Why I've Moved My Deadline

For those of you interested in my progress on my Southern Knights project, here is an update. In November after NaNoWriMo, I decided that I should work on a project that I felt had real fiscal viability. I love writing, but I'm all my dreams and goals in writing involve me making money. I had anticipated taking the month of December to work on all the necessary background work so that I could start writing in January and push on through February and be done without having to spend any time stopping to do research.
But it turned out that December was a month of sickness and biblical plagues around here, and since I forgot to put blood on my doorway we got nailed by the Angel of Flu. I am stubborn, and decided that even though I didn't have time to do all the prep work I'd wanted that I would press on, but when I started work in January I found about 70% of my time was being spent going back to my research material because I didn't have the notes I needed.
Also, my book's one important female character wasn't important - and that needs to be fixed. She either needs to have some reason to be in the book, or she needs to pick up her stuff and leave. (And she really ought to have some reason...)
But I'm not giving up on this. There is a fish at stake.
Instead, I've decided to move my start date out to Feb. 1st, 2007. My new "finish" date for the first draft will be March 31, 2007. I will spend the rest of January getting my notes & research in order, and feel better already about the viability of the project.