THE BOOK IS IN

Okay, the edits are in. My mind is still reeling. I can think of three things already that I'll want to do in the next edit pass. (Oh yeah, logically she WOULD call her attorney, duh.) But for good or for ill, it's gone. I'm exhausted.

And now it is time for cleanup.

Cleanup?

Well, when one is in full-bore book mode, real life vanishes. POOF. It's MAGIC. (Actually, it's more along the lines of a disaster movie, but there you go.) I have to go through and shovel out the house, (cleaning is too mild a word for it) and the car. Do laundry. (You know you're in trouble when you sit at your desk, and realize that you simply do not have time to do laundry, so you buy new socks and underwear [and something pre-cooked for dinner] instead 'cause it's faster.) Sort through all the paperwork that has come in and needs to be dealt with, send out TONS of things that everybody needed days/weeks ago or won in contests embarrassingly long times ago because you haven't come up for air. (And while you're at it, you'd better shop for all those Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthdays and etc., because you just KNOW they'll roll around when you're on the next deadline.)

This all HAS to happen. But before you can do it (assuming you're over 21 and can no longer abuse your body the way you used to) your body screams "I QUIT! SCREW YOU BUDDY! THE MIND THINKS IT IS IN CHARGE? HAH! I'LL SHOW YOU WHO's REALLY IN CHARGE." And you sleep. And sleep. And sleep. If you are VERY lucky you haven't worn yourself down to the point of catching some sort of crud.

I am not ill! WOOO HOOOO!!! Serious happy dance. But I am POOPED. I took the holiday weekend to rest, but I'm still exhausted. I do think the new vitamins helped to stave off the usual post-book-crisis-illness and will thus continue taking them. I am looking at re-starting the exercise program (which inevitably flew out the window during the crunch).

And I am, already, working on the next book.

In the course of these edits I wound up having to pull out the old computer and hook it up.

The new computer has the new Word. You know, the pretty one, with the fancy, schmancy stuff at the top that you have to scroll through with big bright pictures. It does EVERYTHING for you. You want to outline? It will outline. But not the way YOU want it. Nope. It has a standard format and heaven forfend you want to do something else.

I am a professional legal secretary. I know what I'm doing. I know what I want. I do not WANT/NEED/LIKE having the freaking computer program tell me how I'm going to do something. I was wasting HOURS wrestling the freaking program rather than getting through the edits.

Screw that.

So I hauled out the old computer with it's OLLLLLLLLLLD professional version of Word that lets ME set up all of the formatting the way I (and, incidentally, the editor) want it and AMAZINGLY ENOUGH I was able to work at least 5 times as fast.

So now I've got the two computers set up side by side. The old one is for writing. The new one for researching, internet stuff, watching Hulu, e-mails.

Eventually I will probably see if I can make the new system play nice with the old program. (I'm told there's a way to do it, but it requires the inevitable software upgrade). Windows 7 in the version that came on my system does not. The new system is beautiful and FAST. BUT, I'm a WRITER, what I need is the software that works best for me in creating. If it slows me down, drags me back to this reality kicking and swearing, it's counterproductive. Unfortunately, I replaced the old machine for a reason. It was dying. SO, that software upgrade will be coming soon. But not this week. And I am writing this week. So I'll back up often and hope/pray for the best.

In the meantime, I have to get in touch with everybody. Maybe I'll do a grand blog re-launch and get back into doing the fancy and fun things I used to. Maybe I'll actually re-visit Facebook and Twitter (I think MySpace may have gone the way of the dodo, but I don't know for sure. I'll check.)

ANYWAY, I doubt there's still anybody visiting here. But if there is, HI! This is what's been going on and why I've not been available. My apologies. I'd tell you I'll do better, but honestly, the next time a deadline hits I'll probably do the same thing.

Sigh.