Keeping busy

First, I want to thank everyone who has commented on this blog or emailed me about that thing that happened. Bless you all. You guys are so awesome! :) I am pretty much over what happened but, like I said, it was so surreal. Talking with my friend helped. She gave me good advice. The thing that stuck with me, though, is her saying, "It's not your fault because you didn't know how to protect yourself." Well, that is true. It's not exactly the same as something ELSE that I've had to deal with in the recent past. But being unable to grasp what was going on and realize what WAS going on...it's very unsettling. Nevertheless, it has definitely made me want to learn how to protect myself from such things. I just really....REALLY want to stay in my own skin 24/7. If you know what I mean! Nobody else is allowed to step in and take over. No way! So I was at the bookstore and I came across a book that's supposed to show how you can protect yourself from things like that. Just, establish certain boundaries with unseen forces. I hope the book will help. If not, I will ask some people I know who know how to do that sort of thing.

But, really. Thank you again for your concern. It has really helped a lot.

On another note, I'm still at it with the writing. I just spent two days doing research for an article. UGH! I don't know what frustrates me more: That it took me 2 days to fully understand this stuff or that I even had a hard time understanding this stuff! Good grief! Freelance writers are supposed to be able to process information more quickly. Sigh. Well, it HAS been a while since I've been doing the freelancing....

As to book stuff, well, I keep losing track of everything. Gah! I've got...three different projects on the table. I go between them, editing here, revising there. Then I have three more when THOSE are done! But with these three books I'm working on each at a time, sometimes I forget about what I'm supposed to do and what the status is. For example, with one book, I need quotes from people. But when I try contacting them, it's like, "Get back to me when you have a contract." *grumbles* And with the other, I'm not sure if I should continue tweaking it or if I should just leave it in beta mode. I fixed up the first three chapters and revised according to feedback received on them, but I don't know if I should continue even while somebody is reading the rest of it. Hmmm.

I am also revising a novel manuscript for, oh, the hundredth time. I keep telling myself "this is the LAST revision!!" but we'll see if that sticks. Hah! If I find an agent interested in it, I'll just stop the revisions (cause I'm already so far into that, anyway) and see what happens there. (Yes, I'm still searching for an agent. I would really LIKE to get more novels published. If that's okay.)

Also, I am seriously thinking of self-publishing my poetry books. I mean, why not? You know? I know that attempt failed miserably with the one book I self-pubbed, but I'm not gonna give up just because I failed once! I'm gonna get back up, dust myself off and try it again! (Yeah, I'm stubborn like that. Haha.) I mean, I look at it this way: Traditional publishers are not too willing to take a risk with poetry. I mean, not the ones who already publish the money-making poets, anyway! But I mean, with the economy being the way it is and everybody cutting corners the way they are now, it's just not likely that a whole lot of poetry books from unfamous poets will get published.

And, besides, I'm so tired of playing cat and mouse with publishers. Just...tired of it. I have been trying to get this book published for FIVE YEARS!!! Fer cryin' out loud! Two publishers accepted it and then those two publishers disappeared. One other publisher stopped answering my emails. Soooo, I am pretty much just...going to self-publish them. Say what you will about self-publishing. I just really think it's the best way for me to go, with the poetry books.

And, hey, at least self-publishing your poetry books is more acceptable in the writing community. :)

So, that's what's new in my writing life. I'm busy as heck but happy to be busy. Let's hope this ongoing work will continue for a little while longer because keeping busy is a good thing.