the loss of hard earned money.

In the intervening period, I had begun work on my fairy tale and took it to a satisfactory conclusion. Once again, began the painful process of submissions and the ensuing long wait and then the inevitable rejections. Of course, I received offers from a few self-publishing outfits, but being wiser from the first shattering experience, I politely declined. Ultimately, I decided to publish it on Amazon Kindle.

The above is by no means meant to dissuade new authors from taking to self-publishing. My intention is to caution them and if they are able to find ways to safeguard their interests, it is their call.

About the Author

After spending over 25 years in the Middle East, the author, aged 75, now leads a retired life. He lives with his wife and son in Thane, near Mumbai. He has been passionate about writing from his early days.

His first book was a fast-paced sci-fi novel titled “This Nightmare is for Real”, was self-published. That was followed by a historical fiction titled “Bheem – The Sage of Madhavpur”, again a self-publication. A third book, a fairy tale titled “The Missing Fairy Princess” which was published on Kindle Select during the first week of June 2019, while a fourth on the oft-discussed topic of cross-border terrorism titled “The Carnivore has a Heart” is slated for publication shortly thereafter again on Kindle Select.

Find Walter on social media:   Facebook  Twitter   Website

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: F is for...fiction

A word post for

the challenge today

💚💚💚

While I may not like editing so much, I love writing. Even in the midst of a hectic life of a self-employed consulting engineer, I have managed to keep up with my writing target for Camp NaNoWriMo. For many people, it is a time socialise and support each other on social media. I on the other hand like to hide in my writing cave, i.e. my home office, and work on my next book project.

This April a little romance invaded my writing cave, and as the story unfolds, I wonder how Lucy is going to take it when Craig reveals the family secret to her.

I hope she will be brave enough to handle it! A love story with a dark twist which will leave you gasping when the truth comes out.

Until Monday; when my newsletter will also pop into your mailbox. Have you signed up yet?

💜 Linzé

Ends, beginnings, and some crazy mixed in-between!

You know when you tell people that life is crazy busy and then deep inside you wished it was because you were busy doing something significant, and then wasn't? Well, I am going to tell you that my life was crazy busy the weeks since I last talked to you. Here is how things went and then you can decide if I was just making excuses, or doing something worthwhile:

• I challenged NaNoWriMo - and won again. You might think that I usually do, and you would be right. Except at 8 days in, I heard about a course I wanted to do, and it started on the 25th of November. Suddenly my NaNoWriMo had shortened to 50k in 24 days! It wasn't easy, but I managed.

• Come the 25th, the course - Modern Stoicism - kicked-off and now I had new things to learn, different meditations to do, and a daily self-assessment to do on top of that! It is now the start of week 3, and I think that NaNoWriMo was easier. I do hope, however, that as an aspirant Stoic, the choice had been a good one and I will benefit from the course's teachings.
• While I usually post on Sundays, I missed last weekend because my gorgeous husband of almost 25 years, thought it best to surprise me with a weekend away for my birthday. The 'official' celebration of my birthday is 1 December, but this year I feel like it has been my birthday for months! Francois has been spoiling me with all kinds of lovely things, and last weekend being the cherry on the cake. I hate surprises, and he knows that, so I wasn't quite ready to be happy about it. Until it happened. It was really something special to celebrate my 50th birthday in Dullstroom and with two friends too. Only three days ago did I find out this 'surprise weekend' had been in the making for almost 6 months - Francois showed me the Whatsapp group that plotted my surprise. Thanks, love, it was an absolute weekend to remember!

Francois and me (photo taken by Phenice Rothman)

• And no, it doesn't end there. I handed in my resignation this past Tuesday. On the day I had lunch with a few colleagues and other friends, for another celebration of my birthday. (One only gets to be 50 once after all!) If you had been following the news, you would know that several State Owned Enterprises in this country have severe financial difficulties for various reasons, including corruption. I work for one of those companies and have been for a bit over 10 years. Your first thought might be that it is the state of the company that made me hand in my notice, but to be honest, it was merely the last straw. I was self-employed before joining the company, and it had always been my plan to go back to working for myself. While it hadn't been my plan to wait 10 years (time does fly, doesn't it?), I do believe that God had a better plan for me, and in August I knew it was time to get ready to make the change. If I hadn't been such a coward (fear is a horrible thing, but I have to tell you it is still there despite my faith in my new future), I wouldn't have waited four months. But now it is the future that matters, not the past.

For my lovely readers: yes, I will continue to write. In fact, my next book is due out in January, so watch this space.

For my colleagues, past and present: I am back in the engineering game and looking forward to working with you once again.

Crazy life? I am looking forward to all what the future holds for me!

Until next time!

💜 Linzé

The Life of a Writer, and Blogger

www.NaNoWriMo.org

November is almost upon us, and in that month I hide in my writing cave, aka my study, to take part in the writing challenge more affectionately know as NaNoWriMo.
Tomorrow there is a book feature post, if you crave the adrenalin rush of being scared (horror fiction), and be sure to get a copy. These authors don't pull any punches, guaranteed!

If horror is not your thing, so much, you can read a few short stories I wrote in the Writers Write 12 Short Stories Challenge so far this year. Varied prompts, varied story lengths and a mix of genres. I took the challenge to stretch my creative wings in this challenge. I hope you will find something you will like too.

Fantasy: https://12shortstories.com/2018/01/24/dragon-key-linze-brandon/

Fantasy: https://12shortstories.com/2018/02/21/just-desserts-by-linze-brandon/

Suspense: https://12shortstories.com/2018/03/21/serve-well-chill…by-linze-brandon/

Modern: https://12shortstories.com/2018/04/18/to-buy-or-not-to…by-linze-brandon/

Romance: https://12shortstories.com/2018/05/16/scars-of-love-by-linze-brandon/

Comedy: https://12shortstories.com/2018/06/13/dont-lose-your-g…by-linze-brandon/

Tongue-in-cheek: https://12shortstories.com/2018/07/11/with-apologies-t…by-linze-brandon/

Adult (18+): https://12shortstories.com/2018/08/08/jacksons-game-by-linze-brandon/

Sci-fi: https://12shortstories.com/2018/09/05/xenacious-reverse-by-linze-brandon

Adventure/mystery: https://12shortstories.com/2018/10/03/finders-keepers-by-linze-brandon/

If you prefer something a bit more real, my other blog might interest you. Why not have a look?

Enjoy the break, and if you are writing along with the rest of 300 000+ Wrimos in November, all the best to you.

Until December!

💜✒️🙋‍♀️ Linzé

It's purple people, everywhere you look!

Art by Linzé

Yes, October is the month for exams, the start of our rainy season, and the blooming Jacaranda trees. Last week I talked about all the trees we saw driving around our city (shopping for a couch, not to look at trees) but this week the scenery is a little different. It rained the past two days, hard, and the result is that those purple flowers now adorn the sidewalks and roads. There is still an abundance of flowers on the trees, but the purple carpets now extend the sheer volume of purple to double of what it was last week. Gorgeous!

Speaking of exams, I handed in my last assignment on my Training and Development Management short course this past week. After three months of studying and doing homework assignments, I suddenly felt at a loss of what to do with my time! A really odd sensation for me. But after two days of procrastinating (writing projects), reading a bit, and editing a lot, I finally got stuck in on finishing a craft project and doing the drawing of a Jacaranda tree.

With my artistic self-satisfied for a bit, the coming week will be spent on doing some research for my next non-fiction book.

I emailed the journal book manuscript, Take your Journal to the Next Level, to my editor on Friday. If everything works out (still not sure on what I want to do for the cover design), it will be ready for publication in January 2019. Watch this space if you are a journal writer, or are interested in starting the practice.

Since purple is the colour of creativity (and one of my favourites), I already feel inspired to tackle this week.

May yours be purple too!

💜 Linzé

Words, Statistics and Time — the creative life's little problems

Linzé's iWatch on its charging stand

I recently read an article where the blogger/author mentioned that if you wrote 1000 words in an hour, it shouldn't take you more than 50 hours to write a 50 000 word book.

It also means that a full-length fantasy or other novel, typically in the order of 100k+ words, can be done in 100 hours. Now we are talking first drafts here. Editing and all the other activities to get a book to publishable quality, are not included in those hours.

So that means NaNoWriMo should take me (at two hours per day) only 25 days to do. These two hours are what I have available on a weekday. If I double that to 4 hours per weekend day then my NaNoWriMo target should have been completed today - the 19th of November. Since I have not achieved the 50k yet, it means that I am not as efficient as I would like to believe. Based on current performance, and present word count (41010 words) I would then complete the requisite 50k words in two days, the 21st.

Crunching a few more numbers, it means that I have only been 90% efficient at using my time this November. Using 30 days out of a potential 365 days of writing is not a large enough sample to draw any conclusions.

So I went to my word count spreadsheet for the year to see how efficiently I have used my time this year, so far. To do the math correctly, I can therefor only count the days until today - 19 November. This means my calculations must be done for 323 days if I include today.

So here is what my numbers for the 323 days of 2017 look like:

Writing: 208130 words

Editing: 126.5 hours

Until now there were 45 full weekends (ie, 2 days) plus one weekend day (today). I counted Saturdays, but it makes no difference since 1 January fell this year on a Sunday.

So that gave me 323 days x 2 hours per day + 90 weekend days x 2 additional hours per weekend day + today's 4 hours = 830 available writing hours

At 1000 words per hour, I should have written 830 000 words this year!

Let's work with hours; the numbers are just smaller to use for the calculations. Based on the 1000 words per hour premise, I had been writing for 208.1 hours up to today. Add the editing (because I can only do one of the two at a time) my total hours spend on writing projects so far were 334.6 hours.

Now my efficiency does not look that good anymore, does it? Crunching the numbers one last time gives me 334.6 / 830 = 40%.

I have used only 40% of the time I have allocated for writing this year. If this does not bother you, you can rest assured, it bothers the freaking daylight out of me!

To be honest, I type about 1200 words in an hour, which is not helping my case at all.

So where did things go wrong? Alternatively, did they go wrong at all? Am I deluding myself into thinking that writing for two hours per day is what is happening?

Reassessing my writing time slash writing life:

1. I don't suffer from writer's block, never have. So if I don't write, there must be other reasons for not writing - exhaustion, illness, and other obligations. These things happen, I am only human.

2. I read a lot. Since I work full-time, I have to choose between writing or reading in my spare time. Reading does not make me feel guilty for not writing, so those hours (which I have not kept track of) probably account for a significant portion of my writing hours not used for writing. To date, I have read 45 books - not nearly as many as I have done in recent years.

3. Studying. In September and October, I did a management course (on my own time) which required 60 hours of studying and assignments. It inspired me to change direction in my professional life. That means that I am now studying towards my diploma in Life Coaching. Again, hours taken away from my writing time.

4. Art. I have made it a point to do more art this year, and I have. The exact hours recorded are lost in a file that I cannot recover, but I did not spend them writing when I used pencils or paint brushes.

As I sit reading what I wrote here, I realise that I haven't done that badly at all. I completed Camp NaNoWriMo both times on target, I am about to finish the 50k version in the next two days, and while my fourth novel is late, it will still be published this year.

However, I have to ask: was I only 40% efficient? Judging by the numbers, I would have to say yes. However, this is my life, and while numbers don't lie, they simply cannot tell the whole story with all its plotlines, intricacies, and surprises.

Time is the most precious resource we have, and maybe I shouldn't use the number of words I write as a measure of how I spend my time. At least, not as the only parameter. A qualitative element could be more useful. Was that hour, day or week's time happy, satisfactory or fulfilling instead. Something to consider as the approach of a new year lends itself to a new way of doing things.

Until next time!
Linzé