Techno Break

I didn't blog yesterday. Why? Because I needed a break from the screen time. Sometimes we are so wrapped up in our cyber world, we forget about the wonderful real world that exists. This is very true during the winter when cold and nasty weather forces us indoors. We're cooped up, bored, not moving forward and suddenly the Internet, emails, LOOPS, blogs, FB, Twitter become very important.

But there comes a point where the deluge of information, future contest forwards, loops, chats, blogging, reading about writing, catching up on every FB comment becomes unsatisfactory. And the spirit sags. And the mind goes into hyperdrive and is unable to relax.

Besides my writing world, I also have another world where I am a neighbor who helps, a mom with a kid in school and a wife with a husband who needs surgery. As one of my CPs says about the characters in novels, the outside world was pressing in and creating mega stress.

My solution? Turn off the computer. Go outside and sit in the sun, facing it in the western sky, and pick up a book to read. No phone, no Internet, no TV, no worries. Ah, it was lovely. I even napped (a rarity for me).

Afterward, I felt refreshed. I had the psychic energy to face the computer long enough to print out my Linda Howard Award of Excellence finalist entries and get them ready to mail out to the finalist judge. I printed out all my critiques and pages for my own revision and began to feel excited about the new direction.

I took time to honor my own writing style, which includes intuitive and emotional writing more than just facing the structure and formality of writing. Thus, I knew I needed a breath of real air and the warmth of the sun on my cheeks in order to feed my soul and renew myself for the tasks that lay ahead.

Now I am ready. Now I can move forward.

Break or Bust?

I've been busy catching up on chores and friends this week. First the chores: house cleaned top to bottom--highly necessary tho' hardly a reward for hard work on my book. Hence, part deux of my break is getting to chat for a long time on the phone with my friends without worrying about it taking away writing time. And today I am going to meet one of them for lunch--that's a nice reward. Tomorrow, my friends from VA are arriving and they stay for 3 days. I'm looking forward to seeing them again. And over the weekend, I get to see my HEART OF DIXIE writing pals, learn to pitch, and that evening I am attending a surprise birthday party. Woot!

I also managed to do little odds and ends. Like hooking up with DonorsChoose

--an organization that donates money to help schools directly linked with military families. What a lovely way to support our troops! And to promote education is a positive thing as well.

And I wrote and emailed my letter asking an editor to judge our LINDA HOWARD AWARD of EXCELLENCE contest for SOUTHERN MAGIC.

I'm holding back from starting my 4th MS read through and first revision until next Monday. It's hard, but I want to give my brain a break, and I want to work on some business stuff. I want to order my business cards for the conference with my pseudonym and I want to start building my web page. Then I can stream my blog into it, and my FaceBook for my writing name. Woot!