Changing the way you think is harder than you realize. I’ve mentioned this before. Now, even a month later, I’m still having issues. I was just looking at making summer plans. Usually, I try to take off time around the Fourth of July (commuting hell in my neck of the woods that whole week) for a ‘staycation’, and each year, I promise myself, This year, I will take that time and Finish The Book and submit it. For real, this time.

So, today, I looked at the block of time on my calendar and said, “I will take that time off and…”  Full stop.  Oh, right.  Done that.  And submitted it.  Have an agent. She’s working on that next part. There is still something mind-bending about that concept. Yes, I have the next book to be working on.  More than one, to be honest. Yes, I should probably put that book into the Fourth of July slot and make a major push to get it done.  But it is still nice to realize that it will be different this time. It’s not the same thing I tried to squeeze in previous years.  It’s not that first never-done-this-before thing.

I did it.  For real.

And I can do it again.

Believing all of that takes work.

What fun!  The school office secretary has always been interested in the status of my writing, and the last time we spoke, I was excited to be able to tell her I had signed with an agent.  A few days later, I got an email from my daughter’s English teacher asking if I’d be willing to come in and talk to the class about being A Writer.

I was excited, though a bit nervous.  Until a day or two before Friday…when I started getting REALLY nervous.  But, it was just her 6th grade English class…and less than an hour…I’d be fine.  I arrived in the school library a bit early, and the class was already there.  So imagine my surprise when, at 2:30, the library door opened, and the 7th and 8th grade filed in as well!  Along with some teachers…  Turns out, I spoke to the entire middle school.  *Gulp*

It went really well.  I had a blast.  The kids were great, paid attention, laughed at the right spots, and asked tons of questions. Success!