Life
is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. ~
John Lennon
I should stencil John Lennon’s quote on the inside of my eyelids. This
has not been my best year, writing-wise. Oh, 2018 started great with lots of
energy, ideas galore, a plan to release three novels this year. For two weeks, I
was going great guns on the fourth Alex O’Hara mystery. Then, for some weird
reason (which I won’t go into), I quit that book to finish one that I thought
was 75% done. It wasn’t, but I’d committed to it.
Enter the doldrums of 2018. Winter blues, depression.
Whatever. I was stalled during the month of February. I wrote but not as much
as I could have. With March, spring was in the air. Sort of. For a day or two
we had sunshine. Hurray! My energy returned. The finish line was in sight, just 10k
words to write. I had the outline done, just needed to go from “telling” to “showing.” And I was looking forward to celebrating Easter with my family.
That’s when Life slapped me up the side of the head and
said, “Unh uh.” I woke up one morning with a vicious sore throat and a cough. I
guess Life thought I needed to remember all those people who got influenza, even those who’d gotten the shot, those who ended up in the
hospital. When family members (Hubs included) had gotten hit with bad
colds, I escaped. I couldn’t believe it. How lucky could I get!
My luck ran out. No Easter with the family, not with
coughing my head off. Finally, I was bullied (Hubs and daughter) into going to
the doctor. Guess what? Doctors take Spring Break, too. Off to Urgent Care,
where I was diagnosed with pneumonia. Say what? That explained the lack of energy,
difficulty breathing with the least exertion, wanting to sleep all the time.
Along with no physical energy, my creative energy disappeared.
Even reading was too hard. So was Facebook and email. Binge-watching Netflix
was all I could manage. Life must have thought I needed downtime while one
course of antibiotics worked. Recheck at the doctor’s showed an ear and sinus
infection. Another course of antibiotics. More downtime. After all that, I am
feeling better. I even got to see the grandkids last week. Talk about withdrawal. I hadn't seen them in over two weeks.
The plan to finish my romantic suspense (Number Never Lie) by Easter didn’t
happen. That pushed back the release by Mother’s Day even farther. I'm almost afraid to mention a release date. I’m
disappointed, but what can I do? Buckle down again. Keep on truckin’.
We make plans, and Life laughs.
Diane Burton combines her love of mystery,
adventure, science fiction, and romance into writing romantic fiction. She
blogs here on the 16th and 30th of each month. She shares snippets from Numbers Never Lie every weekend on her blog.
