The Best Laid Plans...

Life does have a way of interefering with all the things a person wants to do, doesn't it?  This year, I've been deliberately focusing on what I want to do.  Unfortunately, no one else seems to be sharing my passion.

Time management has always been one of my strengths.  And the key part of the previous sentence is its tense:  some version of the past.

So, realizing I need to work on self-improvement in this area, I took a hiatus from my Author Exchange Blog, arranged stuff at my day jobs (I own two businesses) to help me meet my goal (which included a move of location and some rebuilding to include an on-site conference room to save me lots of travel time), and am in the process of getting down and dirty with my schedule to accommodate the time my bank book requires me to attend to my businesses and commercial writing and the time my heart requires me to spend on my fiction.

Your positive thoughts and prayers are most welcome.

Back From Vacation and Looking for Suggestions

Now that my trip is over (to New England to see father, sister, brother, offspring--and their offspring--and my jaunt to the EPIC writer's convention--where I did not win the award), I have returned to real life and realize precisely how much stress my real life involves and how overextended I am.

This 10-day trip was my first vacation in 6 years. That should have been the first indicator of the degree of my out-of-control lifestyle/schedule. The second tip-off was the fact that I did next to no writing and actually forgot to call the office on a couple of days. Since I own two businesses, that probably wasn't a good idea. Fortunately, my staff is quite capable and handled things without me. Thank God I'm not indispensable. (I learned that lesson about 7 years ago. So, okay, I'm a slow learner...)

My youngest daughter and I had a conversation about addictive personalities recently. I mentioned, in all seriousness, that I was fortunate to have escaped my family's genetic predisposition to such a thing. She asked, in equal seriousness, "How would you classify workaholic?" Her point hit home: like a sledgehammer.

So here I am, pondering a number of serious issues, the most important of which involves the fact that each day of my life contains 24 hours and that I have to quit jam-packing a day with 34 hours of stuff to do. The second serious issue is correcting my mistaken understanding that requiring less sleep as a person ages does not equal the actual elimination of sleep in order to secure more hours to do stuff.

I will keep you posted on the results of my new "plan" and welcome your advice and suggestions about how to reduce the number of "important" duties/responsibilities in my life and how to focus more on me (aka being selfish) and less on other people (aka being nice and kind).

NOTE: Picture #1 shows the Mississippi River Bridge in the background. My sister and I were at the Riverwalk in the French Quarter. Picture #2 shows the congratulatory flowers my husband sent me BEFORE the award-winners were announced. He figured I was a winner no matter what the EPIC conference judges said. (He's a keeper.)

Help Me Write a Story

A fellow I know mentioned on his blog a while ago that he'd like to try beginning a story on his blog and letting his "followers" each take a shot at writing a continuation of the story.  Since Bill Kirton hasn't followed up on that suggestion, I'm stealing his idea.

Here are the rules:

• Each of us will take a turn writing a segment of the story
• Since it's now my idea, I'm beginning
• No more than two paragraphs per person, per shot
• You can write an additional segment after at least two other people have written between your entries

Let's see where this takes us...

They look like a happy couple, a couple in love, as they smile at the other people on the bus.

In reality, the assassin is holding a gun at the blue-eyed man's back.  She slips her free hand into his jacket pocket and...

SOAR: A Personal Message & Plea

In October 1999, my eighteen year-old daughter was the victim of a break-in and rape. The 4-hour ordeal changed her life.

On April 24th, ten and one-half years later - to the day - she will participate in Operation Freefall: the two-mile high stand against sexual assault. Thousands of people at skydive centers across the U.S. will be taking to the sky and jumping in the 10th Anniversary event. Laurie and her fellow jumpers are raising funds to help survivors through the healing process and to increase awareness about sexual violence.

Click here to learn more about SOAR® and Operation Freefall - and to read Laurie's personal message.

(Personal note:  Sexual assault is devastating.  The level of strength involved in surviving is immeasurable.  The courage it takes for a victim to publicly share his/her story - for the sole benefit of helping others in their recovery - is awesome.  Laurie, who is deathly afraid of heights, is far more courageous than anyone I have ever known - in so many ways.  Your donation - even if it's $5 - will help another brave, courageous individual reclaim his/her life.)

EPICon - March 2010

I'll be heading out to EPIC's conference early next month.  Who else is going?  What plans do you have in mind?  What workshops will you be attending?

Tell all!

(For those of you who aren't familiar with EPIC - Electronically Published Internet Connection - here's a link to their website, which tells all about the conference:  http://www.epicauthors.com/)