Too Much Vacation

The persistent cycle of illness that has plagued my family this year appears to be over for now. (Of course, I'm knocking on my desk as I write this!) I'm grateful that January publications are on the newsstands now with my byline and that I'm receiving assignments well into August of next year. Right now I need to work on filling in those gaps by trying to become more organized for next year.
Organization has never been my strong suit, particularly when it comes to my writing schedule. Heck, what writing schedule? I've spent the last few weeks reading novels instead of investing valuable time in my writing career, and today I finally had to set aside the depressing memoir I was reading and give myself a kick in the pants. My own great piece of work will never be written if I continue to spend time perusing PerezHilton.com (I just don't understand why men with track records like Charlie Sheen continue to find women to marry them) and watching reruns of "Cold Case" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
I read an interesting sidebar in this month's issue of Writer's Digest that talked about keeping a journal during the novel-writing process strictly pertaining to thoughts, photographs, character descriptions and other plot points regarding the work-in-progress. It sounds like a fantastic and fun idea and I think I'll work on putting one of my empty journals to use.
Any goals you're working on for now?

Getting There

As my daughter is almost fully recovered from pneumonia, my son developed a cough this week and told me his head hurt this morning. He had a chest infection throughout most of October . . . but we won't go there. Being a work-at-home mother has never been tougher than this year!
In addition to that, I've been working on an interesting education article, but I never dreamed it would turn into one of those topics that has people scared to return my calls. Really, I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble, I'm just trying to do my job!
On a brighter note, the sun finally came out today after several days of cold and rain and the majority of Santa's list has been covered off (a little finagling here and there, but close enough, if you ask me).
Assignments are starting to come in for the first of the year and there is hope that our family will continue slogging through this tough economy. I'm hoping to take advantage of all the time my husband has off for Christmas to get new queries fleshed out and sent off to editors.
What are your plans for the next few weeks?