Running in Place

I feel like I'm on the writing treadmill. I spent two hours working on revisions last night, only to end up in the same place I was after I spent a couple of hours working the night before. I'm losing count of the number of times I've rewritten chapter two, but I like where it is now and should be moving on today instead of running in place. At this rate, I may be through revising the book before 2007. Let's just hope there are chapters that don't take me two days to revise. Maybe I'll reverse the trend and get two chapters done in one day!

I got an e-mail from my editor this morning letting me know that Once Upon Stilettos has now been printed. She has a couple of hot-off-the-presses copies, and she's overnighting one to me. That means tomorrow I'll get to hold my book in my hot little hands. I've heard about authors who sleep with a copy of their book when they first get it. I've never done that. I just put it on my bookshelf in alphabetical order among all my other books, and then sit there and admire the fact that I have a real book. There's something about seeing it next to other books that makes it feel more concrete. Once I get my full box of author's copies, I'll end up with copies scattered all over my house -- one on the coffee table, one on the living room bookcase, one on my nightstand, one on the shelf in my office, one on my desk, one on the library bookcase. Not to mention the box on the living room floor.

I'm still getting my head around the fact that the first book was published. Acknowledging that there really is a sequel is kind of mindblowing.

I have a couple of errands to run today, and it's going to take a sheer force of will to make me do them because I have another killer case of the don't-wannas. For one thing, I need to clean out my car and get my oil changed. I'm picking my agent up at the airport on Friday, and I don't want to end up stranded on some roadside with her. I keep telling myself that if I get everything done today, then tomorrow I won't have to leave the house. I can spend the whole day working. I also ought to pick up some goodies for the booksigning Friday night while I'm out. Having chocolate at your table means someone might come talk to you, and if they talk to you, they might buy your book. When you've got 40 other authors in the room, you need every edge you can get. I learned the hard way when I was running for student council in high school that candy may have nothing to do with being on the student council (or selling books), but you may not be able to win without it. I'm not going to be dumb enough to stick to the principle of the thing and refuse to pander to the masses by passing out candy.

Besides, if the candy isn't enough to lure people to me and I get really bored, I can eat the chocolate.