Did You Miss Me?

So, I've been gone.  Well, not so much gone as just shutting certain aspects down. I've not blogged or tweeted or read much on the Interwebs. I've been swept up in kid stuff: kid #5 graduated kindergarten, kid #3 finished her sophomore year in college by getting straight A's and making the President's list. There have been swimming lessons and jobs and doctor visits and various other things that have kept me driving at least two hours every day even though it's summer.

And in honor of the first summer of driving in literally 103-degree weather with no working air conditioning, the car has temporarily been re-christened from the Spymobile to the Easy Bake Oven. I find that by 3 PM, after having driving in said Easy Bake Oven for roughly an hour,  that I need to lay down with a cold cloth for an hour before I am able to stand up again. This is not conducive to a productive workflow.

Despite the non-optimal workflow, I have managed to stay on top of the daily bread situation. (CHILDREN ARE EXPENSIVE - USE BIRTH CONTROL). And I've also been editing/rewriting, which has mainly consisted of picking at things and picking at things until they fall apart like Rivers Cuomo's sweater.

Somebody somewhere said that the unique thing about writers is that they can look at their work and simultaneously think it's both fabulous and hideous and see no cognitive dissonance in holding those two views. I can attest that this it true. It's the ultimate case of manic/depressive because it's being manic AND depressive at the same time. It's wearing the masks of comedy and tragedy melted together and then NOT BEING ABLE TO PRY THEM OFF.

Anyway, I am in the final stages on the rewrites of both Darker by Degree and Running Red. Not sure how long it's going to take me to finish these off. So if I am scarce, it's only the sheer effort to focus that is keeping me quiet. They're going up before the end of July, regardless. Period.