Crocus blooming in my backyard - A promise of Spring.It's April in Illinois. Back and forth, the weather goes. A teasingly warm weekend, complete with sunshine, warm breezes and birds chirping. The buds are blooming, the grass is greening. All is right and wonderful. Wow, I'd forgotten how nice days like this can be.
Then comes Wednesday. Cold, drafty, damp. The wind bites. I guess the birds are out there somewhere, but I don't hear them. The buds are still blooming, the grass is still greening, yet all is not so great or wonderful. Gee, this is not the kind of day I like at all.
Writing is like Illinois weather. There are so many ups and downs, in the same minute, hour, day, week, month, and year I couldn't possibly name them all.
GIRL OF MY DREAMS was published the beginning of the year. That was a glorious day. All was bright and beautiful. The world was full of promise.
It didn't take long for cold reality to set in. I had a lot of work to do. Bookmarks, postcards, book signings, reviews, blogs, interviews, you name it. The world did not look so pretty.
The bookmarks come in and I love them. I mail my postcards to my Christmas card list. Friends and relatives rejoice with me at my Book Launch party. I guest blog and get nice comments. I do online interviews and draw favorable feedback. My sales numbers go up on Amazon and fictionwise. I receive e-mails saying they like my new book and ask when the next one will be out. All turns bright again. Being an author is great.
Wait a minute. I don't have enough time to devote to my work-in-progress. Not only that, I still have postcards to mail to libraries and bookstores. I have a panel to get ready. Chicago-North RWA's Spring Fling conference is April 26 and I need to prepare for the small press panel. On the heels of that is a another panel about getting a manucript ready for publication, this one at the Mundelein Library the evening of April 30. Not to mention, all the promises I made to people that I still need to fulfill, like getting bookmarks made for the Chicago-North RWA authors for Spring Fling, which I wished I'd done months before. As Library Liaison, I'm again collecting data for the MWMWA Library Bulletin, this time for Spring, which I hope to get out by mid May. Then there's my newsletter. I've already skipped one month. I'm determined to get the combined issue out soon.
Being an author isn't quite as rosy at the moment. Still, like all the other times, I know I'll see the light of day. My tasks will be accomplished and all will be bright and beautiful again - at least for a while, until, like the fickle Illinois weather, more tasks loom.
That's okay. I can take it. After all, I've survived many a Chicago winter. There's always another Spring to make everything good again.
Morgan Mandel
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