At Loose Ends

A few days ago I wrote the final page for Megan's Legacy, and shortly thereafter sent the manuscript to my publisher.

Sounds like a rather simple statement, doesn't it? However, completing Megan's Legacy also signals the end of the Collective Obsessions Anthology. Having been consumed by the storyline and it's characters for more than twenty years, it's a jolt to realize I no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn and work until midnight to make a dent in my planned visions for the books.

Just a year ago I thought I'd never see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet here I am. The rigid daily schedule I kept for so long is now history. I'm sure there will come a time when I'll impose the same schedule on myself for another project, but at the moment I'm a bit at loose ends.

One of my favorite regimens was to write longhand by night just so I could get away from the computer screen, and then type my notes by day. I'm not a natural typist, frankly, so writing longhand was enjoyable for me. I also had a few quirks that went along with the scribbles: round-stick grip black pens only, and countless pads of quadrille paper (five squares per inch on each side). I may have to start my next project sooner rather than later just to get back into my nightly swing.

I've been catching up on my mail (electronic and postal), playing with the "kids" (my beloved dog and cat), and updating my Twitter and Facebook pages. I'm also enjoying the Good Reads and Library Thing forums, along with paying attention to the news and watching favorite television programs. I feel like I've been away for months, finally returning home to take care of mundane but important business.

To know that all eight books in the Collective Obsessions Anthology will be released this year and next is keeping my head in the clouds. It's akin to a natural high, and I'm not sure I'm ready to come back down to earth yet.

But real life marches on...