Back to School...

I know, I know, the kids have been back for over a month now, but I went back yesterday. You see, a friend of mine ranted and raved about this "Fast Draft" writing class she took, and I've been waiting for it to come around again. It's here! And I'm terrified.

You see, we're supposed to write 20 pages a day, every day, for two weeks. That's roughly 5,000 words a day, people. I don't know when the last time I had a 5k day was, but it's been a while. Still, I'm on board with this thing since my writing has been slowing down a lot and I really don't have time for that sort of nonsense. Not when I've got people asking about the next books in my series and the new story I've teased about here and there. And certainly not with NaNoWriMo starting in two and a half weeks.

So, I'm buckling down and doing this thing, however it turns out.

Interesting factoid about me...

I was basically a straight A student through high school. (I really don't count my elementary school grades in handwriting, especially since girls and boys were graded differently.) Hell, I even had a couple straight A semesters in college. Which is a decent sign as to how I feel about failing--I don't like it. At all. Which means I'm going to be fairly scarce the next few weeks. But hey, by the time it's all said and done, that new story should be done and off to beta, and I should have another piece with a serious chunk out of it. Pretty much just don't expect to see me until I collapse in December. That's safest.

Drowning in Deadlines

Thus far, this summer has been one of writing madness. New contracts. New projects. Edits on other projects. Did I mention I have a release next month? (I do. The first Blood Kissed novel, Kiss of Death, is out August 28. Feel free to add it to your Goodreads shelf because, you know, that would make me smile.)

What that means is I've had to be really diligent about deadlines. Which is really good for teaching me discipline, but really bad for my sanity. I'm finding that I'm hitting book-burnout really quickly this summer. Whether it's because I'm juggling so many very different stories or because I'm constantly in go-mode, I'm not sure.

But, it's one of the key reasons I've been a bit scarce on-line. I would have continued to assume no one had noticed, but since I've had a few people seek me out asking if I was alive and everything was okay... I'm stating for the record that I'm good. I'm not dead or dying or even dealing with sickness-of-doom. Asthma and allergies have been a little twitchy. Depression is hovering, waiting for a sign of weakness to grab hold of, as it always does. But really, I'm just tired. I love having my kids home, but it totally alters my ability to get shit done.

And vacations do that too. Every time I leave the house for more than a few hours, I get twitchy because I know all-the-things-will-cease-progressing. But so far, I've managed to bounce back from those periods of panicky quiet. It just means I'm more busy, less chatty when I get home.
So, right now I have a July 31 deadline I'm striving to finish & polish something for. And I have edits coming. And more edits. Then I get August for edits, more edits and the Kiss of Death release (I'm working on a blog tour now).

So, I'm not dead, just buried so I can work in relative peace. (At least if you discount the screaming... mine and the kids'.) I promise that once things even out in the fall, I'll be back, but as I keep reminding myself--busy is good. So, I'm good. And it looks like 2013 won't be nearly as dry for releases from me as 2012 was. (I am also working on planning better LOL).