Thursday, January 23, 2014

Dry spell

While much of the country freezes with subzero temperatures and the East labors under a heavy snow fall, North Texas is getting off fairly easily. This morning I bundled for extreme cold in jeans, my warmest sweater, and a quilted down jacket. And I really felt cozy. Well, at least at first. I swore when I came home at 10:30 it was colder than when I left at 9:00. And tonight it's to be 18--that's really cold for us. But by Saturday? Sixties. As someone said, Mother Nature seems to be off her meds.
For me, this funny weather is a dry spell, though I'm not sure the two are connected. I wonder if most writers don't go through these dry spells. Oh, I've been busy--writing blogs, guest blogs that are scheduled after Murder at the Tremont Inn launches Feb. 27, editing the neighborhood newsletter, making my presence known on Facebook and even exploring Twitter and Pinterest a bit, though I've ignored them for weeks, even months.
I've been busy socially. I'm a big believer in keeping up friendships and in the fact that it takes an effort--so I've been out to lunch and dinner a lot. In fact, tonight is the first night since last Sat. that I've had dinner at home alone. You know what? Eating leftovers (even from last Sunday) is kind of fun. I'v got a fire in the fireplace and a book to read.
I have 10,000 words done on a new novel...but then I got distracted by another project I really wanted to move ahead on. Besides, I have no contract on this newest one, no deadline. I don't usually write to deadline so that doesn't bother me, but I feel that I'm resting, gathering strength to plunge into a new novel. My horoscope said today that news in the next week would give me a burst of new energy. I guess I'm waiting.
There's another stumbling block--I've got a 450+ page novel to review, and I don't like to plunge into my own novel while my imagination is caught in the world of the one I'm reading. As is not unusual for me, I started this one thinking Why did I agree to review this? Now, almost a hundred pages into it, I'm getting hooked on the story. Don't know if that's good or bad--shouldn't take a hundred pages to draw me in.
Enough rationalizations about why I'm not writing. Do you have reasons you put off doing things? I think we all do. But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening reading my book.

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