Summer Vacation

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Summer is here and that means it’s about time to really concentrate on my novel. I’ve met with a few agents who had positive things to say, but more revisions are still needed. I’ll be taking next week off from my day job and during that time I’m hoping to concentrate on the novel for the first time ever.

So it seems like a good time to take a vacation from blogging. Between the day job, the novel, freelancing, researching agents, querying, and blogging, there’s no time left for sanity. I’m amazed that anyone ever finds the time to do it all. There’s all that to do, and then I still need to somehow become fluent in Italian and learn how to play the fiddle.

I’ll miss everyone and will try to visit when I can. I’m planning on joining Twitter at some point and will look for you there. You can also find me at Goodreads, where I’ll be trying to catch up on my reading challenge of 50 books for the year (maybe it’s about time to go for 30 or 20 instead).

I’ll be back in September with book reviews from summer reads, Cape Cod stories and photos, and hopefully a few posts on how to get through the querying process and find an agent. When I reappear, I’m going to try to be more consistent and will post every Wednesday. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Thank you for visiting, commenting, and following – but most of all thank you for your friendship. Wishing you a summer or winter filled with laughter and love.

59 thoughts on “Summer Vacation”

  1. All best wishes finding a publisher. The system in your part of the world is different to here in Scotland where finding a publisher is like finding a gold nugget in a heap of coal. I’ve decided to go down the ebook route as I know so many people here who have spent years (at the expense of their writing) trying to find a publisher. Look forward to hearing how you fare. Best of luck.

    • Thank you! I’ll be checking in to see how your book is coming along. Best of luck for a productive summer and I hope you’ll squeeze some fun in there too!

  2. Good luck, and what a lovely photo of your dog!
    I’m not on Twitter much but I am there a few times a week checking in – please do follow me @catcattanach

    • Thank you – I searched around for a photo that would show the joy of summertime and of course the dog shows it better than anyone! You convinced me that maybe Twitter isn’t so scary after all so I’ll make sure to find you there so I can see how it’s done. 🙂

      • It’s not too scary, tho it doesn’t really suit me as 1. I’m too long winded and 2. I don’t have a smartphone, so I can’t really dip in and out of it. But I *did* enjoy it last winter when I was very bored home alone typing up a MS. I let myself go on for 5 mins every half hour for a bit of fun and human interaction!

      • I always figured it would take up too much time, but it sounds like it can be a quick way for some fun here and there. That’s good that it helped get you through the winter. I can also be long winded and don’t have a smartphone so I’m glad you still enjoy it anyway.

  3. I will miss reading your posts, but I wish you a fun and focused summer! I look forward to reading much more of your writing, so get that novel done! 🙂 I will see you on Goodreads and Twitter. @vickiegreenway 🙂

    • Thanks Char! Good luck with your book too. I don’t know how you do it all, but I’ll be checking in to try to find out. 🙂

      • Well, the summer vacationing and catching up afterward is wreaking havoc on my editing/writing right now. All I want to blog about is my vacation to the Olympic Peninsula I just got back from–but work is keeping me too busy to look through my pictures. But I will try to crank a post out here soon (crossing my fingers)

      • I guess we have to have fun in there somewhere too. That sounds like a great vacation – I can’t wait to see the pictures!

  6. Good on you Sheila go get em! I too find the whole process of spreading myself too thin and not getting the work completed on my book either. Have a successful break will will be cheering you on when you return.

    • It’s no wonder writers are a little crazy. 🙂 Too many things get in the way and our writing ends up getting pushed aside too often. Hopefully, concentrating on just the book for a while will do some good. If not, I’ll just have to learn how to play the fiddle for fun instead. I’ll make sure to find you on Twitter once I sign up and figure it out. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful winter by the fire.

  8. Sounds like an exciting time for you – wishing you so much luck 🙂 Can’t wait to hear how it all turns out when you return to blogging!!!! Have a GREAT summer!

    • Thanks Arlene! I’ll be sure to let you know all the crazy details. Hopefully there will be some good news in there somewhere. Best of luck with your book and I hope you have a fun summer! I’ll be checking in to make sure.

  9. Have a productive summer, Sheila! A lot of people are taking a blog hiatus this summer. I won’t cut off completely but I definitely won’t post as much, especially the weeks when the kids don’t have a camp to keep them entertained. I hope you make a lot of headway with your book. I just started taking a very interactive online class on picture book illustrating and I’m enjoying it a lot so far. I’m actually done with the very first draft of my story, yeah! Sometimes, you have to find the one thing that will motivate you.

    • That sounds great – I’ll look forward to hearing more about your story (and your son’s book too)! Summer does seem to be a good time to step away from the blog a bit – especially if that gives us more time to work on our books. I hope you and your kids enjoy your summer!

      • I know, we’re all going to be very busy! I want to train my son to start using the graphics tablet (I got him his own) so he can draw all his illustrations directly on the computer so they will look very nice. I thought we’d be done with his book by his birthday at the end of July but I think it might take us the whole summer, because of the learning curve drawing, editing and actually laying out the whole book. I want it to look professional and clean, so rushing through it doesn’t make sense.

      • That’ll be a fun learning experience and then he could turn into a graphics expert and help you with your book! 🙂

      • Haha, I’d love that! He’s already giving me advice on my drawings for my main characters and it’s all very useful, so I can only encourage that. He’s actually excited that the both of us want to create our own books with our own stories.

  10. I certainly understand where you’re coming from! 😉 I’ll miss your posts, but working on that WIP should take precedence. I hope this fall we’ll both have good news to share on that front. 🙂 Enjoy your break!

    • I thought you might. It’s too easy to take too much time away from the novel. It’s been great meeting everyone but it’s about time to sequester myself for a while. I’ll be hoping for good publishing news for both of us too. Maybe if we both hope hard enough, it’ll happen! 🙂

  12. This is great news, Sheila. I’ll miss your posts as well, but it will be time well spent on your book….I can’t wait to read it! Remember to take time to enjoy your Cape Cod summer as well.

    • Thank you – I’ll try to make sure to squeeze some fun in there! 🙂 For now, it’s exciting to think of spending a whole week with the book characters. Hopefully, they’ll keep me entertained for a while!

    • I hope you have a wonderful summer. I’ll have to keep visiting for more of your beautiful poetry. Love and hugs!

  17. So exciting Sheila! Best of luck with your book and hope you have a wonderful summer! See you on Goodreads! (Although I haven’t picked up my kindle in quite a while…things got busy all of a sudden).

    • Thanks Susan! I haven’t been able to find the time to read much either, but I’m hoping to get to some fun ones soon. I’ll make sure to visit your site for more inspiration through your breathtaking photos. Happy summer and hope you have fun in the garden!

  19. Oh Sheila,
    You are already being missed. 🙂
    But I guess, if you return with that novel completed – that will be such great news.
    Good luck with it all

    Looking forward to reading your book
    Have a great time and do come back.

    • I miss you too. I hope you’ve been having fun zooming around on your bike and swimming in the ocean. It just started to get hot enough for swimming here and then thunderstorms came roaring in. But that’s okay because that gives me more time to work on the book. I might be back sooner than I thought. Love and hugs!

  20. Hi Sheila, you and my publicist know how exhausting and stressful writing 500-word news stories is, so we cannot even imagine a book. Actually, I wrote a few and each time, I did nothing but write, shake out my hand and write again. (did not have the luxury of a laptop. My parents worried if I was eating enough, so they would bring me tea and food.

    though I had a novel burning inside me all those years, it was not until I was financially able to devote 24/7 to writing, that I was able to pour it onto the page.

    we wish you the best success and look forward to all the wonderful book reviews coming your way, xo LMA

    • Thank you! 🙂 Those articles were great practice for book writing and I guess if we put all our articles together, we’ve already written lots of books. The tea and food delivery sounds like the perfect writing environment (too bad we didn’t have that at the newspaper office even though every once in a while nice people would bring us cake)!

  21. Hi Sheila,
    It’s been over a year since I posted anything on WordPress. And now when I come back you are away until September. I wish you all the best and hope all your hard work comes to fruition.

    Regards Talia

    • Hi Talia! That’s funny – hopefully our schedules will merge at some point! I’m happy to hear you’re back.

  23. Have a great summer break from blogging. Looking forward to seeing you again in September! 🙂 Good luck with the revisions.

  25. Getting feedback from agents is awesome! Congrats. I hope you were able to get your revisions done this summer. Balance is so hard to maintain. I’ll have a day perfectly balanced and then next one not so much. 🙂 But the important thing is to keep nudging everything onward. 🙂

    • Thanks Kourtney! I’m starting to think revisions are never done. 🙂 I did do a huge round of revisions over the summer, then sent out more queries, then ended up getting more feedback and now I’m back in revision mode. So things are nudging (hopefully) onward. Now I know how a turtle feels. 🙂

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