Rites of Fall Break

So the third book in my series is now with my editor, and I am breathing a sigh of relief. I’ve been reading the posts by Maureen Johnson and Meg Cabot about the torture glory of revisions in order to steel psych myself up for the coming letter.

This was the seventh book I’ve written. I know that doesn’t seem like much to some of the veterans here, but I’m a bit on the amazed side. I wrote seven books! Woo hoo! I don’t hold much to superstition in general, but I’m as subject to the resonance of the number seven as the next bookworm who was raised on tales of seven wonders, seven seas, seven dwarves, and seven books of Harry Potter. Seven is supposedly a number of completion (something about God creating the world in seven days), and of fullness.

Well, I’m definitely not done (I have my editorial letter for Rampant sitting right here) but I may take a page from the heavenly playbook and rest a bit. Finishing a novel always leaves me in a self-reflective mood. I have a lot of thoughts in my head, about my book and about my writing, that need time to fully mature.

And that’s only one of the reasons I need to take a bit of a break. I love blogging, but the medium does have a tendency to stick around a lot longer than the idle musings I sometimes post here. My head is full of thoughts about my book, but none of them are fully formed.

(Insert: Marley and Justine are laughing right now, because this is what they are thinking: “Diana, just say it. You always hate your books right after you write them.” But that’s not it. Honest. I only hate specific parts of the book. Hey! I’m a writer. It’s a requirement to be neurotic.)

Anyway, I’m going to wander off for a while. Unplug. Enjoy the cooler weather we’ve been having in DC. Wander around the parks and museums, hang out more often in the zoo, do some cooking, go hiking, finish planning the wedding, see friends I’ve been neglecting.

Oh, and read. I have a huge stack of books. It’s not even funny.

And work on unicorns.

Won’t be gone long. In the meantime, I highly recommend the blogs of the people listed on the right. Take care!