A New Year Has Begun at the Writer’s Desk

Diane Tibert Thought for the Day, ,

Good morning, everyone.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. After working every day for three years, I was in desperate need of a break. I should have taken one immediately after that seven-month out of the house, working every day for 12 to 14 hours job in 2014, but I didn’t. Instead, I jumped into a self-imposed every day, dawn to dusk working schedule of writing, editing, publishing and marketing. I squeezed in the other part of my life (family, household chores, animals, etc.) where I could.

So a break was necessary to reset my timer, recharge my batteries and reflect on what I’ve done and where I want to go next.

Before the computer age, returning after a break often meant catching up on the latest changes and the latest co-worker stories. Now, catching up means all that plus answering a few hundred email messages at three different email accounts, responding to comments made on blogs and social media, updating websites and checking out what others have been posting to their blogs and social media accounts.

If I haven’t responded to your email yet (I started last night, but my eyes become too tired to continue), please be patient. I find catching up on email is like a dance, the one where you take two steps forward and one step back. Answering five emails often results in receiving two more that were related to that first five.

It will take a few days before I get caught up and get back into the rhythm of sitting for long periods of time but by Monday, things should be returned to normal. On Saturday September 17th, I’ll resume the “Dust Unsettled” editing posts. I’ve learned a lot while away from my desk and I will share them over the next several weeks.

For me, getting away often means visiting friends in low places on the beach.
For me, getting away often means visiting friends in low places on the beach.

You might be asking why I titled this “A New Year Has Begun at the Writer’s Desk”. Well, January 1st has seldom felt like the beginning of a new year for me. It’s just a date on the calendar. It’s cold, dark and mundane. Perhaps life is supposed to begin in that dark place, but I prefer it to start in light with the beginning of the learning season (school) and endless possibilities stretched out before me.

So September has always felt like a new year for me.

So let’s begin.

23 thoughts on “A New Year Has Begun at the Writer’s Desk”

    • Thanks, Ernesto. Looking at the next few months, I realised I had promised myself I’d accept the challenge of NaNoWriMo again. I’ll have to see if I’m ready before I take the leap in November.

      Like

      Reply

  5. We think alike about the year. I loved school as a kid. The summer was the end break after classes and studying for nine months, although I usually ended up on my cousin’s ranch doing a “working vacation”. Yes, September should be the first month of the year. In the Jewish faith it is. All those centuries of having the year start in September, what could have been the reason to change it other than the vanity of a Roman Emperor?

    Like

    Reply

    • Summer feels like freedom — no schedules, no ‘have to be there’ and fewer responsibilities. Ranch and vacation work sounds like fun, better than being a classroom.

      I have never thought about that: vanity of a Roman Emperor. My feelings about it is that once the kids are out of the school system, I can choose whatever day I want as the new year. I won’t even have to follow daylight savings, which makes no sense to me since I prefer to get up early (5:00 am in summer and 6:00 am the rest of the year).

      Thank you for visiting, and for leaving a comment.

      Like

      Reply

  6. Welcome back Diane! I’m just going to plant a seed of possibility here…rather than replying to those hundred of emails and blog post comments, what if you wrote another post asking people to re-post any questions or comments that are still unresolved? Then you could just start fresh and answer those. Those of us who are serious about following your work and are on your email list would understand. PS, you don’t have to reply to this 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    • Thanks for the seed, pfentie, but it won’t work for many of the messages. However, it will work for about two dozen. I get several messages a week regarding the post I wrote a few years ago about Canadians being exempt from the 30% tax hold back when being published in the USA. I’ve also written an updated version of it.

      A few weeks ago when I was receiving more questions about it, I thought about doing just that: writing one blog post to answer the questions and then directing others to it. I’m not a tax expert and what applies to me doesn’t apply to everyone, but I like to help people where I can.

      Like

      Reply

  8. Thank you, Darlene. It was time well spent. I was able to do things I haven’t done in years. I’m eager to return. However, I won’t be working from wake to sleep seven days a week anymore.

    Like

    Reply

Please Leave a Comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.