Getting Back in the Pool

The lovely Nancy Cohen says that she sets a goal for herself of writing five pages first thing the morning, so that the activities associated with the rest of her day don't prevent her from getting any writing done. (Read her post, "Storytelling", here.)

Now, that's what I call discipline. Something to which all we writers should aspire.

One of the first things I did this morning was to check my Bloglines feeds, as I have been woefully behind the eight ball as far as keeping up with my friends in the Blogosphere. There's a lot of stuff going on. Here are just a few things I've learned:

What a deal. My lovely and talented friend Tasha Alexander has been tapped to write the companion novel to an upcoming Cate Blanchett/Clive Owen movie, the follow-up to the multi-Oscar nominated Elizabeth. For details on this fabulous news, click here. Kudos, Tash!

More Killer Year releases. The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis and Kiss Her Goodbye by Robert Gregory Browne are now available for purchase. And there's much more to come from The Class of 2007!

You might be a writer if ... Sara Rosett over at The Good Girls Kill for Money Club put up a brilliant post yesterday. So many of her points are so true, and I could add a few others in addition to those contributed in the comments. Just read it.

Research. Sometimes I check out the MSN home page just to see what's going on in the news. Today there was this intriguing article. Hmmmm. The BMWs met last night, and I brought pages from my latest manuscript. I didn't get into all the explanations of this with them yet, so (except for J.T.) the group won't get it now, but this article qualifies as serious research for the book.

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Switching gears a little bit, one of the reasons I haven't been here in a few days is that things have been more than a little busy around the Thompson household of late. Tuesday night was Senior Night for The Tall One's basketball team. As sentimental a person as I can be, and as proud a Mom, I did hold it together pretty well as the WGH and I escorted our daughter to center court. I will admit that I did tear up just a little when one of her teammates, a sophomore who is quite possibly one of the sweetest children on earth, hugged me. Fortunately, I have a couple more years to watch her play, as she is in The Boy's class and we'll be there supporting both the team and the band for the next couple years and probably beyond, since Little Bit will be coming up through the ranks. Heck, I'll probably be at those games long after all three kids have graduated. There's just something about the atmosphere of a high school basketball game - high school sports in general, really. If you're not a fan, you should try it. It's a bit addictive.

So we've had family in town, and although I did make an effort to spend time on my computer, spending time with my folks is always a bit more important. They did get home safely yesterday (to a reported six inches of snow), so today I'm trying to get back in the groove. Last night's meeting sort of helped me get jump-started again, which made me realize that my batteries must have become low. Every so often you need to recharge.

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.
-- Leo Rosten, US (Polish-born) author (1908 - )
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I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
-- Douglas Adams, English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)

So true.

Recharge your batteries today. And read a book. Both will be good for you.

=) JB