Soft Target came out last Wednesday, and I am now firmly ensconced in that state familiar to all writers known as the post-launch hangover of the soul. It’s that time between the day you send your creation out to the world* and the moment you check Amazon and find someone has written a customer review – or sent you a note on Facebook. In between these two events, there is all the time in the world for one’s writer neuroses to go into overdrive, leaving one with plenty of time to regret sending it out in the first place.
Captain knows that sometimes it’s just so warm and cozy under the blankets…
In the meantime, I’ve been keeping myself distracted with the impending close of the semester, catching up on my sadly-neglected Russian studies, sending away the last letters of recommendation for grad school redux, re-starting my reading program, re-starting my workout program, and spending my days at work stressing at everything and nothing. Thinking about all the re-starting and catching up I have to do leaves me even LESS inclined to start anything. Except maybe another Firefly marathon.
Brandy says, sometimes you just need to take a nap with your pet turtle.
But not to fret – everything’s shiny, Captain! I have undergone this hangover before – waiting to hear back from my Masters thesis, waiting to hear back from innumerable publishers re: my short stories, waiting the requisite number of weeks between critique group meetings. I’m good at distracting myself – actually, I am a little too easily distracted these days. So for now, I’m having fun working on editing some pieces for Characters and Conversations, reading the new books I ordered, and surfing YouTube for fun Russian television shows to check out. And … dare I say … beginning the editing process for Cold Run, so that I can start querying this summer.
Let’s do it again!
Because really, who needs sanity? Or sleep… Just a little hair of the dog (get it?) and I’m off again!
* I refuse to call it my “baby” – with the amount of time I’ve spent on it, it’s almost to the point of filing its own income tax returns…
