Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I really need a day off

I feel like my head is going to explode.

And it isn't that I've been doing so much. It just feels like a lot, putting together my itinerary, shopping for my trip, finishing up the Fall Spinetingler edits, trying desperately to catch up on the email before I'm away for 9 days...

Being Wednesday, my Killer Year post is up. I must admit, two lines from one song, kept running through my head:

The days like a slow train trickle by
And even the words that I write refuse to fly


Have you ever felt this way? I'm functioning on so little sleep, I'm actually looking forward to getting on a plane so I can go 8 hours without interruptions.

Crazy, isn't it?

Oh, and there's a bit of a warning at the end of my Killer Year post, one my regulars might want to take note of. I don't want you to be too shocked if you drop by tomorrow.

25 comments:

Tracy Sharp - Author of the Leah Ryan Series said...

I feel just like you do, Sandra. Kind of like moving through molasses. I'm friggin' tired!

Sandra Ruttan said...

Oh Trace, moving through molasses. That sums up how my head feels, perfectly!

anne frasier said...

tomorrow, tomorrow...

Sandra Ruttan said...

Are you saying I can take tomorrow off Anne?

Thanks!

anne frasier said...

heh!

DesLily said...

well it's obvious that your head was in better shape when you wrote your killer year post! (great post!)

Enjoy your convention!! (dumb I know cause we both know you will!)

Bill Cameron said...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow even more than you're looking forward to sleeping for 8 hours on the plane!

Sandra Ruttan said...

DesLily, I was up until 1 am working on that post! Glad you liked, but nothing I wanted to say was coming out right. I tried about four different topics...

Bill... Ha. I bet you are. I think I'll have it taken from the back of my head.

Stephen Blackmoore said...

I'm with Bill. Since you missed Thrillerfest your face isn't plastered all over the internet like some of us. I think it's only fair that you join in on the fun.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Stephen, I've been trying to avoid getting plastered.

At least before Harrogate.

Stephen Blackmoore said...

Oh, give in to the Dark Side, already. It doesn't hurt. Really. You might even enjoy it. ;-)

Sandra Ruttan said...

Hey, I never said I wouldn't enjoy it, but I'm about four days behind on emails, and I need to get some work done!

I promise that if you go to BoucherCon, I'll get plastered.

James Goodman said...

lol, I wish I could make it to the con, I haven't been plastered in ages. :D

Stephen Blackmoore said...

See, now you're just teasing me. I can't make it to Bouchercon. So, who wants to help Sandra get ploughed at Bouchercon in my stead?

Sandra Ruttan said...

See, I said that if you went to B'Con, I'd get plastered.

I didn't say when I'd get plastered. So help may not be required.

I fear if every person who's said we should have a drink follows through on that at Harrogate, I'll be inebriated by the Thursday night awards and not sober up until I've been home three days!

Unknown said...

When I reach that point of tiredness, I guess jittery and I cannot think straight, literally. I even get very irritable.

ivan said...

Sandra,
What you might have is what I had in the days of unexpected (expected?) success.
There is this feeling of being so busy, that you feel your are nearing a nervous breakdown, but you never quite break down--the writer makeup exactly.
I am worried though, of late, as I see little nibbles coming to my work from all over--over something a really bad teacher told me at Ryerson, "Ivan, you're all talent and no judgment."
It took me two years at the Star and Star Weekly, with better editor-teachers to get over that comment. I went back to Rye High to check on that teacher and found he had been fired.
And now, as I get busier and busier-- and more and more hysterical and inaccurate-- I wonder about that old teacher and what he said.
I think it's just my technology lag with my computer, but I tend to, as I interview well-known people, to bruise some quotes and facts...I mean, never let the facts get into the way of a good story. Is that what Mr.X meant?

Oh well, my friend Abdulla the Shrink used to say, "Have faith in yourself."
He should know, he's from Sri Lanka.
It was the war, I tell you, it was the war!
"It was the strawberries, that's where I knew I had them. With cold geometric logic, I proved..."

--Captain Queeg.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Tanginika, I'm just like you!

Ivan, I think my problem is, I'm obsessive and a workaholic. Some things ended up on my plate I didn't expect, and it just overwhelmed me a bit. Crazy busy. I have to learn sometimes to take a day off and be more productive 6 days a week instead of less productive 7 days a week.

It is important to balance talent with judgment. Hard to say if your teacher was right, but sometimes, the hard criticism comes back to you later and you see more of it in you than you'd like to admit.

Bonnie S. Calhoun said...

Time for a break. Everybody needs one every once in a while!

James Goodman said...

Come on, I'm here... Where's the picture? :D

Sandra Ruttan said...

Thx Bonnie - too true!

James, what is it they say about men and instant gratification?

James Goodman said...

lol

ivan said...

Instant gratification dept:

I ran across an old Mexico fine arts school pal and later guitar superstar, Liona Boyd--for the first time in forty years.

"Are you still writing about masturbation"" she asks.

Damn if I didn't mention Mr. Portnoy's favourite passtime in my blog just up.

Some women know exactly what your work has been consiting of for the past forty years.

Pythagoras: Don't eat beans.

Alexander Portnoy: Don't shop for liver.

Sigh.

Elizabeth Krecker said...

Don't listen to Stephen. I think I finally wrung all the alcohol from Thrillerfest out of my liver last night.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Thanks for that Elizabeth! Since he won't be at B'Con, he'll never know anyway.