Blog Entry: Publishing, Writing, Treats
It's been five days since A Most Improper Magick officially came out, and I've finally stopped running to my bookshelf every day to prove to myself that it really was published. It's gone in and out of stock at Amazon.co.uk (and stayed steadily in stock at the Book Depository); it's finally started to hit the shelves of a first few branches of Waterstones in the Midlands, although it'll probably be another week or so before it's unpacked at all the different Waterstones branches around the country.
I've sworn to myself to STOP looking at the Amazon rankings (AND the Book Depository rankings, for that matter). I've been thrilled by the first few reviews on Amazon, which means that now would probably be a smart time for me to stop looking for any more. (We'll see if I manage to restrain myself...wisdom says one thing; experience says another...)
Here's the one thing that has reliably worked every time this week that Publication Crazy has started to overwhelm me: writing something new.
I'd planned to give myself this week off writing, since I'd worked so hard to finish Kat3 in time to send off last Friday. Well. That was a really, really bad plan. What I'd forgotten, when I decided that, was that NOT writing always makes me antsy and edgy - and when you add that to Publication Crazy...urk!
Wednesday, when I found myself in such a crazy mood that I kept checking Amazon every few hours just in case anything exciting happened (and yes, I am embarrassed to admit this!), I finally went back to a very, very silly short story that I'd begun several months ago (but left unfinished because I didn't have time to work out the plot tangles at that point). Reading through the story-so-far, I giggled out loud. I wrote the obvious next few lines...and I felt my muscles begin to relax. All that buzzing stress slowed down and melted away.
Writing is really, really good for me. Funny how easy it is to forget that...
Which makes this a good time to finally mention that the Clarion West Write-a-thon ended last week! Thank you SO much to everyone who sponsored me in it this year. I really, really appreciate it. My original plan was to finish the Kat3 rewrite and send it off by July 1st, and then to write 40 pages of new projects. Unfortunately, about a week after the 6-week write-a-thon began, MrD's childminder went on unexpectedly early maternity leave, and we were left with about a month of little to no childcare at all...and there went all my major writing sessions for a month. Oops.
In the end, I finished the Kat3 rewrite, sent it off last Friday (on the last day of the write-a-thon), and wrote about 15 pages of new projects as well, along the way. It wasn't all that I'd hoped at the beginning of the write-a-thon...but it was a LOT better than it could have been, considering the circumstances. And it's way more than I would have accomplished if I hadn't had sponsors who'd believed in me and contributed to Clarion West on my behalf. I remembered you guys every time I felt too tired to write, or felt tempted to just blow off a writing session and surf the internet instead. Knowing that I had sponsors kept me honest, and I am so grateful for it.
It's tempting to lash myself right now for not doing everything I wanted to do - surely there MUST have been a way somehow to get all my goals accomplished even without childcare - but for once, I'm not going to. I'm trying to learn how to not freak out when I don't accomplish everything I want, and to be happy with what does get done.
Right now, I'm about to make myself a really rich hot chocolate, in honor of everything I have managed to do this summer, often in difficult circumstances. What about you guys? What small treats have you been giving yourself lately?