I've really fallen down on the blogging in the last couple of weeks. I can't believe how busy life is now that I am only working as an author. I say "only." The first quarter of self-employment have been three of the busiest months I can remember. In addition to working on three books at the same time, I've incorporated my business and done all the associated paperwork, started a new business to help other authors format their e-books, updated all of my e-books to include live links, conquered Kobo and its daunting metadata form and conquered Overdrive (which distributes to libraries and other retailers) and it's even MORE daunting metadata form. Life is busy, to say the least.
On the home side, I've now got a kid who drives, we got a second dog (who is a wild child) and we did a ton of work to our house. Phew! I'm tired. Good thing I'm going on vacation soon and leaving my laptop (also known as my Siamese twin) at home. That ought to be interesting. My family predicts I'll be twitching before the first day is out, but I'm determined to take a REAL vacation for the first time in years. When I was still working the day job, all my vacation time was devoted to book stuff. After seven years of that, I'm wondering if I remember what it truly means to be on vacation. We'll see!
One more thing to add to the list for the last three months was the devastating computer crash that gave me a serious slap upside the head to improve my backup system. Three weeks after I dropped my laptop and fried my hard drive, I'm STILL waiting on the data recovery. It was at 88.9 percent this morning, so I'm hoping to get it back next week. Fingers crossed because I've got big chunks of two books trapped in never-never land on that old hard drive. I'll let you know what happens!
Until then, have a great weekend!
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Friday, April 6, 2012
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Where Has March Gone?
Sorry to have been absent from the blog these last couple of weeks. Things have been nuttier than usual! I was sad to hear on March 2 that my friend Doug Haywood died during heart surgery at the age of 59. Doug is a past president of the Association I work for, and as the communications director, I work closely with the presidents. Yesterday, at Doug's memorial in Phoenix, I told his friends and family that my job is to make the presidents look good during their year in office. Some require more help than others, but Doug didn't need much help from me to look good. We hit it off right out of the gate and have been friends ever since. In 1997 we held our annual conference in Doug's home city of Phoenix. Doug and his wife Kathy held a memorable party at their home the night before the conference began. I hadn't been back there again until yesterday when we gathered at Doug's house after his memorial service.
The last time I saw Doug was this past June, at our conference in New Orleans. He "kidnapped" me from the welcome reception and invited me out to dinner with Kathy and one of the other past presidents and his wife. I said I was worried about being a "fifth wheel," but Doug told me not to be ridiculous and insisted I come with them. I'm so glad now that I did. We had such a great time with lots of laughs and old stories. Doug treated us all and was in high spirits to be spending time with old friends. That's how I'll remember him, as an old friend who was always happy to see me whenever our paths crossed, as a devoted family man who loved his wife and daughter, as a dedicated public servant who gave his entire professional career to the state of Arizona, and as someone who was taken from us far too soon.
After the memorial service, Dan and I headed over to the Arizona Grand Resort, the same place where my company held its meeting in 1997. Way back when, Dan and then two-year-old Emily joined me here and we had such a great time. We went exploring this morning and checked out the place where we held the conference, which I remembered like it was yesterday and not 13 years ago. It's nice to enjoy some kid free R&R after a crazy couple of months.
This past week, I blogged at Magical Musings about the sale of Fatal Affair. If you didn't get a chance to check it out, here is the link. There's a great story behind the story, and I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend!
The last time I saw Doug was this past June, at our conference in New Orleans. He "kidnapped" me from the welcome reception and invited me out to dinner with Kathy and one of the other past presidents and his wife. I said I was worried about being a "fifth wheel," but Doug told me not to be ridiculous and insisted I come with them. I'm so glad now that I did. We had such a great time with lots of laughs and old stories. Doug treated us all and was in high spirits to be spending time with old friends. That's how I'll remember him, as an old friend who was always happy to see me whenever our paths crossed, as a devoted family man who loved his wife and daughter, as a dedicated public servant who gave his entire professional career to the state of Arizona, and as someone who was taken from us far too soon.
After the memorial service, Dan and I headed over to the Arizona Grand Resort, the same place where my company held its meeting in 1997. Way back when, Dan and then two-year-old Emily joined me here and we had such a great time. We went exploring this morning and checked out the place where we held the conference, which I remembered like it was yesterday and not 13 years ago. It's nice to enjoy some kid free R&R after a crazy couple of months.
This past week, I blogged at Magical Musings about the sale of Fatal Affair. If you didn't get a chance to check it out, here is the link. There's a great story behind the story, and I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Madness Abounds
Sorry for the quiet on the blog this week. Things are crazy:
1. At home: kids = crazy + Christmas = insanity
2. At work: jamming five weeks of work into three
3. In book land: we're still trying to rename the book formerly known as Same Time Sunday. Hopefully, more to come on that soon!
I'm looking forward to a nice long vacation later this month. My company does a lovely thing for us each year by closing down from Christmas to New Year's. Since I only had to take four days off to get 16 days off and since the kids are home the full two weeks during a time of year when there is less than nothing to do, I figured I'd take the break. I did this last year, too, and I've decided it's my favorite vacation of the year. There's not as much pressure to get out there and DO as there is during summer vacations when the weather is perfect and the beaches are open. At Christmas, there's more time to watch movies, read a good book, or maybe write one. I'm looking forward to finishing up the WIP from hell soon and starting on a new light contemporary that has been running around in my head for months.
I'm also looking forward to some plans with our former neighbors from the Florida years. Our families haven't gotten together in more than a year, and we're planning to spend New Year's Eve together and to do some snow tubing. Have you ever done that? I love it! Of course my oh-so-competitive Cliff Claven has to be like an Olympic bobsledder. He goes SO fast, he jumps the net that's there to catch you. He literally DISAPPEARS off the slope and then comes crawling back up the side of the containment area. I never laughed so hard in my life! And the last thing you want to do on a snowy slope is come close to a urinary incident! Suffice to say that watching Cliff on the tubes is a recipe for said urinary incident!
Are you taking time off at the holidays? What do you have planned?
1. At home: kids = crazy + Christmas = insanity
2. At work: jamming five weeks of work into three
3. In book land: we're still trying to rename the book formerly known as Same Time Sunday. Hopefully, more to come on that soon!
I'm looking forward to a nice long vacation later this month. My company does a lovely thing for us each year by closing down from Christmas to New Year's. Since I only had to take four days off to get 16 days off and since the kids are home the full two weeks during a time of year when there is less than nothing to do, I figured I'd take the break. I did this last year, too, and I've decided it's my favorite vacation of the year. There's not as much pressure to get out there and DO as there is during summer vacations when the weather is perfect and the beaches are open. At Christmas, there's more time to watch movies, read a good book, or maybe write one. I'm looking forward to finishing up the WIP from hell soon and starting on a new light contemporary that has been running around in my head for months.
I'm also looking forward to some plans with our former neighbors from the Florida years. Our families haven't gotten together in more than a year, and we're planning to spend New Year's Eve together and to do some snow tubing. Have you ever done that? I love it! Of course my oh-so-competitive Cliff Claven has to be like an Olympic bobsledder. He goes SO fast, he jumps the net that's there to catch you. He literally DISAPPEARS off the slope and then comes crawling back up the side of the containment area. I never laughed so hard in my life! And the last thing you want to do on a snowy slope is come close to a urinary incident! Suffice to say that watching Cliff on the tubes is a recipe for said urinary incident!
Are you taking time off at the holidays? What do you have planned?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
