Okay, so I’ve spent the past two weeks recharging my writerly batteries. Work has been keeping me quite busy, which helps the time pass while I’m there, and keeps me out of trouble. I’ve been slowly whittling down my various distractions lately so I can focus on the important stuff — family, friends, and yes, my own writing.

So what have I done to make my world a better place?

• I dropped my Twitter account. Keeping up with all those “tweets” (micro-blog entries or short status reports about what you’re doing right now) was making my eyeballs cross.
• I tried to give up Facebook, but decided to keep it as my one time-waster online (well, other than this journal, of course!). It’s always fun keeping up with people, and this is a pretty easy way to do so.
• I signed up for NaNoWriMo, which is quickly approaching, in 15 days!
• I ordered some copies of Cornstalk Gypsies: The Iowa Flood Relief Anthology. Can’t wait to read this one (okay, it does have one of my stories in it, and I want a hard copy for my Ego Shelf, too). Check out the Relief Anthology site, by the way — there are more anthologies coming, and they should be awesome.

What I didn’t do much of was write, and I barely got much reading done. We spent a lovely weekend in Durham, at our house, and on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill this past weekend with friends we’ve known for almost 15 years now, and it was quite lovely, getting away from the computer and visiting old haunts. And it was really fun showing Mitch and Drew the sites. Drew rode his bike all over the place, including in the Pit next to the University Book Store, along with a bunch of skateboarders. And he had his new stuffed friend, Just Kitty, along for the ride…

But now I’m geared up to be productive again, and I plan on banging out about 1,000 words a day for the rest of the month, to get me up to about 40,000 words before the craziness of NaNoWriMo begins on November 1. My goal is to get this novel drafted right at 90,000 words by the end of November. It should be fun. I think I’m ready for it now.

And who knows — maybe this plan will actually work! I think I’ve spent most of this year either working on or avoiding this novel. Sheesh!