Oh, yes, spring is in the air! Everything is in the mood for love. The birds, bees, horses, dogs, cats, fish, EVERYTHING! And with this flurry of love going on, I've yet to get another erotica story published. It's not for lack of effort; I have 3 parts of a story written, it's just finding the time between editing, formatting for clients, and running a 100 acre farm that seems to get in the way. And worst of all, on a daily basis I get ideas for fantastic stories in which I have no time to write. As you can see, this is my latest blog post in about a month. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. I'm sure you're all sitting here reading this and nodding.
Plus, I'm working on getting another installment of the "Space" series out by July. I have a beta reader going over it giving me great pointers, and will hopefully be on track with everything to have it out. I also need to make a trip to Memphis to meet with Prince Mongo and get the final details for The Hall- which I wrote last year and have yet to get it in print. Nope, not enough hours in the day, or days in the year. Time flies! I thought retiring from the Air Force would leave me more time--nope! It just got taken up by other things. Once in a while hubby is nice and mucks out the barn for me so I can write or do other work.
Folks joke about time management; yes, it's preached from the highest mountains, but can we really make it work? I laugh and joke too, but when you're running your own farm and publishing company, you need every second of time on your side. Because of everything on my plate, I have very little down time. It's probably a good thing, I'd go crazy with nothing to do. Even trying to relax and watch a movie has my mind going a mile a minute. I am a writer, and I think about it all the time. Insomnia sucks by the way! You lay in bed, wide awake, thinking and thinking. You don't want to get up, it's far too early for that. So you lie there and think and watch the hours tick by.
The best advice I can offer is set goals and keep a list. By setting goals I mean to pick something within reach and work on it until you have completed it. Right now I'm in the process of getting my first book ready to be republished. It's over 200K words and was total insanity to make that my first published work. But after 2 years, I have my rights back from the vanity press, and plan on releasing it the way it should've been done. At 38 chapters long, the task has been daunting. I made a goal of editing 1 chapter a day. So far, I've managed to keep up, and in a couple of days I will be printing it out to send to my editor. I'd like to have it published by the end of the year (on top of everything else I'm doing) and if all goes well, I should.
So as I sit here in my office, looking out the window at the grass that needs to me mowed--again, I'm making a mental list of everything I need to get done that day. Some days the list is long, others, I get to have a little "grown-up play time"- which usually equates to something fun that still requires work.
If at times you feel discouraged because you have a lot on your plate, take a deep breath and try to relax. Sit down and organize your priorities-bills must get paid, the house must get cleaned, and the lawn begs to be mowed. And make sure you have time to feed your passion. Set aside time to write- even if you don't get much done, you will feel better knowing you put some words down. Even if it's just a sentence or two, it was something.
Spring is a lovely season for love. But it can be a busy season all the same. We writers must keep our chins up and soldier on in our offices while we watch the grass grow and the birds chirp. There will be time for all of that. Thank heavens the days are getting longer; now we need 36 hours in a day to get everything done! And not to mention time to handle life's emergencies.
Until next time, my creatively obsessed friends,
Kathy
Oh, yes, and spring brings the nesting birds. This one was #3 removed from my stove pipe! I wish they would decide to nest somewhere else. I need to add putting mesh around the chimney to the honey-do list.
One way to get some of the lawns mowed.
My newest "toy" is Bitsy- a 1953 Ferguson tractor. Sure, she's cute, but she's here for work.
Finally, some grown-up play time!
Meet Prince Mongo...The Hall will be an interesting book.
Ashlar Hall- where the story is set.
