LIVING THE DREAM (Anne Stuart)

Well, it took me days to get to Jenny Crusie's magic house in the woods in Ohio -- snowstorms in Vermont and Chicago shut down airports -- but I've been here since Thursday and we've been working like crazy, and I tell ya, this kind of thing is Living the Dream of being a writer. Hanging out in a huge house with your two best writer buddies, hashing out issues in the rough draft of our collaboration, talking craft in general, going shopping, sitting in front of a fire with our knitting and crocheting and arguing about prologues and flashbacks (we all agree on no headhopping) while the wind howls outside and the river rises to flood stage and the dogs cuddle with each of us. Man, life is good.
Even a brief foray into the business, for a booksigning where I got to see my buddy Tara Taylor Quinn was good, despite the fact that I don't want to think about the business.
Times like these make the frustration of publishing worth it. You gotta let go of the bad stuff and embrace the good. Lani (Diane Rich) and Jenny (Crusie) are teaching me that. Considering that Lani's been published for 4 years, Jenny for 15, and me for 34, I guess I'm just an appallingly slow learner.
But then, Let Go and Let God was always my favorite 12 step slogan, and step 3 always my favorite step.
Hell, we need a PWA (Published Writers Anonymous) just to get through all this. Hmmmm.
Stay tuned for more.