Counting the Days

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~ Earl Wilson

By this time next week, I will be on vacation. I cannot tell you how much I have been waiting for this. Not because we're doing anything super-exciting. We're spending the week at a cottage in PEI, which sounds nice, but after about 3-4 days I'm generally looking for something to do and starting to crawl the walls. And that's if the weather's good. It would be better if the cottage we rented had comfortable furniture I could hunker down in and read to my heart's content. But after 30 minutes in any of them and I'm in need of chiropractic care.

Why not pick another cottage? Well, this one was 'inherited' I guess you could say. My fiance and his ex-wife would come here every summer with their son for two weeks. Now the two weeks is split, we get it one week, she the other and the boy stays down for the entire two.

After the crippling effects of the furniture and my inability to get through more than one book in the week, I suggested maybe we consider going elsewhere next year. Somewhere closer to home even where we could take the dog. He gets stuck in the kennel now because we take one car and between the boy with his booster seat, food, toys, suitcases, etc, there's no room for a big, goofy golden retriever. And to be honest, I want my pooch with me, but taking two cars all the way to PEI just doesn't make financial sense. But if it were only an hour's drive away on the Nova Scotian coast, that I could do.

Anyway, this year I'm taking my lawn chair with me which will help a little. Better than the plastic jobbies they have on the deck. It has a footrest and cup holder and if I use a pillow at my back I might get a couple hours reading time in before I need to jump on the yoga mat and start doing some back bends.

So if anyone has some great summer reads to recommend, let me know! I have a week to decide what I'm taking with me.

So Many Books...So Little Time...

“An ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” ~ Augustine Birrell

I am back from conference in New York City and wow – what a whirlwind. I’m still exhausted. Conference was, as usual, a fascinating and awesome experience. The keynote speeches were inspiring, the Literacy for Life book signing jam-packed (What does that mean, anyway – jam-packed? Who packs jam in things?), the workshops endlessly helpful, and my editor and agent appointments successful.

But here’s the thing about conference – there are books everywhere! There are books to buy at the Literacy for Life signing, free books in the goody bag you get at registration, books given away at the keynote speech luncheons, books to buy at the Book Fair, books given at the publishing housing book signings, and there are often free books at the Publishing Spotlights. At least there was at Sourcebooks which was the only one I made it to and was very glad I did.

Now to any writer and avid reader, the idea of all these books is enough to send you into a blithering state of euphoria. The only problem with this is, I only brought one suitcase and one carry-on and neither had a whole lot of room to spare, and shipping the books home was too expensive an option. So I told myself, “Self, you will not go hog-wild. You will take home only the books you truly, truly want.”

Wise advice. The only problem with this is, I often truly, truly want every book I see, because each book holds the potential of an awesome story I have not yet read and what if I leave one behind that the one I leave behind is THE one that could ultimately move me, change me, alter the entire course of my life?! I mean, my God! The ramifications!

You see my dilemma. Needless to say, I ended up wearing several layers of clothing for the trip home in order to fit my books into my suitcases. And even then, I managed to control myself somewhat. I bought 3 craft books: one on characterization, writing a first draft in 30 days (after my editor/agent appts this will be essential), and revisions (where most of my writing time is spent). I picked up a couple of books at the Sourcebook spotlight. I kept the books from one keynote speech and bargained with my roommate to borrow the other ones from her. I went to only two publisher book signings and picked up only 3 books (one being Jennifer Crusie’s new book which I feel was more than justified!). I purchased 4 at the Literacy for Life signing (hey – it’s for a good cause!).

So now my TBR pile has grown yet again. Which is a bit of a problem because my reading time has shrunk somewhat to give more time to my writing because after said editor/agent appointments I have much to prepare. Plus I need to do revisions for Harlequin and I need to get the second book that follows The Outlaw Bride off to Carina.

Ack! I need to find more hours in the day and more days in the week!