Paying the price for my procrastination
Good morning and happy Friday! June is shaping up to be a hectic month, and it’s all my fault. I have a couple of major deadlines this month, which I’ve known about for many months. But did I get the pieces written ahead of schedule? Nope. Did I even start them at a reasonable time? Also nope. So now here I am, doing the authorial equivalent of writing the term paper the night before it’s due.
Why, oh why, do I do this to myself?
Because of my sloth–and because it’s been too hot to go outside and take pictures of interesting stuff–this post will be shorter and duller than usual. Sorry ’bout that.
Let’s get into it–but first: this post is part of the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer (who did get out and take pictures of cool stuff). Grab a drink, pull up a seat, and let’s catch up.
Writing News
June is grindstone month for me. I’ve been procrastinating on two writing pieces with upcoming deadlines (more on those below), and work is super busy. If you know me in real life and see me looking like Bill the Cat, throw chocolate at me and back away slowly.
Done
- Monthly post for the Insecure Writers Support Group – How to keep writing when the writing gets tough. Next month I’m co-hosting the IWSG blog hop, which should be a blast.
- Lesson 9 of Holly Lisle’s wonderful course, How to Revise Your Novel. I’m working through a revision of my messy second novel, Delta Dawn, using her lessons. It’s slow going, but I’m making progress.
- I also attended a wonderful webinar last night – a Q&A with a homicide detective offered by the Columbia River Chapter of Sisters in Crime. I’d hit a wall with the short story I’m writing, because I don’t know much about the day-to-day reality of police work, and I was able to get most of my questions answered from someone who actually does the work. It. Was. Fabulous. It’s wonderful when opportunities come along at just the right time.
In progress/pending
- Outlining a short story to submit for Trouble in Tucson, an anthology that will be distributed to folks who register for the 2023 Left Coast Crime conference, which is being held–you guessed it–right here in Tucson. I’m writing a story about a homicide detective who is framed for a string of serial murders. Deadline: June 30.
- Trying to figure out what I’m going to submit for the Arizona Authors Association annual literary contest. I submit something every year, and I don’t want to give up my streak. I have a couple of personal essays in various stages of drafting. Ditto for a couple of poems. Deadline: July 1.
- Daphne du Maurier contest: This one’s still pending. I thought they were going to announce finalists in May but last time I checked, the site said June 15. So 2 more weeks of obsessively checking my GMail every 1.8 seconds.
- Work-related book project: I’m co-editing a book (library-related) with a colleague, and the author chapters are starting to roll in, so I’ll be doing a lot of editing over the next few weeks.
In the garden
What’s happening in the garden this week?
- Not much other than watering, because it’s *hot*. According to the forecast, it’s supposed to be at least 100 for the next five days. So the gardening goal is to keep everything alive for 2-4 weeks till monsoon season starts.
- A ground squirrel is stealing my tomatoes. The little [redacted] plucks the beefsteaks off the vine and carries them to his lair underneath our garden shed. I guess he gets tired sometimes, because now and then we find them on the ground almost all the way to his den. Like this:
Jerk.
- In happier critter news, a family of Gambel’s quail visited our patio last week! I tried to get some pictures through a window and didn’t have much luck. This one of dad and 1 baby is the only pic that turned out at all:
- My neighbor’s dragon fruit cactuses are blooming. I never get tired of looking at these beautiful flowers.
Memes
I’m short on time, but I won’t deprive y’all of your weekly meme fix. We don’t have as many this week, but, hey, a few laughs is better than no laughs.
Me, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
Teenage me, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
My life, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
Seriously, where did all those damn dishes come from?
My family, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
I have plenty of Saltine-Americans in my family tree 🙂
My sense of humor, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
I seriously wish I’d been this clever as a teenager. Someone give that kid their own comedy show, stat.
And finally, the fashion of my formative years, perfectly encapsulated in a meme:
The 80s are back, baby!!!!
Whatcha got going on this weekend? Whatever it is, celebrate with ice cream!
17 Comments
Bobbiem91
I’m with you in the procrastination department. I’ll lay it to work interference and a horse whose leg I had to wrap daily for two weeks and a kid…well you get the idea. And that hamburger meme….totally adored it. I’m still laughing. That is something my one kid would have done.
Janet Alcorn
Yeah, it always seems like someone needs something, or something’s broken and needs fixing, or… yeah. Yet somehow we get things done. Eventually.
Natalie
Janet, Thank you for your weekend coffee share and the laughs. It’s impressive how you write and get other writing-related activities done while holding down a day job.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks for saying that. Most weeks I feel like a slacker, especially with my writing, but I only have so much energy.
Writing Sparkle
I did a beta read not to long ago for an America author. I’m Canadian and I have also been a police officer for almost 15 years. I was beside myself reading some of this author’s police references and recommend some fact checking. I confess I don’t know much about American laws beyond there are some slight differences with Canadian laws. The word there being SLIGHT. However, he assures me that I am very wrong and differences are vast and not slight. My point is, I would have loved to attend the webinar you mentioned, for my own personal education. I am struggling to believe the differences could be so great.
Thanks for the virtual coffee Janet.
Janet Alcorn
Interesting. I know almost nothing about Canadian law, but I always thought the basics were fairly similar between Canada and the US.
Writing Sparkle
I thought the basics would be similar to. I question whether I accidentally made the author feel defensive about the piece of writing and perhaps not entirely truthful about the fact checking that went in to it. I was a bit passionate about my response to the policing aspect of it. Anyway, I think it would have been a great webinar to have attended.
Jennifer Jones
You certainly are busy Janet. I’m a dreadful procrastinator when I have a deadline. For some reason I can work on projects with no deadline but throw me a deadline and it will always be a last minute slog. I loved your photos especially the wildlife #weekendcoffeeshare
Janet Alcorn
I’m the opposite. I’ll procrastinate ten ways from Sunday with no deadline. With a deadline, I’ll procrastinate till the deadline is close enough for me to feel a good sense of urgency, then I’ll get to work. I’m in that phase right now.
leannelc
Hi Janet – your writing seems to be amping up and it’s good that you have so many avenues to explore. I’ll never be a writer (other than my blog) so I admire those who put in the hard work. Well done on getting a blog post out as well!
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! It’s fun trying different forms of writing and putting my work out there for feedback (OK, putting my work out there isn’t exactly fun, but getting feedback helps me grow.) It’s hard work, but I do enjoy the payoff (metaphorical, definitely not literal) of getting things published and having people read them.
Gary A Wilson
Um – we’ve known each other via the coffee share for only a short-ish time but suspect I may be the cause of some of your distress. I’m that guy who “could” teach a full course in the discipline of procrastination – that is if I could ever make myself sit still long enough to write it.
Dead lines only make me willing to go clean the bathroom instead which I think is a dangerous combination of being contagious about procrastinating while being passive aggressive about limits – sigh.
apologies . . .
In High School (early 1970s) we called deliberately shredded clothing, ‘rape ware.’
In the meme you shared, we would have been confused.
perfect designer tops with shredded pants – one of us would have started the analysis by saying, “sooo – their bottom halves were raped but their top halves were left untouched. . . ?”
The conversation would have only gotten worse after that.
BTW – how is it that pants like these don’t result in ridiculous blotchy tans?
We have an inch or so of rain happening outside.
I’m not missing Tucson at all.
Except Bobo’s.
They need a branch here, except the impact on my blood sugar might be terminal.
Blessings!
Janet Alcorn
Ripped jeans were really popular in the mid-80s, but I never owned any. Even then I wasn’t keen on spending money for pre-torn clothing. As for “rape wear” – I would have thought that was hilarious when I was in high school, but I think I like the wild animal attack metaphor better.
I wish procrastination made me clean bathrooms. I’ll do just about anything to avoid cleaning bathrooms–even writing (horrors!) I will, however, organize my email or clean the kitchen or exercise or balance my budget as writing avoidance. Mostly, though, I end up researching some esoteric thing or doomscrolling the news or messing around on social media instead of doing anything useful. In fact, that’s probably going to be my plan for the rest of the day. I’m wiped.
Scribble and Scran
I never have understood jeans with holes in! Love the bear gag, that is awesome and really put a smile on my face!
Janet Alcorn
Ripped jeans look cool, but I never could bring myself to pay for torn clothing. If I did, my father would probably rise from the grave and smack me for being an idiot.
kirstin
Your memes always crack me up. Oh my goodness. I love quails and that cactus flower is so pretty. you’ve been busy on the writing front. The webinar with the police officer sounds interesting. I just finished reading my first True Crime book called American Predator about Israel Keyes. Wow. Yikes. Crazy stuff.
Janet Alcorn
I read American Predator last year. I hadn’t heard of Keyes before that, even though I lived in the Northwest. There are some fascinating true crime books out there. I read one years ago by one of the detectives who worked the Green River Killer case. It was fascinating.