The Olympics, a Gold Medal Distraction...but Hope is on the Horizon

Why, oh why did the Olympics have to come right after the conference? I go to the conference, hear some great sessions, meet some awesome people and get super fired up to come home and crank out my novel so that I can send it off to an agent or two. I start off great, getting a couple chapters of full rewrites done a day. Then the Olympics really get going, and any night-work I might have gotten done gets otherwise pushed to the side as I watch to see if Michael Phelps is going to dominate yet again. I don't even know why I watch, he doesn't even come close in any of his races (knock on wood! don't wanna jinx him) After all this missed writing time, he better get those eight golds! I should write him a letter chronicling my sacrifices. Fortunately, I do not have a job yet, as the school district I'm gonna be subbing for does not start for another week or two, and water polo season doesn't begin until after labor day, so I try to get a few pages a day done--mostly I've kept it up. I just signed up for the Big Sur Children's Writer's Workshop, so I now have a doable, but still challenging, deadline.

Oh, and Eve was kind enough to read and edit some of my manuscript this week, so I returned the favor. From this MS exchange was borne what we deemed "Trolley Car Motivation." Let me explain this revolutionary method. Ya know those little cart things that ride on train tracks that you push up and down to move along? Well, I know they're not called trolley cars, but I don't know what they are called, and trolley car works for me. So to move those along, each person has to push kind of against the other person, and it results in you both moving forward. So you push the other person to finish their manuscript, then give them feedback on what they've done, they return the favor; and you both move forward! Isn't that inspirational? I think finding a fellow trolley car motivator is essential for getting anything done in this businesss, otherwise it's just lonely.

So thankfully I've got a couple things keeping me on track, otherwise I might get lost in the heat of an intense badminton battle, or an insanely elegant equestrian romp.