Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Enjoying the Ride

Fall is finally here. This is my absolute favorite time of the year: everything I love most is packed into the space of about four months, starting with October and the changing leaves.

However, last week Jessica did a blog post on countdowns, and I realized exactly how much I've got going on this fall.

  • Finish my final edits for His Good Opinion and send it to an editor
  • Assimilate those edits and send it to a proofer
  • Assimilate the proofs and format the book for sale
  • November is NaNoWriMo--I'll be writing my next novel, focusing on Colonel Fitzwilliam
  • I'm one of Vancouver's Municipal Liaisons for NaNo, so I'm busy planning events right now.
  • Launch my book
And that doesn't even take things like the holidays and my birthday (Feb. 2) into account. When Jess said Christmas was 100 days away, I did panic for just a minute. 

Then I realized something: These are all good things! I love being an ML, even with all the extra work that goes along with it. (This year, I'm also mentoring new MLs... another thing, but it'll be fun.) I can't imagine a November without NaNoWriMo, so even though it might be crazy to write one book while publishing my first, I'm going to do it anyway. And of course, all the various bits of the publishing process will be time-consuming, but HELLO! By the end of November, I will be able to hold my book in my hands! 

So I'm going to take the advice I gave Jess. "Pretend it's a ride at Disneyland. The ride operator has buckled you in, and you just have to sit back and enjoy." 

Are you hanging on to your hats, friends? 'Cause this here is the wildest ride in the wilderness.