Too Busy? Who Me? NEVER!

The Summer is officially over for my kids. School started yesterday and life seems to have suddenly settled down. YAY! What does this mean? Oh, come on... you know what it means... I get a couple hours of complete and utter silence each day. Okay, not complete silence, I do still have a dog and a toddler.

What am I doing with this time? I'm glad you asked. *snicker* I am getting my "life" organized again. It's so hard with all four kids running around the house (cuz, really it's so hot here that they don't get to run outside very much during the summer) and lots of, "I'm bored"s to keep me on the edge of my seat it was rather hard to get things done that I wanted/needed to get done. Again, you wonder... what things?

For some darned reason I decided that I didn't have enough to do and started a small jewelry business. Yeah, I know, I never said I was entirely sane. So, we (meaning my husband, sister and I) have been amassing supplies and trying to figure out logos and names and blah blah blah. It's actually been fun...

But what else am I doing? Oh, when the house is silent when the baby is napping and the boys are at school I sit with my laptop on my lap and run through edits. Yup, I am finally able to focus on my currents WIPs! Woo hoo! I did the minor edits that needed doing on my Cowboy story. You know the one that I submitted and was told that it was good, but if I could fix it up they'd take another look at it. I've been working my way through the story and it's been rather interesting. Why?

Well, I can definitely make the changes they suggest, but then I feel that the story will be... half-done. It won't flow as well if I don't add even more to it. I can really get into where it should go and what should be added, but now I'm wondering if I'll add too much. If I'll make it just too complicated.

I met up with a girlfriend the other night for a much needed, No-Kids-No-Men-(Except the Waiter)-Dinner-With-A-Friend where we spent hours (and I do mean hours) talking about books and storylines, our love lives or lack of one in her case, how adorable our waiter was and everything else we could possibly think of. She is an avid reader who's never really wanted to write, but who enjoys immensely the way an author's brain works and loves to add her ideas and thoughts about a story. She's an invaluable person to have on your side, whether as a friend or as a sounding board. Talking with her, my muse was going nuts and she had some awesome ideas on how to make my story work without making it the perfect sleep-aid. There were also a few times where I just didn't think her idea would work, at least not with that story (and we talked about three of them).

So, what did I learn? So far, I've learned that not everyone's ideas will work with where I want the story to go. I've learned that I wish my writing came out perfect the first time (yeah, yeah, I know, don't we all?). And I've learned that sometimes just talking with a friend about your book and everything plus the kitchen sink can set the muse free to figure stuff out and make your work so much better. Did any of this make sense to y'all? Am I just making sense to myself? I guess if that's the case it's alright... since I'm the one who has to live with myself. LOL I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and that you find what you need to make your life just a little bit better. :-D