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).

Waiting for the...

It's been said many times that writing is like dating. You create this perfect date scenario (your manuscript) then you have to ask the other person (agent or editor) and see if they're as into you as you are them. The part people don't talk about as much is the relationship after you finally hook up.

Once you're dating, there's still usually one person who does most of the "calling" while the other waits for the phone to ring. In all fairness, when dating, you tend to have a pretty good idea when the caller should be contacting you because (assuming they care about you), they'll say. You know, as you part ways before getting on the bus or as one of you ducks into after school practice, the caller will say something like, "I'll call after dinner." Unlike the delay after the initial asking out, this one has a timeline.

But that doesn't always make the waiting easier.

I work with a few editors now--people I like a lot. (Er... I mean that in a non-creeper, only-slightly-internet-stalkerish kind of way.) In addition, I have uber-betas-of-awesome whom I love and adore. But right now, I'm waiting on "calls" (emails really, but the point is the same) from all of them. One I know I won't get for a few weeks, so that's peachy and keeps me from frantic hair-pulling. The others I should hear from this week (and might have by the time this post goes live). I'm to the point that I'm getting more than a little twitchy about getting back to work on something. I mean, we're talking five projects that are currently on hold. I can't start another one. I just can't. Okay, really I shouldn't, mainly because it would be a bad idea to get my mind hooked on something new this summer.

So, I'm waiting. And I'm only a tinge worried that they're all going to call and try to set up dates for the same day. Because as fun as that might be in an actual dating scenario, I'm not sure how well I could survive it writing-wise. So... yeah. Once you're already in with editors, you still wait on the "phone to ring." The good part is, usually you have a decent idea what at least some of those calls will involve. The bad part... well, unless they all come at once (in which case, learn time management in a hurry), there really is no bad part.

And that is the best thing about loving what you do :)