There Is Life Outside Your Apartment, AKA, Joining My Local RWA

Confession time: I live in my head. A lot. And more often than not, living in my head also means living in my house. All the time. I mean, I occasionally have to leave to find food and shoes and stuff. But other than that? Helllloooooo, couch.

So it was a big stretch for me to actually haul my lame ass down to my local RWA chapter meeting this past weekend. I'd been considering trying to go for months, but there'd always been some reason not to. An out-of-town wedding. A D&D game I couldn't get out of. A severe case of home-body-itis. But this month, I decided. It was time.

And of course, now I wish I'd done it earlier. What a bunch of lovely people. People who don't blink an eye at a gift bag with a vibrator in it. People who order mimosas for any reason at all. People who write romance and like talking books and word counts and craft. People who were even willing to talk to me, a total stranger with a crippling case of shyness around strangers.

Anyway, the meeting was a big success. I made some new acquaintances, got an awesome new plot bunny, and had fun. Best of all, I got some motivation. There's something about being around other people all working on the same goal you are, kwim?

So I paid my $15, and am now on my way to becoming an honest-to-goodness member of CarolinaRomance Writers.

And yes, this means I will have to leave my house at least once a month from now on.

Mini Writer's Retreat

I had that most rare and lovely of experiences this week: my husband left town. For four days.

Four blissful, productive days.

Now, I'm not saying I don't love my husband or that I didn't miss him. But as a work-from-home, childless person, having all that free time with no interruptions, no cleaning, no cooking… it was amazing.

I dubbed it my writer's retreat, and at the outset of it, I decided I was going to write 10k words while he was gone.

…

…

**crickets**

Of course, that didn't happen. But what did happen is I wrote when I had words in my head. I read. I watched a couple movies. I slept at weird hours. I took time to get my head in what I was doing.

You know. I retreated.

It was definitely what I needed. He comes home today, and I am soooo ready to see him, but I really enjoyed my time by myself to just be.

What would you do if you had four days to yourself?
 -Jeanette.

PS – In other news, Unacceptable Risk received its first review today! Bitten by Paranormal Romance gave it FIVE HOWLS!!!! I might be howling myself…

Indiana Jones and the Words on the Page

One of my favorite movies growing up was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was funny and full of action and romance and … just a touch of the morbid. Maybe it was a bit of prescience about the emo chick I would turn into when I got older, but one of the many scenes that stuck with me from the movie was when the Knight Templar in the cave talked about the burden of drinking from the Grail every day, and how sometimes, even though it was the only thing keeping him alive, he just didn’t have the will to do it.

Because, you know, drinking the magical elixir of life is hard. Or something.

Except it kind of is, if you're alone in a cave for hundreds of years.

It's super melodramatic, but I feel that way about mundane things all the time. I love my job. I love my life. Writing and talking to people online and editing and reading are what keep me alive. And yet some days… I just don't have the will to do any of them. 

Like I said. Emo chick.

This happens more in the fall than any other time of year. Something about the days getting shorter and temperatures getting cooler. It's always made me want to crawl into a cave and hibernate for hundred of years. Most days I beat the emo down and get to work and I always feel better because I did. And some other days, I look at that life-giving cup and I just say… Nah. Not today.

The Writer's Life: So What Do You *Do* With All That Time?

Whenever I talk to my mother, invariably the topic comes around to the fact that I'm currently not working full time and (with my husband's blessing and generous financial support) am dedicating myself fully to this writing thing. And her main response is always, "So what do you do with all that time?"

If she only knew.

Writing full time sounds great, and it is (holy crap, but it really, really is), but especially once things start happening with publishing, there are all these little things that need to get done. I am so, so blessed to have four pieces under contract right now (3 shorts and 1 novella), but man. There's just all this stuff.

For example, yesterday I didn't manage to write a single word on my manuscript, but I sure did manage to kill some time. Things I crossed off on my to-do list include:

• Proofing the galley and blurb for Bug Boy (my short story for Dreamspinner's upcoming Higher Learning anthology)
• Writing long and short blurbs for A Gift of Trust (a Christmas story that will be releasing in December)
• Cold-emailing blogs asking to guest blog in support of Unacceptable Risk
• Keeping up with all the author blogs, book review sites, and writer discussion lists I stalk
• Editing a short for a critique partner
• Editing my own short story so I could send it to a critique partner
• Scouring the internet for calls for submission so I can hopefully keep getting my work out there.

It may not look like a ton, but especially since I'm new to all of this (and terrified of people) all the blurb-writing and editing and cold-emailing seem to take forever, and it's super easy to have a day just fly by.

All that said, I'm really not complaining. I love this life. But seriously, Mom. There is never any lack of things to do.