All I Want for Christmas...

...is more time!

Time to write. Time to read. Time to blog and bloghop and promo my little heart out. But most especially, time to do nothing at all.

Pretty please?

Okay, since I can't have that, I'll just let y'all know that I'm over on the Mavens today blogging about Critique Partners as Crutches and I'll be there again the next two Fridays blogging about something, but this blog is going on vacation until the second week of January. I've just got way too much on my to-do list (and as if I didn't already have plenty to do, my Golden Heart entries for judging arrived today).

When I come back, however, be prepared for a rockin' good 2008 kick-off contest and par-tay. Because my next post will be my 200th, and if you don't think I'm going to be celebrating that, you've got another think coming!

The Two Hardest Words

And no, I don't mean "I'm sorry."

I just got back from our elementary school's "Winter Program" performance. Our oldest son is in the fifth grade, and they were the last group to perform. As they were singing Let There Be Peace on Earth, it suddenly hit me that this is the last time I'll ever see this particular child on this particular stage. And I admit it, I got the teeniest bit weepy. Because I see the end of a phase in his life--in our lives--approaching.

I've been thinking a lot about endings in the past couple of days because I am almost finished with the novella I started a couple of weeks ago. In fact, with any luck, I should be writing the words "The End" on it today.

Yesterday, when I realized how close I was to the end, I realized that this will be the first manuscript I've completed since January (when I wrote another, slightly shorter novella in about two weeks). And although I do have a vague recollection of having finished a (terrible) novel when I was in junior high or maybe high school, the only other manuscript I've ever written through to "The End" is now gracing the Magical Mulch Pile.

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