The past week felt super busy. Yes, I did skip out on writing things and spent a few hours having brunch (and mimosas) with a few of my girlfriends, but otherwise it seemed like I was doing something writing-related most of the time I wasn’t at my day job. I fiddled with my latest cover, and declared it happy. I wrote a post for Blackbird Publishing about using Jutoh and Word to create ebooks, which took more time than I expected, but was also a good refresher. I committed to delivering a totally new short story. I did bundling things. And I dropped my iPhone in water (for the second, and much more disastrous, time) and lost two months of dog photos. (I do have a handful of them backed up, but this was by far the most significant event of my past week.)

I’ve also realized I need to rethink my newsletter strategy. I started sending out my newsletter last spring, with the idea that I’d sent it out on the solstices and equinoxes – as seems fitting for someone who likes to write stories about faeries. 🙂 This worked great until the vernal equinox, which was last Monday. I was so busy that I didn’t have time to write a newsletter, then decided I’d sent it out a day late. Then two days late…

Of course, knowing my jam-packed schedule, if I’d really wanted to send it on time, I would have written it earlier…which, when I actually thought about it, told me that perhaps I should revisit what I’m doing with my newsletter. I joke that I have border collies for a reason, but it’s only partly a joke. If I think something is important, I will do whatever it takes to achieve it. So when it seems like I’m dragging my feet, that tells me that there’s some reason why, even if it’s something only known to my subconscious. So I am giving what I want to do with my newsletter a lot of thought, and will send out the next one as soon as I feel that I’ve figured out what I really want to do with it.

In other news, the author list for the Faerie Summer bundle has been finalized. There were a few last minute changes – for example, one author accidentally wrote a novel instead of a short story, because that’s the length the story wanted to be – she is now working on a new story. 🙂 I’m SO excited about this collection, and can’t wait until May 1st when it launches!

I’m also very happy to be finishing up a story I wrote two years ago. I wasn’t as good at the craft of writing back then, and this was a first draft at the time, so it’s taken a LOT of work to whip it in shape. There are a lot of things I love about this story, so it’s totally worth the time investment – but it’s definitely harder to work on fixing up an older manuscript. It’s now at the point where it’s as if it was a first draft I wrote today, which is really great. I still love this story, and I love it even more now that I’ve improved it.