Alright so, as many of you know, I have signed up for both the 1000 word a day challenge and the 100+ reading challenge. So far, it's going...okay. On the reading challenge, I have finished five books. Not so bad for three weeks into the year. Of course, two of them were Harlequins which are shorter than most full length novels, but that's alright.

The writing challenge has been a bit more daunting. I would say I'm hitting that 1000 words a day about 3-4 days a week. I'm at about 6000 words on the new version of my WIP after scrapping the first 20k recently. But so far, I'm liking these words a lot better, so I'm happy about the progress.

Although yesterday I barely got any writing done because my nose was stuck in Nicholas: The Lords of Satyr by Elizabeth Amber (an erotic paranormal historical romance--say that three times fast) and I didn't want to put it down. (I'm not going to do a full review, but for the record, I really enjoyed the book. Just be warned, it's not for the faint of heart. If' you've never read erotic romance, you may want to start with something a little more warm and fuzzy like Maya Banks' Sweet Surrender, then work up to something like this, lol. I'm not easily shocked and this book definitely made me raise my eyebrows. And covers like this make me glad I own a Kindle. I was reading this in the dentist's waiting room, lol.)

Alright, so moving on. Next week I am semi-unplugging because I am going on a cruise, woo-hoo! I'll be suffering greatly, forced to endure sun and Caribbean with my wonderful hubby. Don't you feel sorry for me? This will be the first vacation we've taken alone since becoming parents over two years ago. I have never even spent a night away from my son, so I'm not sure what to think of actually getting a full night's sleep with no baby monitor in my ear. I'm also bite my nails anxious about leaving him for the first time, but I'll know he'll be in good hands with his grandparents.

I will be bringing my laptop on the trip because I may shrivel up and die without it I'm hoping to get some writing done and to work on the crits for the winners of my contest in my down time. But internet access will probably not be easily had. Therefore, next week my posts will be short questions for you guys. I want to know more about you and get your opinions on some things. So be sure and stop by. I'll be looking forward to reading your comments as soon as I get back.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and week!

Now, how are your writing and reading goals going so far this year? Have any books totally distracted you from your writing? Any advice for me on how to handle my first vacation away from my son?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Come Sail Away" - Styx

(although I was totally tempted to put Cartman from Southpark's version)

-player in sidebar, take a listen-

I mentioned in a post last week that one of my goals is to write 1000 words a day. Well, InkyGirl has made it official with cool badges and such. The rules are simple: write 1000 words a day, 6 days a week. I'm cheating a bit because I'm only committing to five days a week. The weekends are my family days. But I'm going to try to do my best otherwise to meet this goal with my WIP.

There are also 500 word and 250 word versions of the challenge if the 1000 doesn't fit for you.

I'm hoping this will give me motivation to write even on those days where I feel stuck or nothing is coming to me. My internal editor can get the best of me, so this forces me to push past that. It isn't necessarily the 1000 GREAT words a day challenge. But writing bad ones can help me decide what direction I want the scene to go in. So I'm going to go for it

Also, before I forget I wanted to thank Laurel at Laurel's Leaves and Katie at Step 1 for giving me the Blogging Writer Award. Thanks you guys! Both these ladies have wonderful, helfpul blogs, so make sure and go check them out!