In and Out of the Editing State

I’ve been popping in and out of edits this month. The in-edit state is intense. When you come out of that intense editing state, you are left at loose ends, unable to move on or focus, as you try to transition back into normal daily life. If I still had children at home, perhaps they’d force me back to real world tasks, but I don’t and so it’s up to me to re-focus on the to-do list that was neglected while editing.

Christmas tree and decorating in general ~ We aren’t doing a lot of decorating this year but I set up the tree early knowing editing would be moving in and taking over much of my life. A win with that. I’ve enjoyed the tree, at least when I get away from the computer and see it. The good news is that I won’t be editing over Christmas week and I’ll be able to enjoy it a lot then.

We didn’t have a lot of Christmas shopping to do this year, but I still have two presents to buy, so a fail with that. Hopefully, I’ll get that finished up today after I get my hair trimmed. [Lots of things get neglected while in editing mode, including personal appearance.]

Other book related tasks like sending ARCs out to reviewers were handled yesterday, so I award myself a big ‘atta-girl’ for that. And a HUGE thank you to those MARVELOUS readers!!

I visited my Mom yesterday. I visit her a lot but when I’m in editing prison, I miss sometimes. BUT others fill in for me, so lots of guilt for me, but not a total fail.

What else? I hope to tweak my website today because I want to add excerpt pages for each book. Not difficult, but time-consuming. I should probably clean my house. Definitely, I need to do laundry. Oh, did I mention we’re also having a new kitchen/morning room floor installed? Most of my house downstairs isn’t usable because the rest of it is piled high with the stuff we had to move out of the way.

There’s lots of tasks that should be on this list, but thank goodness, I haven’t thought of them yet.

As I read through this, I see all good things. Busy things, some fun things, some necessary ~ but all good. And I am grateful. In past years, the list has included things like dealing with the death of loved ones, loneliness, cancer, family issues…but not this year. And so the biggest, most important tasks on my list this year is to remember I am blessed, to show gratitude and share joy.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all! The busier, the merrier! But don’t forget to take a deep breath, rest, and be in peace despite the noise and chaos around us.