Monday, January 7, 2013

An Author's Life: I Submit

Catchy n' clever blog title, eh? Bet you can figure out that I'm referring to manuscript submission. The deadline was January 1 and I put the thing into DropBox on January 2.

To my father of blessed memory I owe my ability to meet deadlines. He tore up my fifth grade Blue Whale report saying, "This will teach you to leave something until the last minute." Yes, Mommie Dearest had a counterpart. Growing up was so . . . character building.

An alternate lede for this post: Turkeys are done; people are finished. The manuscript is finished; I'm done. Pretty much. What's next?

What's next is always a major clean-a-thon as well as creating and slamming through a punch list of everything I've neglected while writing or avoiding writing. The punch list includes activities like spraying WD-40 into door hinges, assembling tax records, thinking about getting back to yoga.

Already accomplished: vacuuming out the innards of my computer's tower, watching all of "Homeland," reading novels and picking up 15 more at The Book Thing this past Saturday, wandering in for much-needed acupuncture. More about the continuing apnea adventures in a future post.

True to form, I've begged loved ones to slap me upside the head if I ever ever ever talk about writing another book. True to form, I'm thinking about the next book. True to form, loved ones are laughing too hard to smack me.