Thursday, March 22, 2012

Thank You for Waiting…

Your life is important to us.  Please continue to hold for the next available friend. 

Boop.  Boop.

Basically, this is what I should’ve told everyone before I crawled into my cave to obsess over finishing work recently.  Here’s the thing, I love all of you.  Really, I do.  But I woke up one morning and realized…

“Holy shit, I’m a writer!  With a deadline!  And people who already ordered my book!  Yea! Oh, wait, that means I actually have to finish the thing and get it ready to hit shelves then, don’t I?”

Luckily I completed the final tweaking of my manuscript yesterday.  Today all I have to do is double check that page numbers fall into place, create a pdf file, and submit to the Copyright registration office.  I’m guessing it will be ready to go on time but I was so freaking concerned that I pretty much fell off the planet doing only the bare minimum of keeping in touch with people.  I hate to say it but I hardly remembered my own schedule the past 3-4 weeks.  I found it tough keeping up with myself, so there was no way I was keeping up with you.

But now that the big deadline push is over with I can get back to –

·         Chatting on the phone with friends I promised many times that I’d call but never did.
·         Help my dad launch a company.
·         Tag/link friends in blog posts that have been UBER generous with doing that for me lately and I’ve been a slack-ass in returning the favor (specifically I’m talking about The Pedestrian Writer, who is a hilarious & heartfelt blogger.  He’s working on a novel right now about a teenager who discovers he has cancer and all the life reality that goes along with that.  I seriously can’t wait to read it…no pressure my friend haha.  Oh & see #5 below because I completely agree with you on the exercise thing!).
·         Spread the love that my mom’s photography studio – Judi FitzPatrick Studio – is the responsible creative force behind my book cover that you see lurking over on the left sidebar.  Isn’t it freaking awesome?  Yes it is!  Yea mum!
·         Consulting with my tattoo artist – I get inked for the first time on April 17.
·         Making a couple tablecloths for my SMIL that I promised I’d do weeks ago.
·         Making a little something for my dear friend Ginger the Ninja (who I promised this to like a freaking age ago and feel like a total jackwagon for not getting on it quicker!  Sorry my friend, next week for REAL the sewing machine is coming out!).
·         Read and comment on blogs.
·         Write blogs more consistently.
·         Read that book.  You remember the one, I was so jazzed to open it a couple weeks ago and then I kind of spent more time with my own then hers.
·         Open mail (aka pay bills, make sure there’s still money in my bank account, catch up with the real estate agent about our house purchase and if its gone through, make sure to alert management that we’re so out of here).
·         Do laundry.
·         Attend to personal hygiene, you know, like showering more often than when I’m being forced to leave the house or have people over.
·         Oh yeah, and write more so I can put stuff in my Writesy shop because clearly writing hasn’t taken over my life enough already.

Not too busy right?  No, no.  Not at all. 

I also got tagged in a meme by Selena over at Because Motherhood Sucks what feels like 2 weeks ago.  Time to follow through on this thing.

I must preface by saying I don’t pass these on or do the award thing so if you read this, are interested and want to steal it, by all means have at it.  As a sign of good faith on my commitment to getting back to all things not Ripple the Twine (<-- available for pre-order now --> shameless self-promotion woo hoo!), I will now complete this meme as a way to show I really WILL get back to being everything to everyone again.

Someday.

That day may not be today but “I try to be my best…

Seven Random Things About Me

1. My favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip.

2. I was super nostalgic for Boston on St. Patrick’s Day, more so than any other time since we’ve moved away.  Which is weird because as an Irish girl I don’t think I’ve been out on Amateur Day in well over ten years.  There’s just far too many morons who think that drinking excessively is what makes you Irish for a day.  It doesn’t.  Go home.  Preferably in a cab.

3. The self-dubbed “Year of No Excuses” was not titled the year of no fear but maybe it should’ve been…I’m really looking forward to getting the book finished & out there in 2012 but I’m petrified off my fucking ass to actually have it purchased and read because then it’s all really real.  But it’s exactly what I want at the same time.  Through my life I’ve had, oh, I’d say about 100 different job titles, but Author is really the only one I ever wanted.  I never thought I’d make it happen and that scares the begeezus out of me.  For reals.

4. I actually enjoy cold & rainy days now.  Because they are so few & far between it’s a welcomed respite from the perfection that is our weather most of the time here.

5. Exercise is not fun.  I don’t care how many different types of activities I try to incorporate into my daily life that keep it interesting, you know, so I keep doing it for that health thing, but that does not equal fun.  There’s no doubt my body feels better after I’m done, sure, but I’m not excited to go and do it.

6. I’d be more than happy to have the opportunity to take my laptop & my cell phone and live in a cottage on the coast for a month straight with absolutely no connection to the internet.  Alone.  Writing but not speaking with a soul unless it’s for emergencies.  Such emergencies would include – calling my dealer because I ran out of weed, calling the liquor store to see if they deliver wine by the gallon, calling Dunkin Donuts to see if they deliver coffee by the truck load, calling in a food order 2-3 times per day (Because cooking?  Really?  No.).

7. I actually hate talking on the phone.  I have no clue how I did it so much when I was a kid/teenager but now I’d so much rather text or email (or even Facebook) to keep up with people.  It is so much quicker and doesn’t limit your ability to do other things.  Like pee, watch a Bruins game, have your ear remain intact, etc.  There are some people I have to talk to on the phone because they don’t subscribe to these other methods of communication and I get it but I hate it.  There is only one person I enjoy talking on the phone with, and that person is…

12 comments:

Suldog said...

I ordered the book, Jenn, and I have no doubt I'll enjoy it immensely.

Unknown said...

You had me at "Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream." Just dreamy...

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Jim oh my God thank you so much!! YOUR WIFE may enjoy it more than you as its kind of girl-lit. Of course the famale lead is pretty in touch with being a girl from Boston so there is that. Thank you x 1,000,000 ♥

haha Stephen, thanks for stopping by & leaving a comment :-)

Judi FitzPatrick said...

Thanks for the props and link to my FB fan page! Can't wait to read the book in it's final state.

Love you, Mum

Anonymous said...

Whoa...where do I start? First of all, thank you for the blog love. Much appreciated. No worries about your blog absence, I think anyone who reads it would assume you've got a lot of prep work to do with your book. Really excited for you, and I will definitely order a copy (even if it is chick-lit). I had to laugh when you got swept up in the pre-orders and prep work, and put off the actual writing part! All the fun stuff is just so...fun. Isn't it?

Maybe writing is like working out--the end result is satisfying, but the actual process is dreadful and exhausting. I don't know--I've not done enough of either haha!

To answer your question about 'The Hunger Games', I knew a lot of people who raved about the book(s) last year, but it was always on my periphery. I mean yeah, I'm all about YA fiction, but I wanted to read more pertinent stuff first and explore the trilogy after I've exhausted my supply of teen cancer stories.

But then all this promo stuff for the movie came raining down on me, and I'm like screaming "What is the big effing deal?" Then I heard the words 'post-apocalyptic' and 'dystopia' (I *love* all the 70's genre flicks like 'Rollerball', 'Logan's Run', 'Soylent Green' etc.) not to mention 'games' (hello, there's a *sport* involved?!?) and I was ready to cave.

The cute blonde is just icing on the cake. ;)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your book - I look forward to reading it and tweeting, blogging, fb-ing about it! :D And now I'm going to go lay down because your list of "to do's" exhausted *me!* I can only imagine how you feel! :)

Unknown said...

You're welcome Jenn, glad to be here! I know what you mean about over-committing yourself. About two months ago I apparently thought "Sure, I can commit to seven writing projects simultaneously, and definitely give them all the professional attention they deserve!" So that Pilot Script is ... well ... it's around here somewhere.

http://mindlesslampoons.blogspot.com/ said...

I dont know how or why I stumbled in here, but having done so and leaving that moot quip aside, I must admit that i leave with a smile and these words "...nice writing style"

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

I wish Blogger would do what Wordpress does and let you reply directly to each commenter. Scrolling up & down makes me dizzy damn it!

Mum - thanks, I can't wait to find out that its ready to release into the wild!

#4 - (Can I reveal your real identity??) Right? Marketing and stuff...I'm totally looking forward to doing all of that but administrative/formatting pages/margins & headers...bleh! I already wrote the damn thing, shouldn't that be enough?!? Guess I need an agent & a big-box house to get that stuff though lol. So I have to know if you went opening weekend???

Mimi - Thanks so, so much! Yeah life gets pretty busy around these parts! That's why I have to force myself to take time off haha I appreciate the book love :-)

Stephen - Couldn't identify with that more! Yeah I end up taking on all this stuff then my mind can't focus on any one thing specifically. Does that mean I get something done on all of them or nothing done on any of them? Tough balance...one I have yet to master!

ML - Thanks for stopping by & for the compliment!

Anonymous said...

There is a way to reply to each comment; I just recently switched it to pop-up cause one of my readers said she couldn't comment without it. Go to 'settings' and 'comment form placement' and choose 'full page' if that's what you're looking for.

You can use my real name if you want; it's on one of my sidebars anyway! And I have to wait until Easter at the earliest before I can see the movie. It's killing me! I told the Mrs. that I feel like Bart Simpson in the 'Itchy & Scratchy movie' episode.

I'm so new to the process that everything you're saying here and on Writesy about your 'baby' is motivating me to keep going when the old me would have given up long ago. The people we encounter through blogging can be so supportive and hold us accountable, they give us that extra push we need when things seem overwhelming. I love it.
And on that note, I must get back to 'work'!

Caren E. Salas said...

As I was reading this I thought, wow, someone else does what I do. I finish some big project and I think I'm going to have ALL kinds of time suddenly to get a ton of of things done. Somehow, for me anyway, it never quite works out that way. If it does for you, more power to ya'! Really. Good luck, and congrats on the book!

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

Thanks Chris, I'll definitely give that a try! Well you're inspiring me way more than I am for you (which is insane btw, that's never happened with another Writer before so thanks!). Everytime I read something where you're writing like 6500 words my jaw hits the desk and I wonder how my 10 pages every month for critique group are ever getting another book done...because they're not lol It encourages me to get back to the manuscript and get words out even if they need editing later! Yes, the blogging community is quite rad!

Caren there's not a likely chance in hell I'll get to even half the stuff I WANT to get to once this thing is "done" because a book is never really done, there's the marketing, writing of the next, etc...but if I do figure it out I'm bottling it and selling it lol