A Gift of a Year

MMMM, Monday morning! Got to get to work! I just woke up, no alarm clock, I just woke up. Coffee; yum yum yum, coffee. Breakfast… to diet or not to diet? Work out? Depends on the weather… gym, neighborhood walk, video, I can choose which ever I like. Shower? Maybe a bath, maybe do my toes.

I have been given a gift, an amazing, priceless gift. A gift of a year to work on my dream. For that year the bills are paid, my job awaits my return and my only task is to work on my dream. My dream: to write and to publish.

It’s 10am. Oh dear, Stephen King has probably logged 100 pages by now. L’Engle would have penned a Newberry award winner and it’s not even noon. I better get started.

11am: Damn all these e-mail forwards! I better get started.

Noon: I should eat something… diet or not to diet?

1 o’clock: Damn the e-mail, seriously, back to work, NOW!

3pm: I have managed to “write” a half a page of drivel I wouldn’t let the dog eat if it were due tomorrow. I had better start dinner. My husband will be home soon; don’t want him to think I didn’t do anything all day.

MMMM, Tuesday! Got to get to work! (See Monday’s schedule)

Wednesday: My sister called, my other sister called, my mother called to see if my sister called. I called my oldest sister to see why she hadn’t called. My brother never calls. Try telling these people you can’t talk because you have to work! They think all I do all day is read e-mail and take calls.

Thursday: Same as Tuesday, same as Monday.

1 week later: Same.

Friday night in bed: IDEA!!! Write it down! My brain is firing on all eight.

Saturday morning: Got to get to work! Up before husband, warmed left over coffee, no e-mail, write, write, write. Love every minute of it. You couldn’t distract me with a grenade.

Saturday evening: I forgot to eat all day… great diet.

Sunday morning: I am up with husband. We have breakfast… no diet! Fresh coffee from beans that he ground himself, if I didn’t live another day, I have all I could wish for.

I can’t wait for him to read it. He’s wearing the robe I made him, I’m drinking the coffee he made me, and he begins. He likes it, he doesn’t like it, I can’t tell yet because he is so busy fixing the spelling and grammar. I’m not sure how I feel about that; no, I like it. This man has a poker face indeed. I better get more coffee.

He likes it! He believes in me! He says “when you’re published” not if. He gives me a couple of vocabulary suggestions. Not sure how I feel about that; it’s OK. He loves me, he loves my writing, he’s on the fence about my singing. I don’t care; I’m a writer not a singer. I could write songs! NO! NO! NO! Stay focused!

Sunday afternoon: Revise, reread, revise; break for football, cuddle with husband. Eat, revise.

I can’t believe I get to do this for a whole year. I could do it for the rest of my life. I feel so blessed I could burst. But a year will go by quickly. I mean a year, that’s not long enough! How can anyone expect you to write your first work and get it published in one year?

Um, excuse me! Remember you’re blessed……

MMMMM, Monday morning! Got to get to work!



AWE….if I really could get someone to pay the bills for a year.