Lynn H. Blackburn

Last week was crazy. But wonderful. I got to spend most of it with my dad, which was awesome. And, we tore out all my downstairs carpet and replaced everything. This is not the time for me to go on my “I hate carpet” rant. Trust me when I say that ripping it out was a cathartic experience!

The downside to last week was that I did absolutely no writing or editing. I also got way behind on email, voicemail and facebook (hence the apologies of the morning). Oh crud. When I finish this, I’ll have to apologize to someone else – I missed a meeting. Drat.

Anyway. As I am new to this whole “I am a writer” business, there was one unexpected benefit to having a week made up of mostly manual labor and no time or energy for writing.

My creative brain is overflowing this morning!

While I was tearing out carpet, cutting boards, measuring walls, painting molding, spackling (I think the word “spackle” is cool – go ahead and laugh) – I managed to work out quite a bit of the plot of my next book. In fact, I’m going to have to take a few minutes this morning and jot down some notes so I don’t forget all lovely plot twists I thought of last week.

Maybe taking a week to do something totally unrelated is a good idea.

Of course, a check of the calendar indicates that I have exactly 20 days to finish polishing my manuscript, perfect my elevator pitch and one-sheets, by some new clothes (that part might not be a requirement, we’ll call it a perk) and lose 10 pounds (hey, I write fiction).

I need to do all that while keeping my children and husband clothed and fed, visiting some potential classrooms for Emma next year, coordinating some teacher appreciation stuff (yep, I’m the room mom), promoting the CDS Fun Fest (June 4th – mark your calendars) and making a run to Vanderbilt for my sister’s graduation (go Jennifer – you rock!).

Could someone PLEASE schedule me a massage?