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FREE BOOK FRIDAY

Today’s Free Book Friday title is the Rescue Me anthology by Cherry Adair, Lora Leigh, & Cindy Gerard.  I only read Cherry’s & Cindy’s stories from this one, but they were very good.

To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment to today’s post that includes the code FBF—for “Free Book Friday,” of course—to let me know you’re interested in the drawing. (U.S. residents only for the prize, please, but everyone is welcome to chat.)

Winner will be announced during our Happy Sunday post on…well, you know, Sunday.

Winner is responsible for contacting me with her mailing information—i.e. I will not be contacting you—so be sure to check back in or you might not even know you won!

(If prize isn’t claimed within 14 days, another name may be drawn or item may be tossed back into the goody bag to be re-used for a future giveaway.)

Join us on the HappyBookers YahooGroup, where we are trying to start a new “Question of the Week” feature & would love some extra participation.

This week’s question: What’s your favorite/most memorable scene from a movie?

(Don’t answer that here, though!  Get thee over to HappyBookers & post your response on the loop!)

But ever since I started writing at night & by hand, my life is topsy-turvy & upside-down.

Used to be, I’d actually set my alarm & get up at 8am or so—sometimes earlier.  This is not to say that I am a morning person.  I sincerely am not.  It would always take me a while to really wake up by feeding the cats & exercising for an hour.  (Because I have to do that sort of thing while I’m still sleepy & groggy, otherwise my brain catches on & tries to talk me out of it.  Often succeeding. )  But the point is, I knew what daylight looked like.  Sometimes I even saw the majority of the sun come up.

After putting in my time on the Torture Cycle or with the weights, I’d check e-mail, update my Twitter & Facebook statuses.  (Because I know y’all wait with bated breath to find out what new bit of excitement is going on in my ever-so-glamorous life & cannot function until I tell you. )  Sometimes I’d even work on a new blog post—like this one only, you know, interesting. )

Then, even though it was much closer to lunchtime, I usually grabbed a bit of breakfast.  Or if I’d spent too long at the computer, sometimes I went straight for a heartier lunch.

And after that, with my belly full & my busy work out of the way, I’d pull out my AlphaSmart and get to work.  While it was still light out.

Okay…now turn that upside down & you’ve got my new daily routine.  These days, I’m lucky if I wake up before noon.  But is that because I’m lazing abed, doing my best impression of a diva starlet?  Oh, how I wish.   No, it’s because I’m slowing turning into a freaking vampire.

Nowadays, I drag myself out of bed when the sun is already high in the sky & heading down.  The poor Kittehs don’t know what the hell is going on & wonder why I’ve suddenly put them on a starvation diet.  (They definitely aren’t used to not being fed every five minutes. )

Almost immediately, I head to the computer because it’s already so late, I don’t want anyone thinking I died.  Or usually, because I want to be sure to alert readers to what’s going on here at WIPs or elsewhere before you’re all shutting down your computers & heading home from work. 

It’s all very confusing, I admit.  And I hope you know enough to just show up over here to see what’s going on for yourselves.  Eventually, I will show up.  But in the words of every teenager in every movie who ever ran from inbred cannibals with a group of friends:  Go on without me!  Save yourselves!  Okay, maybe they didn’t actually say that.  I, for instance, would be saying, Get the hell out of my way! & tripping you to buy myself some time!   (Just sayin’.)

Then, after all of that, I still climb on the Torture Cycle, but I try not to look at the clock when I do it because it’s just too bizarre to be on there at 1pm when I used to be on by 9am.  (Yesterday, it was actually 3:30pm, which almost made me cry. )

Once I finish, I grab some breakfast…except how the heck can I call it that when it’s nowhere near morning anymore?  Most of the time, I don’t even bother with toast or cereal or oatmeal the way I used to.  What’s the point?  I just go straight for lunch.  For some reason, I usually end up back at the computer after that, as well as doing a bunch of the everyday tasks I used to do as soon as I got up.

Then it’s time to get down to business, usually when it’s already very dark & everybody else is getting ready for bed.  And instead of grabbing my AlphaSmart the way I used to, I now grab a tablet & pencil, scribbling until the wee hours of the morning.  Usually until about 3am, sometimes as late as 5am.

I will be the first to admit this is totally bizarre.  It feels bizarre.  I feel as though I’ve fallen into a parallel universe where day is night, light is dark, & it’s apparently normal to be getting up just as the buses are bringing small children home from school.

But I also have to say that it’s working for me.  I’m writing faster, having more fun, & getting more done than I have in a long time.   So what can I do?  I think I have to embrace it.  At least until this book is finished & the world turns itself right-side up again.