Hitting the Town

This has been a stressful week.  We've just finished our second round of illness in our home.  Isn't it nice when families share?  And I've had a deadline that I was determined to not just meet but excel.


Do you ever do that?  Push yourself above and beyond because you want to prove you are capable of doing well under pressure?


To be honest, I utterly failed on this one.  No, I didn't miss my deadline. In fact I managed to come in 4 days early BUT I missed my personal goal by 3 days.  I think my family would have voted me off the island if I'd worked any harder!


My dear friend, and brutally honest critic (love you Danielle!) kept pestering me about pushing too hard.  But like the amazing person she is, she hung in with me.  Through the re-writes, painful edits, and yeah more, slicing and dicing.  All, I might add, while I was going through a painful detox.  Probably not the best idea to start taking new meds this past week!


So she hung in there through my detox induced brain farts, cries for help after an entire day of writing junk, and finally to my final day of frantic doubts.  She kept me grounded, reminding me that I'm a good writer, that my book is gonna be great and that I deserve a star sticker for effort.  Ok, maybe I added that last bit.


So tonight my hubby and I are hitting the town.  No writing.  No thinking of writing.  Just good times with great friends.  I'm gonna totally unwind tonight.  I think I deserve it.  
  

Overextended

If there's one thing that I have learned in my short career as a writer is that it is EXTREMELY easy to get overextended.  Marketing, rough drafts, editing, formatting, publishing, interviews, book reviews, blog posts and so on.  I could literally spend 24 hours a day trying to get everything done and it still wouldn't be enough.  So at what point do you say enough is enough?

I read an article not long ago by a blogger/author Joe Konrath that spoke of putting immense importance on getting your books on a much shelf space as you can.  Until then, don't sweat the promoting. Just write.

I like his theory.  Of course he's got YEARS on me and about 40 novels as well...so he has the time to blog.  Me?  Right now I should be writing on my book, or answering my overflowing in-box, or posting interviews, or doing book reviews...but instead I sit here, rambling because my mind is burnt out!

I've been working hot and heavy on my upcoming book, Immortal Rose, and it's coming along so well...if I only had more hours in the day!  But...I can't write, market, blog, etc all the time.  My brain needs a break at times. 

So, I'm going to shut down my lap top and turn on the Cardinals game and cheer them on to a victory.  Go Cards!  (I'm not actually a baseball fan but since I live near them...)

What do you do to relax when you're overextended?

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What I'm reading

Despite the fact that I'm SUPPOSED to be editing my book (sigh) I've managed to read three books in the last week.  Ok...to be honest it was 2 1/2.  I had to re-read the ending of The Deathly Hallows to remember how Harry still managed to be the "Boy who lived."  Then I got into a series called Fallen.

Fallen was interesting to me.  Fallen angels?  Forbidden love?  Sounds good to me!  I raced through the first book and went right onto the second.  Enjoyed the first...not so much the second.  It felt more like it was too busy building the story than actually moving the story.  I've got the third book on hold so I'm hoping it can be redeemed.  Other than the lull I really enjoyed how the books were written.  Very well done. 

What's on my nightstand (the bit of exposed floor next to my bed)? An Amanda Hocking book.  Really looking forward to it but I've decided that sleep in kind of an important thing to me tonight so I'll hold off for now.  It's tempting though!

So what are you reading?  Anything good I should check out?


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