I shipped off my latest manuscript to my editor on Friday. For the final days of writing, my head was spinning with additions and changes. I love it when I am overtaken by the characters and their stories.
I struggled to get the writing done while caring for my mom. Hopefully, I will find myself adjusting to my new routine. But despite all that’s gone on (broken toilet and flooded bathroom, trips to the doctor’s and ER and hospital and pharmacy, meal preps and grocery shopping, etc.), I was pleased with the book when I turned it in. Ahhh. Feels good.
Today, I’ve done some cleaning up in my office and my library, paid bills, prepared some mailings, and signed over 100 book plates to send to a women’s retreat where I was supposed to speak next month but had to cancel due to my need to be home with my mother. There were two other trips I had to cancel, too, both of those in the fall. All three of my contacts were so understanding because all three have cared or are caring for aging parents themselves. It is the stage of life many of us are in. But I’m grateful to God that He had people in place who would understand my circumstances.
Tomorrow I’m going to spoil myself. After church, I’m curling up with a good book. Yum. Sounds almost like a vacation. Gotta enjoy it because …
Monday I go to work on the next book which has to be written in record time. Several writer friends of mine are also on killer deadlines, and we have decided to participate in “NEW Pages.” NEW stands for No Excuses Writing. Everybody leads busy lives. We all have reasons why we can’t get to our writing on any given day. Nobody wants to hear our excuses. So every day, we report in the number of pages we wrote that day. If it was Zero, we say “Zero” without explanation or excuses. (I can’t take credit for the NEW Pages concept. It was the brainchild of a couple of writers in my local RWA chapter. And it works.)
NEW Pages on 2/24 — 0 [and not only no excuses, but I’m feeling really good about it]
-rlh-
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