Back in the Saddle?

I feel like I've been away from writing for a while. Not entirely. I've been keeping up with my blogs, working on cover art sheets and promotional information, and doing edits and such. But I haven't been to one of my local writers' meetings for so long I can't remember the last time I attended, and I haven't written anything new in about five months. I needed a break. Real life is busy and trying to fit a 'second' life as a writer into it just seems to add to the stress.

But now summer vacation is fast approaching, and I feel like I want to dedicate some time to actual writing again. Right now I don't have a project screaming at me to complete, but I do have several ideas out there, so I guess I just need to pick one and get to it. I'm about two chapters plus some extra scenes here and there into one story. At this point I'm not sure if it's going to be a full-length or a novella. I also have an idea (outlined!) for a time travel. That one will probably fall into the novella category. And then I have some thoughts about a few spin-off stories from my three- book series. These will definitely fall into the novella category.

I also need to figure out what happened with the mss I submitted to Harlequin last August. I sent it out, and then put it in the 'don't think about this or you'll go crazy' category. Well, it turns out I put it so far into the back of my mind that a whole bunch of months passed before I realized I should have heard something by now. And I haven't heard boo, not even a rejection in the self addressed stamped envelope I sent. We are well past the three to five month timeline I was given. So, I need to dig out the original request letter and see if I can find an e-mail address or snail mail address and find out if the mss was ever received.

I have some promotion to do. Even with my self-imposed hiatus from writing, I have a Halloween novella coming out this Fall (The Vampire and the Vixen) and the third installment in my series (This Feels Like Home) I'm guessing will release sometime early next year. I'm just waiting on an official release date for Vampire and the blurb for Home was just approved so we're heading into the cover art process. I'm also waiting on the second round of edits from my editor.

So I have plenty to keep me occupied in a writing sense. I just hope some sort of motivation to actually put words on paper makes an appearance soon. If not, maybe this time next year Debra St. John will be one of those authors that has faded away into the pages of publishing history...only time will tell.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com