Is anyone else suffering from a post-holiday hangover? Dirty dishes, loads of leftovers, pants that groan at the seams while snoozing in front of parades, reruns and football games, the manic penny-saving rush that comes with Black Friday . . . you know, the joys of the season! And it's just getting started!!
Despite the frenzy and the disruption of my dogmatic routine, I reeeeeally love the holidays between Halloween and Christmas because I LOVE to decorate and hostess. They give me an excuse to come out of my hermitude without guilt. I should be writing. I should be doing PR on that new release. I should (I really should!) be putting together a newsletter. Sometimes, shouldn't we just reacquaint with the joy of connecting with friends and family, filling our homes with sinful scents (calories have a delicious odor!), turn our everyday staid surroundings into Party City and give ourselves a break? I can hear those who know me groaning, "Yeah, right. You? Ms. OCD Squared, take a day off?" It could happen . . . and it does happen (though I confess to still feeling a bit guilty!). Community recharges batteries that can overheat under continuous use (or abuse!). We sometimes pull ourselves so deeply into our imaginative caves that we forget there's a real world beyond the fiction we create, that time is flying by. If I'm not careful, I could be that Rip VanWinkle, squinting out into the daylight behind my office door to discover my pre-teen grandson has started college! How the hours, days and years fly by!
But because I can’t go cold turkey (Sorry, couldn’t resist!), I’ll slip in a few seconds of work then go on to enjoy the rest of my loooong weekend. I’ve got my second “Midnight to Moonlight” blog tour sale going on with the first book in my “Touched by Midnight” vampire romance series only $.99 (!) and a shout out for my newest release, Book 3 in my 4-book “House of Terriot” shapeshifter series, complete with giveaway. My late Black Friday offering . . .
With the realization that by this time next month, I’ll be recovering from my second knee replacement (Same surgery, different knee. I’ll be bionic!), don’t wait until the last minute (or until you’re trying to sleep flat on your back on good drugs with your knee above the level of your heart for three weeks) to get out and enjoy some of the fun and excitement the season offers.
Happy writing, Happy reading and Happy Holidays!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nancy Gideon on the Web
4 comments:
Well, I've done NaNoWriMo for the last several years in November, and our family got smaller, so now we do a nice turkey dine-out dinner for Thanksgiving, and I write like crazy all this month. Then I clean house (because it gets really, really dirty in thirty days!) and do my holiday decorating. It's not perfect, but it works for us. Halloweem/Samhain BIG, CHristmas/Yule BIG. Thanksgiving not so much.
I can barely believe you change your routine for the holidays. Here I thought you chained yourself to your desk each morning. LOL You are so right about staying in touch with the real world. (BTW, I know your "day" job forces you to do so.) Our grandchildren grow up so quickly. We must see them often before they head off to high school or college and then are too busy. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy decorating.
I've often wondered if I went to writing full-time if I wouldn't become a hermit with limited human contact...but then again, my husband is a social butterfly, always inviting people over and out, so maybe not. :) I love the holidays too, although I'm always glad to get back into a normal routine!
I've already been feeling twinges of the Grinch- so I'll keep this in mind. It just seems like every year gets busier. Good luck with your surgery!
Post a Comment