Procrastination Camp

I know I've been MIA for more than a week... and what a long week it's been.

I left Cape Cod last weekend to take two of the kids to Camp - the oldest to a 4-day intensive basketball camp and the youngest to Girl Scout camp up in New Hampshire. You'd think with the house half empty I would have gotten a lot of writing done... not the case at all.

It's like I went to Camp, too. Procrastination Camp. I mean, I tried to sit at this keyboard but found myself distracted by the rest of my to do list.

I spent a beautiful morning weeding my community garden plot. I also balanced the pool chemicals and vacuumed out the algae, mowed the entire yard, bleached the walls and ceiling of the kids' bathroom and hung new shower curtains, took the dogs to run with their friends one morning at the field, dusted everything in the living room, cleaned my daughter's room and found that journal she wanted to take to camp but couldn't find, cleaned and organized my own desk (I can stretch out my legs underneath it again!) ...

... the week wasn't wasted but it wasn't quite how I envisioned it.

Summer has been bad for my writing this year. I'm not sure why; I've had plenty of moments of quiet and stretches of solitude. But life beckons me away from my desk, telling me there are other things to be done.

And MEANWHILE I wait oh so patiently to hear from the last agent on my list, who holds a full manuscript of my young YA mermaid book... and then I hear on the radio that Stephanie Meyers - yes, that Stephanie Twilight Meyers - is coming out with a Mermaid Project. That Mermaids are the new Vampires. And here I sit grinding my teeth and shouting, "I knew that 2 years ago!" at my radio. Will that mean my project will get picked up? Or deemed a copy cat? I had an agent last year who really really liked the story, but had another author already on his list writing a mermaid project so he "didn't want to cannibalize his own list." I get that, but still. It hurt.

What to do? Wait, I guess. Write more, is what I always tell others but I'm finding it hard to focus.

What do you do when you find it hard to focus? To sit down and write? BICHOK - Butt In Chair Hands On Keyboard - easier said than done sometimes. Any advice will be most welcome ;-)

Except, I can't write today either. I have to go over the bridge once again to pick up my daughter in New Hampshire. And I can't wait to hear all about Camp!