It’s been 6 weeks since I’ve blogged.  Sure, I had a 2-week trip to Florida in there, but really, the blog void is all the fault of the Book From Hell.  Ask any author who’s been writing for a while and they will probably agree…some books flow.  (No, I did not say they’re easy.  Though of course, everyone knows writing a romance is EASY! Ha!)  Some books come together nicely, the pieces fit, it feels good when it’s finished.  And you know where this is going…Some books don’t.

Island Haven, my book that will allegedly be published in July 2012, did…not…flow.  In fact, most days it felt like a bunch of blocks of cement that got all jammed up together.  And there was someone on top of the pile of concrete with an axe, swinging at me at every opportunity.

Drama much?  Maybe a little, but ask my husband and he’ll tell you…the writing of this book was particularly ugly.  For instance:

* I started over from scratch 15,000 words in.

* When I hit 39,000 words, I hit another major roadblock and ended up cutting approximately another 17,000 words.

* When I cut, I save all the deleted words, whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph or a chapter (or, hey, 15,000 words) in one big file I call Miscellaneous Snippets.  The Misc Snip file for Island Haven is more than 150 pages of deletion.

* For the first time, I had to ask for an extension on my deadline.  My editor was able to give me 2 extra weeks without pulling the book out of it’s July slot (which, in a total meltdown, I begged her to do.)

* I wrote the final 22,000 words of the 72,000-word book in 6 days.

* I spent a few days debating with my husband about whether I could list our minivan on Craigslist in order to be able to buy back the contract for this book.  (Rest assured, dear Myrtle the Minivan is still sitting in our garage.)

But…THE BOOK IS DONE.  For now.  There will be revisions, oh will there be revisions, and soon (aka under the gun) but for this week, the book is out of my life.

I turned it in at 1am Sunday/Monday with an apology to my editor at the end for leaving it with such a lame last scene.  (Did I mention revisions?)  And since then I’ve been busy….doing absolutely nothing.

My catch-up to-do list is longer than my arm, and I did manage to make the most necessary updates to my website and send out a newsletter.  Both of those, I managed on Monday, when I seemed to run on some kind of post-deadline adrenaline/false energy phenomenon.

Then Tuesday came and…my brain didn’t work.  My energy was at negative levels.  My house is screaming for attention but I put in the earplugs.  I took a nap.  I sat on the couch.  I told myself I really need to think about the next book (which happens to be due in less than 3 months…OMG I’m going to hurl.)  But I didn’t.  Because…I couldn’t.

Now, on Wednesday, I’ve started reading a friend’s story to critique it.  It’s “work” but, well, I get to read a story.  So it’s fun work.  And that is the lump sum of what I’ve accomplished.  Because unlike a beer hangover, a book hangover?  It lasts for days.

My biggest hope is that the Aleve, the naps, and the mass quantities of fluids can revive me by the time I get revisions notes from my editor.  And my second biggest hope is that the next book flows better than solid concrete in January in Wisconsin.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be unconscious.

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