This Christmas/New Year's break has felt more like a vacation than any other year in memory. Maybe it's because we had a ton of get-togethers starting with Drew and Lizzie's birthdays in the middle of the month that seemed to overlap into Xmas parties and family get-togethers, so that when we finally had some days off together, just the three Jaspers, we made the most of it.

We took some walks (the weather has been freakishly warm -- someone call Al Gore!), took down the Xmas decorations, tried out Drew's new trike and toys, read a lot, napped (yes, even me!), spent a lovely Saturday watching movies and piddling (Lizzie on her never-ending Advent tree and spangly decorations, me on a project for work that wasn't too brain-draining).

We even got the garage organized (after fixing the shelves above the garage door that came crashing down after I overloaded 'em -- nobody was hurt, but we lost a couple pieces of pottery and some containers).

And I learned not to stress out, even though I had a couple major writing-related thing to do. First was the final edit to my Wannoshay novel -- my editor from Five Star sent me the edited manuscript a day or two after Xmas, and of course my initial reaction was to dive in and get to work immediately.

Fortunately, the edits were very light, though I had a bunch of work to do on the "ancillary" materials, like a new author bio, a synopsis, some "cover flap" copy (I hate writing that stuff -- I never feel like it's peppy enough), and various odds and ends like that, things that I should enjoy doing, but always feel like busy-work. It feels like writing about writing, instead of actual writing. Sort of like journaling, I guess...!

Maybe I'll share a bit o' that work in another journal entry...

The other bit of news is that I'm polishing off the opening to Sixteen Miles from Everywhere again, and fine-tuning the outline. It's nice to get back into that world again. I'd almost given up on that book (again), but I think I just needed some time away -- a vacation from it, really. That's the best thing I've learned in this time off, I think -- to not take writing so seriously that it overtakes the rest of my life. The old Mike would've gotten up early every day of his vacation (and used up every free moment as well) to work on his writing stuff to beat the self-imposed deadline of the end of the year, making himself miserable in the process.

In the new year, along with the usual vows of being more healthy, eating right, getting more exercise, having more fun with family and friends, I really want to continue that positive trend of having a healthy relationship with my fiction writing. It's an important part of my life, but not my whole life. I like what Stephen King said about it: "Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around."

Later!