We’ve talked about Time Management before (click here) since so many people wonder how it’s possible that I write as much as I do and still have a full time job. I should also add that family is important and I spend as much time with them as I can and I also volunteer at my writing group, the Liberty States Fiction Writers.
I discussed in that earlier blog how to make time to write, but also how you should plan to take time off. It’s that concept that I want to further discuss in today’s Tuesday Tip, namely having free time.
I don’t have much “free time” but it’s there in my schedule. I always give myself evenings off for various reasons. The first is that you do need time to recharge and relax. We all face tiring and stressful days, so having an hour or two to read a book, watch tv or just sit and chat is absolutely necessary to allow your mind to settle down. Especially for writers. It’s in that down time that our minds will rest and get ready for tackling the next page or chapter.
There’s also something else that’s really important about “free time”. When an emergency arises, like an unexpected deadline, having allowed yourself that “free time” gives you the necessary hours to deal with something unexpected.
For me, a change in deadline or new request can be handled in those few evening hours without the craziness of wondering, “OH MY GOD! HOW WILL I EVER FINISH THIS!” I don’t normally have those moments because I haven’t scheduled every second of every day.
So, plan for the downtime. If there’s nothing due, savor it and let your mind relax in order to destress and face the challenges of the next day. If something comes up, you won’t freak about not being able to find the time to do it.
My first recollection of today’s Guilty Pleasure – Chris O’Donnell – was his role as Robin aka Nightwing in the original Batman franchise. I thought he was a cutie back then and have been waiting for him to come back. Add the fact that I love NCIS and the pilot that ran for the spinoff looked great, I’m eagerly awaiting the premiere of the NCI: Los Angeles spin-off.
Many thanks to Melissa from the Dangerous Women Writing group for sharing this hilarious take on cats and dogs. If you want to join a fun loop, check us out! You can spend time with all the Dangerous Women Writing – Nina Bruhns, Anna DeStefano, Donna Grant, Michele Hauf, Jennifer Haymore/Dawn Halliday, Rita Herron, Caridad Pineiro, Debra Webb, and Lisa Renee Jones/Faith Winter!
So now for the truth about cats and dogs! Here are sample entries from cat and dog diaries.
Excerpts from a Dog’s Diary……
8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm – Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm – Milk Bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!
Excerpts from a Cat’s Daily Diary…
Day 983 of my captivity…
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.
Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.
Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am. Bastards.
There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.
Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow — but at the top of the stairs.
I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.
The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now…………….
Only 75 days until the end . . .
Hurry before it’s too late . . .
Act now, before it’s over . . .
Okay! I get it! It’s hard enough dealing with the end of summer without everyone beating me over the head with information about sales and all the back-to-school supplies that I’ll need to buy.
Summer is probably one of my favorite seasons. Fall is next followed by Spring. Unfortunately, if you live in the Northeast you know that we’ve barely had a summer this year.
June was a washout and July wasn’t much better. August has been sweltering and so my one hope is that we’ll be lucky and have an Indian summer.
Is that PC anymore? Indian summer? According to Wikipedia, “Indian summer is a name given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn, not long before winter. Usually occurring after the first frost, Indian summer can be in September, October, or November in the northern hemisphere, and March, April, or early May in the Southern hemisphere.”
As for whether it’s PC or not, according to Wikipedia, the name might mean “false summer” since settlers considered the Native Americans to be deceitful. Really? I’m therefore banning that phrase – Indian Summmer – from my vocabulary!
But I still can wish for a late summer, with nice sunny skies and temperate weather to replace the wet dreary summer we had. Maybe then I’ll get to stick my toes in the sand a little longer and take some more energizing walks down the Shore before the weather gets too cold. Hang out on the balcony and write like a demon in those very creative morning hours.
How was your summer? Are you getting your kids ready for school? Dreaming about some nicer weather before winter settles in?
P.S. – I’ll be picking the winner of yesterday’s guest blog contest over the weekend and will announce the winner on Monday. Many thanks to all of you who visited with my friend Amanda McIntyre and took the time to leave a comment!
TORTURED by Amanda McIntyre
An erotic medieval from Harlequin Spice
Available August 2009
In a time of chaos, darkness, and violence, it is better to live only in the moment, lest your memories eat you alive. A young woman blessed with “sight seeks vengeance against a tyrannical lord responsible for her mother’s murder. Forced to become an executioner’s apprentice, she encounters a Roman prisoner who offers her a way to escape her prison and find a future. Torn between desire, duty, and the chance for revenge, her choice to live or die leaves her TORTURED. (Available now, Harlequin Spice, Aug. ’09)
I’ve been touring the highways and byways of the Internet roads this past week and have found some wonderful sites along the way. I was so excited when I given the opportunity to stop by my friend, Caridad’s site! You can tell by the site that this woman is a mover and shaker in this business and has the deserved success that she does by virtue of her amazing digs ! I stand in awe. For one more second. Okay, on with the tour! 😉
So this summer I had the good fortune to spend some time with my family on a little road trip I like to call the “Americana tour!†We began on the Fourth of July in Chicago and wound up in Washington DC by way of; Niagara Falls, Cooperstown and Philadelphia. In addition, we spent five days hiking over hill and dale the great city of Washington DC and the beautiful areas in Virginia the other side of the Potomac. I attended my first ever RWA convention the following week and so too, my first Harlequin party (double amazing and add ten percent!;))
On Saturday, we headed back home to the Midwest, via Cleveland Ohio, with one more stop to make before heading back home. As some of you may have picked up, I love the Great Lakes. My husband swears I must be a lighthouse keeper on the lakes in another life. So when we pulled into downtown Cleveland around eleven PM, you can’t see a whole lot. When I pulled back the curtains of our seventh floor room the next morning I was in seventh heaven! There before me stretched Lake Erie, already dotted with sailboats and fishing boats. Within walking distance, perched right on the edge of the water is a glass Pyramid—“The House that Rock Builtâ€â„¢â€”The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Wow, now even if you didn’t love music the way I do, you could not possibly walk through this place and not come away affected. It is a Mecca to Rock and Roll, a history of its roots and how it has virtually become very much a part of who we are. And it reaches farther than America—it goes across the pond to the British invasion and the powerful influence it had on our music.
Pristine in cleanliness and understandably strict about no cameras in the exhibit halls, you begin on the bottom floor of the “pyramid†and work your way to the top. It boasts four floors of museum displays that track music history, offer insight, and background to some of the musicians-singers, songwriters, radio and television personalities that have left forever their musical mark on our lives.
My head was on a swivel and one day I have to go back to see it again and spend more time there. Everywhere you turn every snippet of a song you hear playing in the various exhibits takes you back to a certain time in your life.
I stared for the longest time at a pair of Michael Jackson’s loafers- noting the worn heels, the creases in the leather-how utterly simple they looked and remembered the time I saw he and his brothers perform at our State fair, when he was eleven and I was thirteen. I stood in awe in front of an upright piano, candle wax still dripped down the front and thought of the talent that was once John Lennon.
From Motown to the Beatles, Herman Hermits to Woodstock, the Rolling Stones to Elvis Presley—a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an experience you will not soon forget! My kudos to the people of Cleveland and to the beautiful little city on the shores of Lake Erie!
There is little I can relate directly to my book TORTURED today, but I hope you had a good time reading about my visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! LOL Maybe to some-parents come to mind off the bat—the music we listened to was …um, TORTURE for them;)
Leave me a comment about a special song that holds special meaning fro you personally! One winner will be chosen at random from those leaving comments! Thanks again to Caridad for her gracious hospitality!! Okay I have to do some more snooping around here!
Anyone who leaves a comment on this blog by midnight EST will be eligible to win a SINS OF THE FLESH t-shirt! Those who know the secret word and win today’s contest will also take home a SINS OF THE FLESH Lunch bag. How do you get to know the secret word? Click here to subscribe to my quarterly newsletter to get exclusive member-only news and information.
As you can see, we’ve got a whole new look to the site and a big thanks to the designer – MJ from Sizzle Designs. I absolutely love what she’s done and I hope you do as well. It’s clean, but its mood definitely reflects my romantic suspense and paranormals.
So there are a few little tweaks on things I didn’t think about immediately (sorry MJ!) and then there’s the reconstruction of the pages from the old website.
Why reconstruction? Well, I’ve learned a few things and also didn’t realize just how long it had been since I updated some of the pages. So little by little, I’ll be working on those, especially since I’ve got the second SINS book – STRONGER THAN SIN – due to be delivered later in the year.
Here’s what I’ve learned and will share with you in the hopes it will help you with your own website design.
Keep It Simple Stupid: Yep, I let my natural desire to bling just put way too much stuff on certain parts of the site. So to keep it looking clean and professional, I’m trying to unclutter.
Let the program do it for you: There’s a number of places where it would be way easier just to let programming bring in content. For example, on my Cook’s Treat page I’ve figured out how to feed in all the blog posts that had recipes. Much better than my remembering to code and add those blog posts every time. Now I’ve got to work on putting them in alphabetical order, but at least there’s no more recoding to do!
Forget about links to third party news articles: I’ve discovered that online newspapers, etc. don’t keep their articles up for long periods of time and the URLs no longer work. So, rather than having a lot of dead links (as I had on my Press Page), I’m going to just stick to mentioning the articles without a link. But if anyone knows of a good link checker, it would be greatly appreciated.
Don’t mention dates without a year!: I didn’t realize how many times I said, “this October” or similar and forgot to go back and update it later. So “this October” was actually like three Octobers ago! Be specific with dates or maybe better yet – if the date isn’t important, leave it out.
Using Categories Correctly: Remember that comment about letting the program do it. Well to do that you have to be consistent. WordPress and many other programs let you create “categories” for your links and blog posts. Be consistent when you use those so that you can pull up just the content you want rather than a mish-mosh of unrelated posts. Also, create categories that will actually assist you in gathering data for your website visitors.
Thanks for dropping by! I hope this Tuesday Tip was helpful!
Also, please be sure to drop by tomorrow to share some time with a wonderful friend and fellow author – Amanda McIntyre. Amanda will be sharing some of her recent exploits with us and anyone who leaves a comment on tomorrow’s blog by midnight EST will be eligible to win a SINS OF THE FLESH t-shirt!
Take a moment to check it out and let us know what you think about it. We’re working on updating a number of pages and any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated.
We’ve talked about Time Management before (click here) since so many people wonder how it’s possible that I write as much as I do and still have a full time job. I should also add that family is important and I spend as much time with them as I can and I also volunteer at my writing group, the Liberty States Fiction Writers.
