March keeps rushing along...

Cape Cod Weather today: The sun is still rising, and it says 35 degrees on the thermometer, but yesterday's wind has dissipated, and the outlook is sunshine for the next several days. A marked improvement from yesterday's wind and sleet. Will this winter weather never go away???

Last week I wrote like gangbusters. I was glued to my computer.

Then came a few rejections, and this week I'm having trouble making myself sit down. Granted, there are things I've had to do for my Brownie troop's upcoming sock hop, and volcanoes to erupt left over from Thinking Day, and Girl Scout cookie time to wrap up, and the annual neighborhood dues to collect and tally, track shoes to purchase for the son starting spring sports next week, play rehersals to drive to for same son, karate classes, basketball games, meals to cook, let's not even mention vacuuming or laundry ... I mean, there are things I need to be doing outside of writing. But as I've been told before by *real* writers, nothing should be more important than writing.

Do those writers have kids? Or Brownie Troops? Or hungry families?

Rush, rush, rush. (And I don't mean Limbaugh.)

I feel like I'm always in a rush these days, but each child is only involved in one or two activities (not overscheduled) and I'm only taking one writing class at the moment (no art or yoga, boo hiss) And there isn't any gardening to be done... so why can't I feel satisfied with the amount of writing I'm able to do?

I'm whining, sorry. I'll stop. In fact, I should spend this time writing on one of my manuscripts in progress (MSS for "manuscripts" or WIP for "work in progress")... on which I have two interesting bits of info to share, which might help to motivate me a little.

One: I mentioned my contemporary romance WIP to my editor at the Lotus Circle. While mine is the first Lotus Circle book she's edited (I mentioned that it's a fairly new imprint) she's done lots of novels for Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press, and was eager to read the new MSS.

Two: I read a few articles on having "Beta readers" and while my middle son has read my mermaid story from the get-go (and helped inspire it) I thought I should try someone outside the family. Since my older son is in 7th grade, I asked him to find a friend or two willing to read a few chapters to see if it was interesting to the YA demographic. He came home with 2 girl's names, so I printed 2 copies of the first 3 chapters. The chapters have since been passed on to more of their friends, and one girl is begging my son for more to read. I printed out the next 30 pages and sent him to school with it this morning. I guess I should get back to that and keep reworking it, since it's going over pretty well as YA.

So there it is, my busy week. Hope you are doing better at organizing and balancing your life!

Try not to rush.