Frozen
Ice
Well, today’s the day. The lake is officially frozen. I’ll post a picture soon –but this time of year, it’s hard to take a picture that doesn’t look like a bad golf course. Everything is all whites, grays, and watery blues.
The lake froze and, at the same time, I’m beginning to thaw. I know I haven’t posted in a while. The holidays cramped my style: kids in and out, all the shopping, wrapping n’at, and I lost my traction.
And suddenly, book stuff just dropped off. I definitely got hit with the post-book baby blues, a universal thing, I think, with writers. There is a thing called shelf-life, and now I understand that it applies to books as well as Campbell’s Bean with Bacon Soup (Bean ‘n Bacon in my family’s vernacular). I’m lucky — for a lot of writers, the blues descend immediately after the book comes out. I had a great ride, and expect a nice ride next summer, too, but the newness wore off. My book has taken a back seat, or back shelf, to all the wonderful new reads coming out. The book thing is crazy, and completely out of your control, at least from what I can gather. From my experience. Not whining — have some book club stuff coming up this spring, and some venues that want me to come talk this spring, but now, winter is here. And I froze.
Here’s why: there came a time when I couldn’t figure out if I should push on with the next thing, or work harder to promote the current book. I know, I know, I should be able to multi-task. I can, and will, if I need to. BUT, there was still a time where I had these two equal things that I was holding — push the book, or plunge into something else — and I literally froze. So I got busy wrapping. And cooking. I cooked a lot! I wrapped a lot too, but my wrapping skills did not improve.
Now I’m plunging ahead on the next thing. I’ll keep you posted on happenings with my current book, and may share some of my new work as it evolves.
In the meantime, Happy New Year, Happy Trails, and Stay Warm!
I was in Maple Springs for New Years last week. I saw the Bemus Bay freeze up while the northern section of the lake still had white caps. As I drove past your house, I enjoyed your decorated christmas tree! Looking forward to see your images for the frozen lake!
Don’t forget to enter the 2015 Ice Pick Contest. It should be announced shortly by the Chautauqua Lake Association.
Hi Beth,
I feel your pain, sister, but at least you had the energy to write about it. You’ve inspired me to finish a piece on my blog that I started just after Thanksgiving, but then came the kids, the cooking, the wrapping, etcetera…I have started a second book, but I feel that same conflict. Should I spend the energy researching and writing, or do more to further my shameless self promotion tour for novel#1, Convergence? Warm wishes for a happy and healthy 2015· Would love to meet at Tom`s or Guppys for a hot toddy!
it’s about time to see the upper lake freeze over. hard to go ice fishing without ice. my fishing bucket has been all set to go since the end of deer season. just one way to fend off the doldrums of winter. come join us.
It sounds to me like this Christmas break was exactly what you needed. I firmly believe in the value of fallow (nonwriting) time. Writers have lives! If they didn’t, they’d have nothing to write about. My two cents: you’ll probably get more fulfillment out of going ahead with the new project and putting promotion on the back burner. Give promotion a fixed, limited amount of time per week.
It was around zero this morning in SW Pennsylvania. Was about to go out yesterday and a whiteout squall hit — I canceled and was glad I did.
I remember that tug-and-pull when my children’s/YA books came out. Lots of ideas for writing, but my energy was refracted because of book promoting…or feeling guilty for not promoting. I have two books still in print, and I’m always imagining the publisher is upset with me because I ignore them. As an artist, you have to move on at some point, though. Right? Write! A view of a frozen Chautauqua Lake sounds pretty inspiring to me. (Though Evelyn Conlon tells me to turn away from my view of mountains when I’m at work. Good advice, I’m sure, if I could just follow it.) Looking forward to seeing pictures.