Alison Kent

This year has been full of it so far. Nothing worse than anyone else goes through in life, but it’s been nonstop for me. The year started with a three book sale to Harlequin Blaze (the third of which I will begin writing this month) as well as an agent hunt (which turned out verra well for me) — and that was just what happened in January. Well, the agent hunt started before that, but January is when things got nitty gritty and INTENSE.

I believe it was also in January when I threw out an invitation to other authors to participate in a round robin story. At the same time, I decided I would write a couple of freebie short stories this year, using secondary characters whose books I’d never written, and make them available as electronic downloads. I also set up a newsletter list for a “writing life” newsletter. I was enthusiastic to tackle each and every project, but then I got caught up in writing my 12/10 Brava release, and my schedule was just too INTENSE.

I turned in that Brava book the first of March, then got busy writing KISS & TELL during March and April, then got busy rewriting KISS & TELL during April and May. That took me through mid-May, and was a lot of writing to do in five months, and it pushed back all sorts of things I needed and wanted to do. Web work. Housework. The round robin and ebooks and newsletter. Answering email. Doing promo. Taking care of myself and being more than just a brain churning out words through my fingers and onto the page. See, I had thought that because some author friends are nonstop writing machines, I could be, too. I discovered I couldn’t be, that it was a schedule that was just too INTENSE.

At the end of May, the husband went back to work full time as a geologist. This was a most joyous occasion, but being so used to our schedule, it took a lot of adjustment. The husband had been my cook and errand runner for so long since he was working contract from home, but with him gone all day, and our only having one car, well, huge adjustment. And then in June came Casey’s surgery, and Sam’s hospital visit, and Takumi’s near death, and those three things were nothing if not INTENSE.

In July I had a ton of Web work to be done, and eventually handed off a lot of it to #2. She knows html, built the Website for the vet she used to work with, kept her own site during high school, and a part-time job was just what she needed. I’d been working on A LONG, HARD RIDE during June and July, but after finishing the copy edits for MAXIMUM EXPOSURE and KISS & TELL, had to seriously buckle down in August to get it done – August, which brought Taylor’s surgery and turning fifty was definitely INTENSE!

September brought Hurricane Ike, and there’s no word to describe that but INTENSE.

So while working last week on revisions for A LONG, HARD RIDE, I made a decision. I’m taking October off from blogging. The husband and I were supposed to take the first week of the month for vacation, but he had a big geology project fall into his lap, so we’ve rescheduled for mid-month. I’ll be done with my revisions, he’ll be done with his project, and we can enjoy those two weekends and one full week I’ve declared as our vacation days without deadlines hanging over our heads. Yes, we’re going somewhere, and I can’t wait to get away. We haven’t gotten away in forever, at least not “away” that wasn’t part of a writing conference – and there’s no relaxing when a conference is so INTENSE.

My thinking is that by giving myself permission to abandon the blog for a month, and by giving you all warning that I’ll be gone until November 1st, there will be a huge reduction in my stress, and I can focus my energies where they need to be right now – on my writing, my family, myself. I have another Blaze I need to write before the end of the year, and I’m really looking forward to diving into another suspense. The hero is a Texas Ranger and the heroine is on the run. I have a larger idea, too, that I want to play with, jot notes, sketch some characters, situations, plot points, etc., and brainstorming with the husband while we’re away will help that project take shape in my mind. Nothing on that goes down on paper until it’s meaty and deep and unavoidably INTENSE.

As my Virginia Woolf quote says on my sidebar:

“As for my next book, I am going to hold myself from writing it till I have it impending in me: grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.”

So, I’ll be back on November 1st. I already have a brand new blog theme ready to go. I’d planned to launch it in September, but well, IKE and all the aftermath turned September into (as #2 would say) a “big fat boo.” I don’t want to throw it up without doing some tweaking to my site, and I can’t do that until my revisions are done. And really. I NEED that vacation before I think of doing anything beyond my revisions. Revisions, starting the next Blaze, #2’s birthday, Halloween, Casey’s birthday, the stepson’s birthday, Thanksgiving, the husband’s and my eleventh anniversary, #1’s boyfriend’s birthday and then Christmas. The rest of this year is going to be pretty durn INTENSE!