Come Write With Me

So. The hubs is out of town. With the son. They left this morning. I have never been away from him (son, not hubs) for such a long stretch before (almost 2 whole weeks!) and he could not understand why I totally got choked up saying goodbye to him. I loves my boy! I am so going to miss him!

That said, I have deemed this: THE WEEK OF AMAZING PRODUCTIVITY. I am currently working on three projects. One of them is Book 3, which is getting the lion's share of my attention. The other two. . .well, I can't tell you about those right now. But they are super exciting and I hope you'll get to read them someday.

Three projects. I know. I am officially insane. But one thing I am definitely liking about this multiple projects thing is that if I get burned out on something, then I can just switch and work on something else for a day or so. Which is great. There is no real sense of inertia. I am always moving forward on SOMETHING.

Can I just say, my job is awesome! I was channel surfing earlier this afternoon and hit on Millionaire Matchmaker, where I caught Patti saying something like: "if I made millions of dollars and didn't need money, I would totally be hooking all these people up for FREE." That got a chuckle out of me. Way to love your job, Patti. Now go tell a girl she dresses badly, needs to get her hair straightened (since guys only really like straight hair), and lose ten pounds by the mixer on Saturday.

I clearly do not watch that show.

ANYWAY, the point: I love my job so much, even if I made millions of dollars I would totally be hooking up all you people with new stories for FREE. But for now, it pays the bills, so I just get to feel extremely lucky that I have this awesome job. Writing rocks.

And this is THE WEEK OF AMAZING PRODUCTIVITY! I am going to work every day this week! A lot! Oh yes, I am. I am going to get my dear sweet little daughter into a regular napping schedule this week. Sometime around 10ish to 12ish and 3ish to 5ish. God willing.

I don't know if y'all know this, but I wrote a lot of Unearthly while logged into Second Life. I am revealing my inner geek, I know. At the time I was stuck home without means of transportation, so Second Life was my way of getting out of the house and interacting with people, and it also has a thriving writers community, which was great. There I met my amazing and talented friend Alas Zerbino (Joan Kremer in real life) and we bought this little scrap of land in Second Life (for those of you unfamiliar with Second Life, yes, you can buy land there, yes that is crazycakes, yes, I know) and we set up a writing center there called Story Mountain, where I would occasionally teach some introductory fiction courses. And we set up a writing time during my son's naptime, and we both logged into Second Life, parked our avatars at our virtual offices, and worked for 2-3 hours a day, then shared what we wrote. It was like we were able to meet up and write together, even though we were 2000 miles apart.

Yep folks, that's me, as a virtual person, writing my virtual book, which became a REAL book. . .

 Accountability is a wonderful thing. Alas was the very first person to read the very first pages of Unearthly, and I was so grateful for her shrewd comments and cheerful encouragement! (Thanks, Joan--HUGS!)

So, this week, wanna come write with me? If so, I'll be in my office in Story Mountain, sometime around 10ish to 12ish and 3ish to 5ish, PST. You call pull yourself up a virtual chair and write like a mad-person, and I will be right there with you. My avatar is Clarissa Tolsen, and a search of either me or Story Mountain will get you where you need to be. If you are not into Second Life (teens, please see my disclaimor below), send me a Tweet (CynthiaHand) or post on my Facebook wall and I will check in at the beginning and ending of my writing times to cheer you on!

(Clarissa Tolsen, the slightly blonder, slightly skinnier, WAY better dressed version of myself)

****Disclaimor. Second Life can be entertaining, and there are cool things to see there (the Sistine Chapel! The Emerald City! Mars!) and awesome ways to connect with other writers, but it is also a place where (like the real world) some pretty messed up stuff can go down. I don't recommend Second Life to teens, as I think there is a higher-than-usual proportion of really creepy creeps in Second Life, and people there are often not who they seem. Which sucks, but there it is.

So if you're a teen writer (yay you, I love teen writers! I used to be one, not so long ago!), from Wednesday to Saturday (and possibly next week, we'll see how it goes)touch base with me on Facebook or Twitter! Tell me your word count today! Tweet to me about what you worked on! But please don't create a Second Life account for my benefit. (shakes head)

We'll write together, you and me. Writing. Making the magic happen. Following our characters. Woohoo, I am stoked already!

Also, before I forget, today is the launch of two sequels I have been waiting for: Andrea Cremer's Wolfsbane and Kiersten White's Supernaturally! I am so excited to find out what happens to both Calla and Evie!

Heading off to read now.

Tomorrow: WE WRITE!