Knowing when to take a break.

Dear Reader,

Lately I’ve been all work and no play. I knew this was coming. I set the deadlines myself, so it wasn’t surprising when the last few weeks have been nothing but cramming work into every waking moment of my day. Heck, I’m still not even unpacked from moving into my new apartment!!

This last weekend a friend from out of town came in, and I’ll admit that I’m a terrible person, but for all of five seconds I wondered if I shouldn’t stay in and just keep working.

Um, hell no! What the heck am I thinking?

There’s workaholics, and there’s workaholics, and I might be all in for some hard work, but “stuff” has never been more important than people in my life. So yesterday I spent the entire day hanging out with a group of friends. All of whom are writers of different genres. I was the only romance writer in the group! Okay, one of the others is a romance writer, but she considers herself fiction, not romance. Yeah, keep telling yourself that (love you!).

We had a blast, and it was so relaxing and nice to not do any work yesterday.

I lie. I did sit down at home and read a manuscript I’m sending out to my editor on my Nook, but that wasn’t really work. I enjoy that story. It was relaxing to sit back and read it as a reader, not an author. I don’t do that enough with my own writing, I think. I forget that at one point, the story was also enjoyable for me too. Okay, that’s another topic altogether!

So this morning I realized that even with being as busy as I am, I need to take time out to have fun and relax. Tonight I’m going to go see Dropkick Murphys, a Boston-Irish-Punk band that I’ve been in love with for fourteen years, and have never had the opportunity to see them live. I won’t get any work done. Tuesday I’ll see the same group I saw yesterday, and I won’t get any work done that day either!

And you know what? That’s okay. I need a mini-break in the middle of all the crazy. Don’t forget that you do too, kay? Happy Monday!