Thursday, June 24, 2010

My mean boss

I've just realized: my boss is a real slave driver. At the start of 2009 she decided I wasn't taking enough jobs, so she upped the frequency of my assignments. In 2008, I wrote approximately 21,000 words on assignment; in 2009, the number was closer to 55,000 words. She hasn't let up in 2010; the year's not halfway done and I'm already over 20,000 words. I had a week's vacation last July, and a couple of long weekends, but even during those breaks it seemed like I was corresponding about old assignments or thinking about upcoming ones. There has always been a deadline on my mind for the last 18 months, so I finally told her enough was enough! All work and no play make Diane something something! I need more than an hour snatched here and there to work on revising my latest novel (which was mostly written between 7 and 11 pm last November, or so it felt like) and sending queries out on the finished ones.

So after my current assignment, which is due July 8, I'm taking a break from the reference game. I'll have about six weeks before I need to start working on an assignment due in early September—not that I'll be slacking off. I'm hoping to get a big chunk of revising done before I go to LA in late July for the SCBWI summer conference, which I'm expecting to be five very intense days of workshopping, reworking, networking, and maybe a teensy bit of partying. Then I should be inspired to revise revise revise and market market market before I go back to biographies.

I'm just glad I convinced my boss to go along with the plan. That bitch is crazy sometimes.

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