Recharging Batteries...or Shorting Them Out?

photo credit: michael*choi via photopin cc

Ever been caught between work deadlines on one hand, family pressures on the other, daily obligations on the other hand...wait. Three hands?? **Wandering body part alert** AOOHga!!

*covers eyes* Um, yeah, one of those pressures is some editing I have to do.

So anyway, I was looking at my calendar for the next few months. I have a March 1 novel deadline and 30,000 words to write, then edit before then. A February 22 novella deadline with 5000 words ditto. A novella which has been edited--I just have to find the time to make the changes, then polish it, format it, and distribute it. A book to read, and a contest to judge. Oh, and rehearsals for our next symphony concert start this month. Fortunately there are no bird parts for the lovely principal flute. *grins over big huffed relieved breath*

Oh yeah, and do taxes.

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My whole head is wanting to explode just from that.

But it doesn't have to. I'm going to let you all in on an Ancient Chinese Secret. Or actually, a Pretty Old Korean Secret, learned many years ago when I was studying Taekwondo.

Rest between breaths.

When you're sparring, you're going all out. One flurry of kicks turns into a pounding of punches, turns into another flurry of kicks, because if you let up, the other guy will fold you in half with a sidekick.

I totally do not know what I'm talking about from experience.

Anyway, you're under constant, and I mean constant, physical pressure. Rasping breath, pounding heart, trembling limbs pressure. Unless you get some rest, you'll lose stamina and strength, and without those you lose the match.

So you learn to rest every moment you get a chance, even if it's only a second.

Life is like that. When the going gets tough, the tough...relax. If only for a second. If only between breaths.

Here are some quick pick-me-ups.

Friend Scott on Facebook. His memes always make the day better. Ditto Roxy for her Death Wish Coffee posts and NaNo encouragements (ve haff vays uff make-ink you vrite!). Ditto Jodi for her exchanges with Selena and Sexy Thumbs.

Imgur memes. You can make your own, but then you get out of the range of "quick". Lol.

Webcomics give me a quick pickup MWF. Mine are User Friendly, Free Fall, SinFest and XKCD with an occasional dip into Cyanide and Happiness. I also follow Zits and Pearls Before Swine's Stephan Pastis on Facebook.

TV Tropes provides a bit of writerly fun.

On Facebook, George Takei and Robert Downey Jr.

Hubby and I often wind down the evening with a short humorous show on NetFlix. Favorites are Archer, Frasier, IT Crowd.

What about you? What do you do for a quick battery recharge (that won't short you out)?

Look for Masked Attraction in February, Biting Serendipity (April Fools In/For Love) in March and Heart Mates in April!

Heart Mates (Pull of the Moon, Book 1)

Witch plus wolf? They’re allergic. Except no one told their hearts.

Preorder now!




Shifters and witches? Forbidden on pain of death. Might as well stick a fork in a light socket. Yet those are the kind of sparks witch princess Sophia Blue feels when she meets wolf shifter Noah in her aunt’s bookstore.

But Sophia is stuck. Her aunt is missing and Noah, the last person to see her, is Sophia’s only hope. If not for that and her aunt’s new, cute little doggie, Sophia would run as far as she could from the sexy, hard-hewn alpha.

Noah’s stuck too. Before disappearing, the aunt hit him with a hex gone horribly wrong—he’s the doggie. By day he’s fifteen pounds of yippity-yip, and with five anti-alpha wolves nipping at his heels, that’s deadly dangerous. Only Sophia can help him, but she has lost her magic.

Then an evil mage from Sophia’s past shows up with murder on his mind, and all Noah’s instincts shout to protect the woman his misguided heart thinks is his mate.

Warning: Sinfully sexy alpha thrown together with a hot witch in a small town. Sass, sparkle, a meddling aunt, snafus, growling, fighting, and oh yeah, sex. Might want to get up to date on your shots.