Deeanne Gist - www.deeannegist.com - Inspirational Romance Author

Monday, May 15, 2006

Mother's Day

We had a busy weekend with a wedding on Friday, prom on Saturday and a graduation party on Sunday. So, my Mother's Day gift--which was given to me in the evening after the kids got off of work--was a strawberry slushy and a pair of summer shoes. Just what I needed to sit back and relax.

R & R has been in short supply around here because I am trying to finish the first draft of Book #3. It is due (in polished form) to the publisher September 1st. (It comes out in stores summer of 2007.)

So, I had planned to have the first draft finished by May 30th. That would give me time to do revisions and polishing, then have some other writers give it a "read-through." They would then offer feedback on what worked, what didn't and what needs to be tweaked. Then, I'd do another revision and polish.

That process takes a couple of months at least (depending on how long it takes for the other writers to read the manuscript and give me feed back and then how much rewriting I need to do). Which is why the first draft needed to be finished by the end of this month. The bad news is ... that ain't gonna happen. I'm about a month behind and am working long hours in order to make even the pushed-back self-imposed due date (of June 30th).

On top of all that, there is a lot of extra duties that come with a new release--which I love doing, but it eats up a lot of time. There are radio & online interviews. There are speaking engagements/signings. There are conventions (of which I have 3 out-of-state). And there is the family vacation. All coming up before the September due date. (Not to mention the kids will be home in the summer and wanting attention and rides. And my husband still wants to know when I'm going to clean out the closet.)

All that to say, I'm going to cut my blog posts back to 3 times a week instead of 5 times a week. So, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I'll put up a new post, but will continue to check back and comment all 5 days of the week. Does that make sense?

Hope that's all right.

Now ... tell me about your mother's day. I want to hear all about it.

posted by Deeanne at 12:54 PM

6 Comments:

Meg said...: We went for a motorcycle ride that mysteriously wound up at a bookstore. Bought a couple of books, met the kids to eat Italian, then came home and enjoyed the new books. All in all, it was a fun day.

Cute sandals! And now you have me craving a strawberry slushy.
Susan said...: My wonderful hubby took me out to eat in Galveston on the Eve of Mother's Day due to his work schedule. Guess what I got as a gift??? Yep... a couple of Starbucks gift cards.

On Mother's Day, my son and Mother attended church with me. And my cousin, a new mommy, had her baby baptized during the service. So it was a very special day!
Barb said...: We actually went out to the west coast for a 3 day weekend to visit friends and did nothing to celebrate mom's day, altho the kids were home doing my chores all weekend. One of our daughters said that letting me leave for 3 days was her gift to me! But when we got home last night at midnight there was a nice gift for me from the girls in the living room, plus then a note on my pillow on our bed saying they'd do the early morning chores today so I could sleep in, next to a coupla gifts from my youngest. Which was a pretty nice homecoming!
I want a strawberry slushy too....
Deeanne said...: Oh, fun! A bookstore, a Starbucks card and sleepin' in late. Three of my absolute favorites!!

Ya know, that slushy was good, now that you mention it. Now I'm wishing *I* had another one.
Barb said...: I still want one! My oldest daughter made dinner for us tonite too. With this kinda treatment, I'm thinkin' we should go away a lot more often :oD
Tiff/Amber Miller said...: Only 3 days a week? I suppose the withdrawal won't be too bad. *g*

And, I'm not a mother yet (gotta find a husband first!), but we did take Mom out for dinner to Lone Star. Had some tender steak that about melted in your mouth, crisp vegetables, delicious chicken strips with honey mustard for appetizers and topped it all off with hot apple cobbler.

Of course, throw in the torrential downpour and the hailstorm while we were eating and you've got a real winner of a day!