July is just around the corner and it seems I’m still stuck in March! But I have several good excuses. I’ve been writing on several projects and trying to keep up with which character goes where keeps me hopping. People ask me how I do that? Work on two books at once? I use my right hand to type one and the left hand for the other. No, that’s not true.
I think of it in the same way I used to do several different marketing projects at once when I worked in marketing and public relations many years ago. I was always spinning plates.
It’s the same with books–so many ideas, so many books I want to write. If I have to write two simultaneously, I can do that. I just call it visiting a few friends each day, moving from one neighborhood to another. That works for the most part. My only other excuse is life–it tends to get in the way of my fun writing time. People want to talk to me, or someone wants food and clean clothes. Or maybe a cake baked every now and then. But I have had a bit of fun!!!
I went on a writing retreat with three friends, two who write for Love Inspired, and one who writes for several different publishers. We named ourselves the Flamingos after Laurel Blount posted a meme about a duck standing amongst Flamingos. We like to stand out in the crowd. But I told Laurel, she is not a duck. She’s the real deal. She is a great writer. So she can stand tall like a flamingo!
We met at a lovely condo near Destin Florida. We were on the Choctawhatchee Bay side of the complex, but we had a sky bridge to the Gulf, too. Here are my friends and me: (The Gulf breeze fluffed our hair a bit.)
Missy Tippens, Marilyn Turk, Laurel Blount, and me! We had beach hair but we don’t care!
This was our view:
We did not have a highly structured schedule, but we did work a lot. We had deadlines and new ideas, so we worked in silent most of the time. We stopped for lunch and brainstormed or talked about the business of writing, too. We also discussed our lives and how we deal with friends, family, the world at large and anything that can happen on any given day. We took time to go down to the beach, or course. We made a pact that what is discussed as a Flamingo stays with the Flamingos—or you will be a duck!
We’d all been vaccinated, but we were also very careful in the condo and when we went out to dinner. We had plenty of open air restaurants to chose from and we used hand sanitizer constantly.
This is one part of the writing life–having so many good friends all over the country and the world. We were tired when we got home, but also refreshed and centered on our goals. Writers love the beach, even if we stay in and work. The water nearby gives us energy and peace to find the right words for our readers, and we do appreciate our readers. If you’d like to see some of our work, here our our links:
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