One of Those

All members of the human race have them.  One of those weeks.  Then something happens to pick you up and get you back on track.  I slowed down this week after a visit to my elderly mother.  It's difficult to see her slowly fading into confusion.  Her world shrinks as her health issues grow.  It took me a few days to get back on track writing after pounding out almost 25K in the last five weeks.

Over the course of the last few days, I caught up on earlier seasons of a few of my favorite shows.  My daughter and I share a love of the USA network show, White Collar.  I think she loves it for Matt Bomer's blue eyes, and they are amazing, but I like watching a crime show where the crimes have to be solved by outsmarting some really clever thieves.  There are only occasional dead bodies.  We watching all of Season One.

Another show I discovered last year is FX's Justified. It has the clever dialogue and Raylin Givens is a modern day gunfighter masquerading as a federal marshal.  I grew up loving all those great western shows and Clint Eastwood movies.  I haven't watched the entire season yet, because I'm finally back on the WIP.  I also intend to catch up with my blogger friends I ignored for a few days.

So does anything throw you off stride from your writing routines?  What get you back on track? What is the longest you've ignored your writing or blogging?

What About Me?

Does that title sound like a country song?  I want to thank the four fine authors I featured this week on my blog.  I hope their interviews sparked your interest in some of their exciting books already released and some yet to come.  Today I want to talk about me. 

All of my romance books are available on Fictionwise.  I have two romance series, The Chronicles of Solonia and The Tigers of Salubria. 
The Chronicles of Solonia is a complete series, starting with The Greater Good and continuing with The Lesser Evil, A Ruthless Good and ending with One Good Woman.  Every book in this futuristic romance series received excellent reviews. 
The Tigers of Salubria is a fantasy tale of a group of legendary warriors and opens with To Tame a Tiger.  The second book, Tiger's Mate will be published sometime in 2011. 
Most readers of this blog are more familiar with my fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles.  The Keepers of Sulbreth is available at most retail bookstores, big and small, in print and ebook.  It also has received nothing but excellent reviews as the first book in an epic fantasy series or as a YA title.  The second book, Beyond the Gate, is due for release tomorrow.  Amazon has been a little slow getting it up on their website but Barnes and Noble has it available as do some other ebook sellers. 

So load up those eReaders with some great reading.  I hope you enjoyed meeting my friends and perhaps visited their blogs as well.

So what books have you read during the Christmas break? Have you shrunk the size of your TBR shelf or grown it higher?  (Is that correct grammar? LOL)  At least with my eReader, my TBR shelf is invisible to all but me.

Fall Approaches

Every August since I've tried make my way as writer becomes a time of stress and pressure. My bill-paying job is teaching. That means in a few days I'll be back on the job from 6:45 am until around 3:15 Monday through Friday. It will cut into a huge chunk of my writing time. Not that I write much during those hours during the summer months. During those times I do all the other things that chew up time. Laundry, yard work, cooking, cleaning, shopping and blogging to name a few. Starting soon I'll be doing all those things in the evening and those hours are my writing hours.

You can't hear me, but I'm screaming, "I don't want to go back to school." Now I love my students but I want to stay home and write. I want to finish this WIP and sent it out. I want to work on book#3 of The Futhark Chronicles. I want to find a home for First Dragon. But like so many writers I don't have this choice. Not only does the mortgage need my income but so does the college tuition of two children. Let's not even talk about food. Yes I have to work so we have that stuff.

I set a goal to finish Tiger's Mate before returning to school and I'm getting to it a little early today and planning on working late. Maybe this will be the one to allow me early retirement.

Day Late a Little Short

Didn't quite get all those goals this week. I only missed one though. I didn't get the wall paper done or the fence fixed, but I have a good reason. My husband was home. Now how does that make sense? If you knew my husband, you would know it is impossible to start such a project with him around. He really is handyman-challenged. His patience is less than zero. So this week, I'm putting that goal back on my agenda.
#1. I am going to remove that wall paper.
#2. I'm going to work out no less than four days.
#3. I'm do a little update on my webside.
#4. I'm going to start working on Tiger's Mate, book 2 in the series I have started with TWRP/

I've put my writing goal last this week because I must get that wall paper completed. I usually don't do this, but this week I must. Also, I've already met my June goals for CPRW. Our groups sets these for each month and makes them public. It's a great way to benefit from that peer pressure. I did't make mine in May for the first time this year. I did much better this past month thanks to the encouragement I received here. How important to you think goal-setting is to your writing and in other aspects of your life?