Out of hibernation

Hello, world. I've emerged from my cave.

I hope everyone had a great holiday (whichever you celebrated) and rang in the new year in some festive way with at least a mild appreciation for the passage of time.

I'm (mostly) done sulking. I'm struggling with achieving balance in my life. I have a very, very long list of things I'd like to do and a very, very short amount of time each week to do them in. If I were to write at the pace I'd like to be writing at--the pace that would get this blasted never-ending draft done as quickly as possible--then I would have zero time to do anything on my list because all I would do is write. All the time. Every waking moment.

And then, of course, I'd be friendless, divorced and likely in a state of poor hygiene. Oh, and broke. So, that's really not an option.

Therefore, I have pared my list down to the following items: writing, reading, scrapbooking and time with family and friends (not necessarily in that order). Even still, I'm struggling with how to achieve balance between those few items and my work schedule.

I'm playing around with new writing goals in order to achieve said balance, starting out with 5,000 words a week. I may end up dropping that back a teensy bit, but we'll see how I do with that. Also, due to some extended holiday plans, I'll be working on a reduced goal this week.

In other news, I'm officially registered for the 2008 Romantic Times Booklovers Convention! I had a blast at RT last year (my first convention ever), learned lots and did a bunch of very valuable networking. Check out the website for a list of author attendees and workshop descriptions.

My TBR shelf is growing at an alarming rate! Today I picked up the latest offerings from Lilith Saintcrow (gasp! the final offering in the Dante Valentine series!), Patricia Briggs, Richelle Mead and Sunny. While hibernating, I read Charlaine Harris's An Ice Cold Grave, the latest in her Harper Connolly series. It was fantastic, as usual. She did something Really Gutsy in the previous book and it played out well in this latest installment. I really enjoy this series. It's quite different from her Sookie Stackhouse (or, Sookie Stakehead, as my husband calls her) series--which I adore. Definitely worth checking out. Head to Charlaine's website for descriptions and excerpts.

I also read three of the four novellas in the Holidays are Hell anthology--all excellent and worth picking up. I started making my way through the short stories in Many Bloody Returns but that's sort of on hold now for the new Danny Valentine. Oh, and Midnight Alley, the latest in Rachel Caine's Young Adult Morganville Vampire series. Really, really good stuff. I've enjoyed the previous books but this one really takes us inside the inner workings of the creepy vampire town where the series is set. The plot thickens!

We also watched the entire Matrix trilogy, this time in high-definition. Such. Great. Movies. The dialogue is sooooooooooo great. If you haven't seen them or seen all three, you really should. The first is still the best, by far, but all three deserve at least a single viewing. And, um, hello?!? Carrie-Anne Moss in PVC?? Good times all around. Other movies we watched: Lethal Weapon--a classic I've seen 6 trillion times, but it never gets old, Underworld--one of my favorites and I'm totally infatuated with Kate Beckinsale in the Selene role, The Patriot and many, many episodes of CSI Season 7. We're almost all the way through, just waiting on Blockbuster to send the last disc.

That about catches me up for now. I'll be posting sparingly this week due to my social committments but anticipate being back on a normal schedule next week.