A Saturday Means...

As this morning dawned, I wondered about what the weekend may bring for others.

For us... Saturday means sleeping in just a bit. We laze around with morning cartoons, and have a big breakfast. And we try to fit some family fun in before my husband leaves for his weekend shift.

This morning, a cool, drizzly day, the four of us loaded up in the golf cart and adventured. We traversed back gravel roads, taking dips and turns for which our daughters, thinking it as fun as a roller coaster, raised their arms with glee. We breathed in the crisp air as we raced our dog, Lucy, who followed on foot.

We found a nearby cemetery and descended upon its grounds, weaving among headstones. We told our girls, delicately, of what the sturdy pieces meant, and ticked off the years of age-crusted marble slabs. And when Emma, our five-year-old, found the headstone for a woman named the same, from the 1800s, her face showed the awe I felt inside.

Setting out on four wheels once again, we came to the hundreds-of-feet tall water tower, and looked at the globe above us. Wondering at its size, we imagined the outcome if the steel structure burst and washed us away.

We took the indirect way home, enjoying the tail-end of our excursion. It ended too soon, but tell me the outing wasn't full of inspiration.

And now I have the remainder of the day stretched ahead of me. With misterwrites gone to work, we girls are left to our own devices. One watches a Barbie movie, the other plays Disney Princesses online, and I consider my options. Shall I work on that still-unfinished column? My deadline is the 22nd... Should I pull up the WIP? Tate, the main character, calls to me in distress over the position in which I last left him... I need to make a decision about Novel 1, and where I go with it next. (I've put querying on hold... I'll post about that soon.) And yesterday, a friend gave me a copy of the book she's begun writing. I'm eager to get feedback to her, so there's that. But then again... I've got a delicious book waiting for me... and a hot bath sounds nice...

What about you? How do your Saturdays play out?

I'm Leavin' On A Jetplane

Well, not quite a jetplane, but I've had the song stuck in my head all morning...

We're off for a weekend with Hubby's siblings and their families. This time I'll likely not have internet access at all, so I'm taking an official break from all things cyberspace. I'll return Tuesday, hopefully to something other than rejection waiting in my inbox.

Have a great weekend! And good luck with all your endeavors, writing and otherwise.

Why Isn't There A Lit Agent In The Family?

We've got a wide range of careers represented by our family, both immediate and extended: Nurses, Air Force, electricians, Wal-Mart associates, a private investigator, a plastic surgeon, computer programmers, teachers, musicians, a police officer, an airline employee, a government contractor, and jacks of all trades, etc.

But not a single one in the literary field. No one to help me get my foot in the door.

I was even willing to throw the family's annual cheesecake contest. As a judge this year, I'd have chosen Crazy Uncle Jeb's Mussels and Sprouts Cake* for winner, if he'd had an in with an agency. But I couldn't find any relative, even the most distant, who could help me.

Which, I guess, is okay. In the end, reaching my goal of publication all on my own will make the reward that much sweeter. Right?

*We have no Crazy Uncle Jeb. And I wouldn't have voted for a mussels and sprouts cheesecake. Ucky!


ETA: New count, as of two minutes ago: 6 rejections, 5 queries out

Lazy Is As Lazy Does

The last few months, my motivation has been in writing. Which is good - don't get me wrong - but I was avoiding housework and giving up quality time with my daughters (ages 2 and 4). I was spending many hours a day online and in Word, and couldn't easily get myself up from my desk - I was parenting from my stool. Hubby was giving me grief, my girls were cranky, and I had no energy. And I wasn't effective as a mommy. (In my defense, it hasn't always been this way.)

Over the past week or so my outlook has changed. Somehow I've been charged with a new kind of motivation. Something I read, along with a renewed sense of all the blessings I have to be thankful for, has made me realize the priorities my life should have. My family in and of itself has always been first... but I've found it easy to temporarily put their needs aside while I did what I wanted to do. How selfish of me. I see now that my goal should be taking care of them and our household (I am, after all, a stay-at-home mom), above all, and then my chance/time to write will fall into place.

My writing is still important to me; I'm not at all saying that's changed. I just need to go about it differently. I need to work on my projects through certain times of the day, like naptime and in the evenings. Oh, I know I'll periodically check AW, MySpace, and Blogger throughout the day, but I have to resist the urge to sit for hours at a time, doing nothing but waste time.

Now that my perspective is once again focused on what it should be, there is a downside. I've put so much time and effort into home and family that, at day's end, I have no desire to sit and write. My body's tired, my brain is fried. I feel lazy about my writing now. Opening my WIP and trying to add to my word count is the last thing I want to do. I'm still working on all my smaller projects (ie. my column - an actual deadline seems to motivate me plenty), but I feel like the novel has fallen by the wayside. I'm not going to give up. And I refuse to let it sit, without doing more work on it. But at what point will I look forward to that again?

Any tips for finding a happy medium, a balance?