Fellow parents will back me up on this, the end of the school year is the ultimate test of both your stamina and time management. So many tasks, performances and deadlines that we long for June with all our might. It’s all rush, rush, rush to the last day. The last few weeks I’ve been in my car more often than last month all together. Well, maybe not that much.

Couple all this with the busy pace of my day job, my army of seedlings waiting for their garden beds, and I’m wiped. No words on the page this past week. I did do some editing, but that’s it. And, confession time, there weren’t that many words written last week either. This is the danger zone. I’m at 40 k and the drive to finish isn’t really there. The pressure to complete it is, but it hangs around like a vague sense of doom tinged with a whole lot of guilt. It’s not like the fire a good idea or an impending deadline lights in me. Seems like maybe I need one.

It will have to be self-imposed since I don’t have any commitments to my current publisher for a new book. In late July I’ll be with my family in Maine for a much-needed week on the beach. With us will be the two people I always give my rough drafts too. Seems like the perfect time to have this one done. It means I will have to write at least 4k a week. Yikes, that’s a lot, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

So, meet me back here in a week and I’ll let you know if I’ve lost my mind by setting this pace.