Balance

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Balance

If you’ve been lurking on my blog, and you’re adept at reading between the lines, you’ll see a lot of myself is devoted to balance. It can be a taxing proposition in a creative field when you’re overusing the problem solving part of your brain, resulting in off-the-wall comments to people who really don’t deserve what you’re laying down on them, then add to that you might be carrying the emotional baggage of a character who is trying to make the best of a bad situation if you don’t remember to leave it in the office at the end of the day. Readers have the luxury of knowing that it will all work out by the end of 450 pages, but the one making it is the one who has to sweat through it and figure out how. It doesn’t take a day or week to figure out, but often months. Ask a spouse or editor. They will tell you we aren’t quite rational when the work isn’t going well, and it’s not just frustration. I’m convinced it’s chemical.

So balance.

Peri is more intense than Rachel, far more isolated and alone, and you can see that in that my other creative outlets (knitting, gardening, learning a new social media) have risen accordingly. But balance isn’t just in work and play. It’s in what is coming at us as well. You get bad news, you look for the good.

For example, I had a lousy night. The storms that ripped through my area last from midnight to 2:30 am were intense. Sirens did go off in the distance, and it was up-and-down to check the radar and warnings. We’re a small town, and tornados happen about as often as a lost dog. They finally passed through, but my dog had two break-through seizures at 3:45 and 4:15 am. which is bad enough on their own, but now it means we start at zero again and I have to balance if I want to consider talking to the vet about upping her meds for the second time in six weeks, or hang for another two weeks and see what happens. I think I’ve seen more seizures than my entire vet’s office, so really, I’m not panicking or in need of a pep talk. I’ve been down this road from beginning to end once before, and I’m just really, really tired, and damn it if I’m not going to use that in my writing today.

But balance.

Lousy night turns into beautiful day with some very good news.

The Drafter has been picked up by LittleBrown in the UK, and will be coming out hopefully at the same time as the U.S. edition. I love the backward clock. It speaks to me. And the two figures? Peri has isolated herself, but there is someone beside her.