Vacation is Over!

I was supposed to begin blogging here at Word Wranglers at the beginning of September, but I was away on vacation so the date got pushed back. My husband and I drove to Ontario to visit relatives in Toronto and Ottawa, a round trip distance of about 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers). It was a lot of driving, but we had fun.

On the way there and back we played some golf and did a little shopping. We stayed with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who have a lovely place on a lake. (I took this picture when we were last there in 2013, but the lake looks just as lovely.) My brother-in-law is having a milestone birthstone soon and we were all together to celebrate.

But now we’re home, and the vacation is officially over. It’s back to work, on all fronts.

At the day job where I work part-time, we’re gearing up for the busiest time of our year. I’m an accounting person and the audit is coming up pronto, followed quickly by sending out annual invoices for dues. Our conference is set for the beginning of February, and it’s a huge production to plan and execute.

And then there’s my writing. I’m trying to finish a three book series that I call ‘Love in the North Woods’ which I talked about last week. Though each book is a complete romance (three sisters, three romances), the over-arching mystery means the books should be read in order. So before I pitch/submit the first book in the series, I’d like at least a solid first draft of the other two. I also need to write blurbs for each of the books. Which means I’m writing my face off and scrambling to finish.

Speaking of pitching, in October I’m attending the Surrey International Writers Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. Another reason to finish my WIPs. More about the conference in future posts.

As if I didn’t have enough to do, several weeks ago I signed up for a self-editing class called Before You Hit Send with Angela James, Editorial Director with Carina Press. This is a good class with TONS of information, but really, what was I thinking? I knew I was going to have a busy fall.

And of course there’s always the never ending time-sink of marketing and promotion.

Color me overwhelmed.

I’m worried about dropping one or more of these balls that I’m juggling. So my question to my fellow Word Wranglers and readers of this blog is, what do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed with work and other life commitments? Do you put down your head and keep plowing through, or do you find a way to lighten the load?

If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work!