Ten Reasons why I didn’t get as much revision done in the last few days as I had hoped.
Aye, here’s the rub.
I have a nice fat sheaf of notes; some notes to myself, and others courtesy of the great freelance editor I am working with.
I am feeling pretty energetic courtesy of the Lucy Factor who is not teething (knock on wood) at this immediate time and showing no signs of beginning to do so. Therefore she has been sleeping a solid 8 or 9 hours during the night. Hurray!
I am in love with my book and seeing definite signs that it is a book, that the plot works and that the pacing is good.
And I am terribly excited about my new project, and foaming at the mouth to get started properly once the 2nd revision of Feltus is completed and I can lay it aside to rest for awhile.
So what is the problem?
Just life. Sigh.
In the last few days I keep getting derailed by one thing or another. Here’s the top ten.
1) Headlice. I’ll say no more on this except that it took 7 hours to vacuum everything including furniture upholstery and mattresses, wash all linens and clothing, put pillows and some stuffed toys through the dryer at high temperature and bag up everything else and store it for two weeks when as I understand it, the lice will have expired. I also had to dose my son (thankfully they make a natural scalp medication now which does not include malathion- yes, the poisonous stuff some people still put on their roses although it is highly toxic and extremely flammable); my husband, whose pillow my son likes to share; and endure the next two days checking my comb, my daughter’s scalp and my own every two minutes because just writing about headlice makes me immediately itchy.
2) I’ve done my back in for the second time in a week. I think it’s a combination of picking up the wee one without bending my knees. The wee one is now a bonny one at almost twenty-five pounds. And not bending my knees when I haul wood in for the stove. We are very Little House in the Big Woods here. It’s an annoying back spasm and seems to be aggravated by sitting in front of the computer. I am perched on two cushions right now.
3) The Office. The American version. I just can’t stop myself.
4) Ditto. Facebook’s wordscraper. Their scrabble.
5) Actually the internet in general. I like to email my sister but the rest of the stuff needs to go. Just time-consuming surfing with no discernible goal or point. I just read an interview with Michelle Paver (author of the wonderful, wonderful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series- go out and pick them up right now if you like exciting, gripping and well-written children’s literature) and she does not have internet access and I thought to myself, “What an excellent idea!” By the way- Wolf Brother is being made into a movie and I am so excited.
6) My kids. Love them to death but they are so present. I will rue these words in a few years when they ignore me completely. I have become quite masterful at tuning them out but that always makes me nervous because I’m afraid I’ll not notice when something bad happens.
7) School holidays and snow days. This is much the same as the broader #6 and actually is more a reason than just saying “My kids” because it’s not them per se, it’s more about the unscheduled school cancellations and the pervasive vacations. I try to be flexible I really do but let me just say that my son has already had a snow day this year. In October. I grew up in Ontario Canada with wind chill factor and lows of -50 degrees Farenheit and freezing rain and six feet of snow dumped in twenty four hours and we never had a snow day when I was a kid. We used to hope and pray for one but it never happened.
8) Bone Idleness. I’m not really lazy but I like these two words so much I decided to stick them in.
9) Stuff. Stuff just happens in life. Stuff sucks.
10) This Blog. Yup, If I didn’t spend time writing this blog, I’d be working on my books. I’m going to hope that writing is writing and it all goes into the mix somehow.
Ok, so now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, my path is clear. Right?!
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