Playing Pickle

What have I been up to? Running. Most of it's mental. Did you play pickle when you were a kid? I feared that game, squealed and cheered, waiting for my turn with dread. But I'd play, accept the challenge, laughing as I kept just out of reach of that dumb ball. Ugh, I hated and loved it. Lately I feel like I've been playing pickle again.

In the month of October I was caught in the strange place of having turned in my edits for Of Grace and Chocolate and waiting for the proof. After frantically applying feedback to revisions and turning it in on time, I found I had free-time.

We'll call it that.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I also started working 30-40 hours a week at a health food store. Stop in and see me in my green apron. We have amazing chocolate. Among other things. I haven't worked out of the home in 19 years. It's been a big adjustment.

And though we have one less child at home (my oldest went to work for her uncle and starts college in January), we also have one less driver. With my husband working about 12-14 hours a day, it makes for some dicey scheduling, and more organization than I have the capacity for, apparently. We're getting better.

So about that free-time . . .

I decided I could either work on other projects, or read. Hmm. I guess I could have put housework in there. Oops. I split it down the middle. I reduced my "to be read" pile by four five. I forgot one. Oops.

The Third, by Abel Keogh

Devil's Food Cake, by Josi S. Kilpack

Captive Heart, by Michelle Paige Holmes

Seeking Persephone, by Sarah M. Eden

The Legend of Shannonderry by Carol Warburton

I'm also in the middle of Possession, by Elana Johnson. Yeah, things got crazy again. And I have about two-dozen more books on the teetering pile. Thank goodness for Kindle.

Also, I devoted some of that valuable free time to writing. I opened up the fantasy I began in June. I haven't worked on it in a couple of months because of getting Grace and Chocolate going, and I wasn't sure I was in the mood to write fantasy after so much focus on a contemporary romance, but I'd been thinking about things in the back of my head and went for it. I'm up to 44,000 words and it's been so fun. A perfect break from all that is real and impending.

Isn't it pretty?!!!

And, if you've been a visitor here recently, you know I received my cover! That was crazy. As an author, you try not to have expectations, but you do anyway, and you try not to guess, but you do anyway, and then you get it and STARE FOR AN HOUR. And make it your laptop background. And post it everywhere. And start thinking of whether or not you'll do bookmarks or business cards. And POSTERS and BANNERS and ADDRESS LABELS and . . .

But I'm back to real and impending now. And really exciting. I'm working on the Grace and Chocolate proof and it's due in 3 more days. Then, IT GOES TO PRINT! GAH! My kids still don't quite understand the whole "Mom has a deadline" concept and wander in and out, asking if they can have a glass of milk, where the scissors are, how do you spell "organ", or just coming in, sitting on the exercise ball, bouncing up and down while chewing a piece of licorice and kicking the guest bed (where I am situated since my desk chair is about as good for my back as a cement block). And they promise in a whisper, "I'll be quiet." Chew chew chew.

After the tenth kick to the bed, they're out of here. But I'll see them again soon. I love them. They love me. My kids are very sign oriented. I'm making a sign:

I LOVE YOU. NOW STAY OUT.

So, this is me, playing this game of pickle, trying to stay ahead of the ball. It's anxious, thrilling . . . it's being an author. And for the most part, I'm laughing. Sometimes maniacally.

I have no idea what happens if I get tagged . . .