So far, I’ve stuck with this new 2021 author planner I used: “The Author‘s Accountability Planner 2021” by 4 Horsemen Publications. I used it for the last three weeks or so. The first week of January I didn’t use it because I bought it at the end of that week and it came the following week.
Because this 2021 author planner is tailored to the author’s life and career, it asks the user to set up goals, keep track of the progress and reassess them about every week. That includes a five-minute writing session using two words as prompts, and questions such as favorite food and drink, and song discovered.
Here’s what I wrote in my 2021 author planner lately as answers to some of the questions in there:
Favorite food and drink discovered — Fish tacos and cappuccino. Not together though.
(Note: I’ve always loved fish tacos and cappuccino. Again, not together though.)
Favorite song I discovered — It’s not a song in particular, but I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz again lately.
What had gone right — I did three hours of marketing!
What could be improved upon — To get past that fear, and I know better than to to get past that fear instead of waiting for it to subside.
And what I wrote as the prompt, which I published on the 4HP Accountable Authors Group Facebook page at their encouragement:
Jan. 30, 2021, writing prompt: Frog, barn
There’s that dumb frog again, hopping around my barn and in the hay and out of the hay, jumping around like it has anywhere to go. It’s the same frog, I tell you; I recognize him by the little spots on its back that, when formed together, resemble a spade. There isn’t anything more that the frog wants to do with me than to irk me; he’s made it his life mission to do so. I know it!
I once fell asleep in the barn after spending hours chasing him around. He jumped on my chest, ribbited, and said, “Dear farmer, why are you so preoccupied with capturing me? Don’t you have a wife to pay attention to? Your children? Why do you waste your precious time chasing me around this barn? Come on; don’t you think it’s for the better for you to share this barn with me? Except for the occasional nuisance I am, I won’t be of any problem to you.”
“I know you won’t be of any problem to me any more,” I said.
The frog ribbited. “You do?”
“I sure do!”
A small burlap sack went over the frog’s head and enclosed him tight. The sack was held by my wife, and she raised the bag over me. The bottom of the sack writhed, a sign that the frog was definitely trapped in there.
“So what are we to do with him?” my wife asked. “If we let him escape into the wild, he might return.”
I got up to my feet, feeling refreshed from my nap. “Hmmm,” I said, then smiled. “I’ve always wanted to try frog legs.”
Teresa Edmond-Sargeant is an award-winning journalist and author. She released her first collection of short stories “Inner Demons” in October 2020. She is the author of the short story ebooks “Eve the First,”“For My Sister,” and “Sammy’s Butterflies.” She will release her poetry ebook “A Symphony of Silence” in early 2021 and her debut novel “Warding Off Reality” in August 2021.