Got Questions?

So I seriously can't think of anything to blog about today! :) Probably due to my lack-of-sleep and focus/energy on the ms, but I did think this might be a good time to reopen the blog up to any questions you might have but haven't asked OR have asked and that I've forgotten to answer! (Hey, it happens.) Books, magazines, agents, craft, time management, whatever.

So feel free to post below or to email me directly, and I'll do my best to have something more inspiring and informative up asap.

I also wanted to let you guys know about Maria Schneider's Get an Agent Guide. She runs the great blog, Editor Unleashed, and has compiled a thorough guide to agents, how to contact them, who reps what, etc. Check out more here: Get an Agent.

No Longer Working for the Weekends

So, as a follow up to yesterday's post about writing blog posts on the weekends, I've also changed something pretty dramatic about my weekend behavior as of late. And that's this: I no longer check my email over the weekends. Gasp! True, my Blackberry does go off, but I almost always just tune out the emails as soon as they come in. And despite my Blackberry, I make a very conscious choice not to open my inbox from Friday night until Monday AM.

And you know what? I totally freaking love it. I am not beholden to think about work for an entire two days, and as a result, on Monday AM, just with the blog posts, I sit down at my desk totally re-energized.

In this day and age of instant technology, I think it can seem scary to ignore your email (and again, yeah, if there were a crisis or whatnot, I have my Blackberry to warn me), but I'm telling you, the world does not stop for these few days or hours. I was someone who was sort of always on-call, and it feels so, so, so liberating not to be. Honestly, if you're feeling burnt out, try it! Just knowing that I can ignore someone's request for my time or thoughts or answers for a few days makes me feel empowered and more in control of my time and schedule.

Anyone else do this? Or thinking about it? Give it a try!

Time Out for Blogging

Question of the day: Could you do a post about time-management and everyone could talk about how/when they fit in writing time? For example, do people who blog and write books have a schedule -- blogging first thing in the morning and writing at night, for example?

Absolutely! This is something I'm definitely struggling with right now because even though I don't spend every waking second working on my ms, when I'm NOT working on it or doing a freelance piece, which lately for some reason, I've been really busy with, I tend to like to let my brain drain, sort of like a battery that needs to deplete itself before it can be recharged. So often times, the last thing I want to do - and this means no offense to y'all, it's just about my energy levels - is write a blog post. For a while, I was really burnt out on blogging but kept at it because well, I didn't just want to stop abruptly after all of the work I'd - and you'd - put into making this such a warm, writer-friendly place for all sort of levels of writers in the industry.

So my solution has been to try to bang out a few posts over the weekend. I can usually grab some quiet computer time on Sunday night after my kids have gone to sleep, and if I can get two posts done for the week, I actually look forward to doing another one a few days later. But when I have to do them drip by drip - one each day and sort of cram it into my day when there are a million other things I'd prefer to be doing - I really lose my enthusiasm. Overall, this has definitely worked really well for me. Not only does it free up some of my time during the week, but it's also made me enjoy this blogging endeavor a lot more.

What about you guys? How do you find time to fit it in? Anyone ever get burned out like I sometimes do?

Sunday Reading

A rare weekend post for me! I'm interviewed on two sites that just posted today, so I thought I'd share, in case anyone is online and interested.

1) The Writer's Journey

2) Author Link

Happy weekend!