Time

Keeping Perspective

I took a little trip this weekend with my husband and five-year-old daughter. We stayed in a hotel on the 9th floor, and we got to take the elevator up. The kind with a glass back, so you can see out into the open central area of the hotel. Wasted space, for sure, but pretty awesome view.

Having 5-year-old with us changed everything. She was jumping-out-of-her-skin excited to be staying in a hotel. And Oh! The elevator! And it was so high! And then to glass wall in our room looking out over the city, and we could practically see everything from up there! We pulled out the couch bed and squee!! It’s a couch! And it turns into a bed, and she got to sleep in it all on her own!! Plus she had her own tv! Then we ate breakfast there, and SO EXCITING! And look at all the blueberry muffins, and Wow! A waffle maker that turns over???

Everything was new and an adventure.

And her excitement was catching.

But let’s imagine we stayed in this SUPER EXCITING hotel for a year. . . Yeah. Even for Girlie, the place would lose it’s charm, its newness. It would not be the same.

Now imagine that we stayed the one night then when back home. And in a year, we spent the night at that hotel again. . . . WE’RE BACK! And remember the glass wall? The view from our room? And ohhh, the waffle maker!

This is the same with writing. First drafts are so cool. Everything is so exciting! And getting to the end of the story is an adventure. It’s new, and fresh, and I just want to spend all my time with it.

But when it comes time to revise, I will lose the fresh perspective if I don’t take some time away from it. It will become mundane. Same old. Hard to tell one chapter from the next. And didn’t I like this once upon a time?

It’s hard to put something aside. Especially something you love. But a little distance can go a long way in giving perspective. In remembering and rekindling the love we had for something.
Do you take time between drafts?

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Not ‘Goodbye’ . . . Just ‘See You Soon’

Some of you may have noticed, but I have been a bad bloggy friend the past little bit. I haven’t replied to comments like usual (for those who have their e-mail address available in their user settings), and I haven’t visited others blogs.

And I know, I know, it happens to the best of us, but I really do feel terrible about it, because I love all you people who visit and comment on my blog. I can’t tell you how happy a little comment makes me. Ridiculously happy. 🙂 

But alas, despite the less sleep I’ve been trying to get by on, I’m just not getting everything done. Because some things simply must come first. *cough* kids *cough*

So where I am going with this? I’m going to take a blogging break for the month of April. Hopefully in that time I can catch up on replies and visiting some of your blogs, too, but I must do a few other things first:

1. Spend every possible second enjoying my parents when they come out to visit.
2. Continue potty training little miss dirt monkey (no accidents yesterday!).
3. Finish the big translation job hanging over me.
4. Write 1000 words of my wip [work in progress] every day (or you just might see a post in April after all). For an explanation, check out this post by the fabulous Leigh Moore.
5. Spend time with my hubs every spare second he has.
6. Exercise. Time to find a new race to work towards . . . preferably a shorter one.
7. Relax. Excuse me while I go look up the definition of this word . . .
8. Begin the clearing out process for our move in June. My but junk builds up fast.

Well, I could go on . . . I didn’t even mention spending QT with kids, because I hope that’s a given . . . though it hasn’t been lately. *sigh*

So have a great April everyone! I will miss you, but look forward to hearing all your wonderful news come May. 🙂

This picture just makes me happy, so I’m sharing it again.

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If I had all the magic in the world, I’d . . .

. . . create a time pocket where time doesn’t exist.

That way I could get all those tasks on my to-do list knocked off and still have plenty of time to smell the roses. *Dreamy sigh as I imagine the possibilities*

So today I joined in to help Elizabeth Mueller launch her YA romance, Darkspell. What a perfect day to launch a novel with such a title!
 
Winter Sky believes she is everything ordinary . . .until she is kissed by Alex Stormhold.

As seer of Stormhold Coven, Alex is sworn to be Winter’s protector against the darkness that hunts her. Violently thrust into a magical realm she always thought impossible, she stumbles upon a disturbing secret of her own.

Will love prove thicker than magic?

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A Little Perspective

My first visit downtown with the kids, I had a very limited knowledge and understanding of the layout of the District. I carried a map, and consulted it constantly. When we decided to visit the White House, it felt like we had to walk a LONG TIME to get there.

Walking on the streets, the trees and the slope of the ground hide the White House really well. You could be walking right next to it, and not realize it. But with a little perspective, you have a much clearer picture.

This was taken from the top of the Washington Monument. The street you see is Constitution Ave. You might call it the main drag. That LONG WALK turned out to only be 2 blocks.

The publication process . . . whatever stage you may be in (writing, querying, on submission, waiting for publication date) . . . can sometimes feel like it takes a LONG TIME. And sometimes it does. But someday, when you have a little perspective on your experiences, you might realize that it didn’t take as long as it felt like it did.

Does that make waiting any easier? Probably not. But I do try to keep it all in perspective. 😉

What has your experience been? Is the wait worth it?

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