Busy, Busy, Busy

Ya know, it’s a really good thing this blog is set to send out reminders to us authors, because the way things have been going around here lately, I never would have remembered that it was my day unless I’d gotten that little email nudge.

Of course, then it took me about a dozen tries to remember my log-in info here. Yeah, it’s been one of those months.

It’s kind of understandable, though. I mean, my wedding is only a week and a half away, and most of the brain power I’ve been able to salvage from my writing has gone into planning that and trying to figure out who’s doing what part of what needs to be done. Yes, I’ve learned to delegate, but then I have to remember to whom I’ve delegated, and those people have developed the annoying habit of asking me what I want to do about the things that I’ve asked them to take care of. In other words, delegating in some cases has just led to putting off being responsible for things, instead of making someone else entirely responsible.

Yes, I’m bitching. If you have a problem with that, check the name of the blog. LOL.

But at this point, I think the only things left to do for the wedding are ordering the cake, which technically my fiance’s mother is supposed to take care of but I think she’s making me go with her, and picking up the tuxes and my dress. Oh, and shopping for me and my daughters. We need shoes, and my 14-year-old and I have to hit Vicky’s for just the right bras to wear under our gowns. (My daughters are my attendants for the wedding.)

Meanwhile, there’s that minor thing called writing. You know, the stuff I’m supposed to do in order to be published, which is what makes me an author and entitles me to be here? I’ve actually done fairly well. Edits for my next romance novel, tentatively titled Eternal Love, are done, and the manuscript has gone off to the line editor. Release date for that one is July 1, the day after my birthday. Revisions on a new young adult novel (under my other author name) for a new publisher are done, as are revisions for the third book in my YA series (under my other author name), which I have to do another one-over on because I have to send it off to the series’ publisher this week.

I’ve been working on a new romance novel, though, and that thing’s been driving me batty. I don’t know whether I’m struggling with it because I have so much else on my mind or because it just isn’t a good plot for me. Either way, I’ve already deleted 30,000 words of it that had nothing to do with the story I was planning to tell, and now I’m wrangling with the characters to make them tell the story they’re supposed to. I don’t think they quite agree with me on what that is, unfortunately. So I’m picking away at it a bit at a time, and giving exaggerated sighs about the prospect of having the first draft written before the wedding, which was my original intent.

On top of those things, I’m dealing with health issues that sometimes leave me unable to sit at my computer for more than a few minutes without becoming completely exhausted. My doctor refuses to make a diagnosis just yet, but acknowledges that other than a sleep study to rule out apnea, he’s tested me for everything he can. So it’s probably Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, he just won’t say so yet. What it means for me is that some days, I wake up raring to go and able to concentrate, and other days it’s all I can do to stay awake and focus on reruns of Law and Order SVU. Kind of puts a dent in my writing… and my wedding planning… and pretty much everything else.

So yeah, I’ve been a wee tad bit busy lately. Next time I blog here, though, I’ll be married! With that out of the way, maybe things will calm down a bit around here.

If I can just get these darn characters to cooperate.