This week has been a slow writing week. I got a new laptop which has an amazing DVD player. Combine that with the entire season 2 of House and I haven't done a whole lot on my book. I'm bad…bad I say. This apathy also screwed up my new YMCA fitness plan…. Today I'm going to knuckle down and get back to work…right after this blog. I wonder where the fire went that use to make me write 5 pages a day? Probably the same place that my motivation for daily exercise disappeared to. 

Check out Lisa Silverman's blog at http://www.beyourowneditor.com/category/book-marketing/

Lisa was the agent I originally signed with at PMA Literary and Film Management.  I'd lost touch with her when she moved on to greener pastures, then I read an article about her and found her blog (just sent her a "what've you been up to?" email). She was the best agent anyone could ask for and I was lucky enough to get an equally great agent in her assistant, Kelly Skillen. Lisa has lots of good advice on her blog and it's worth a read. Hummmm…I wonder if she would buy my manuscript? I don't think production editors acquire stuff.

I found out 2 things yesterday that made me thankful for my life—even if I've become accustomed to slacking. First, I found out that the company I work for lost their federal contract, but instead of being unemployed with 2 days notice, I was offered the same job with the new company plus a $4 an hour pay raise. I know how fortunate that is in this economy. Second, a friend of mine has suddenly become ill with a serious autoimmune disease (this friend was the inspiration or my comic relief character in my mystery). Her illness caused her to be unable to work; resulting in the foreclosure of her house, and on top of all that, her mother is in the middle of battling cancer. Most days we take our crappy jobs, our reasonable health and the house that needs to be cleaned for granted. Talking to her made me realize how lucky I am just to have sinus problems, the non-dream job, a messy house and most of all—a healthy family. Perhaps being reminded of these things will give me the kick in the pants I need to finish my novel by next month. I could finish this book if I adjusted my schedule (translation—I don't watch an entire TV series season on DVD in one day), let the cleaning slide, and hope my daughter won't end up in therapy because I let her watch cartoons while I pounded out a chapter. I let my motivation slide because I think "Well, I can finish that chapter tomorrow. Right now, I'll …fill in the blank…", but there may come a day when I physically can't write a chapter tomorrow, and it could be sooner than I think. Enough blogging. I'm going to finish that damn chapter!!! What are you putting off?