Writing update

I got the next novel chapter emailed off to my writing group, and then found that the extended novel group at TNEO this summer is a go! Woohoo! This means I have a 15,000 word submission due in the middle of April, again in May, and the last in June. Then, I have lots of excerpts to read and critique. My first submission is pretty close to ready to go, but I have some small edits to make to three of the chapters. The second chunk is not in horrible shape as two chapters have been pretty substantially overhauled, but one chapter in the middle needs to be pretty much rewritten. I haven't even thought about the third submission yet, but it's probably a mess as I haven't touched it in, hmm, since pre-Odyssey?This morning I was thinking about protagonists having goals and how important this is to a story, as I've learned (sometimes, the hard way). So I thought of a short, humorous story in which the protagonist has a very simple goal that gets repeatedly thwarted, landing her in more and more hot water. I scribbled some notes as I don't have time to do much else now.My neck and upper back are feeling somewhat better after the chiropractor sent me to a guy to do some "soft tissue" work. He basically beat the crap out of me, but I think that is what I needed. "Do you have major headaches?" He asked. "No," I replied. "I hardly ever get headaches." "You're lucky. This muscle right here--" (ouch!) "--is usually a trigger for some heavy-duty headaches." Well, at least that.One of the feral cats I'm feeding is making snorting noises when she breathes, sort of like my cat Varda (who died in November) did when she had a major tooth infection. :(