Snakes, Kids, Christmas and Editing...what else can happen?

The title says it all, I think. :( The week has barely begun and I am running behind. A million miles behind.

Last night, I was editing chapters 13 & 14 until about 11'ish. I finally finished, saved and packed up for the night. Crawl between the sheets and hubby says, "Gee, I hope you're doing it right." Heart failure nearly ensued. That is NOT the question an aspiring author needs when she is running on not enough sleep, during edits. Let me assure you of that immediately. :) The funny thing is, I got the gist of what he meant, but, you know what? It's summer holidays here in Australia. My teenaged daughters are BOTH on holidays, less then 2 weeks to Christmas (so no cooking is happening just yet) and yes, knee deep in edits. My head is literally a mess. I haven't even finished the shopping...oh and one daughter has a birthday on the 23rd and the other on the 3oth of December. I really didn't plan that one well at all. Oh and I haven't made an appointment to see the hairdresser for Christmas. Think I might luck out on that.

Today, I needed to look through and finalise chapters 15 and the conclusion. Simple? No.I

n case you can't tell...this is so much harder than I expected. I'm not really sure what I thought edits would be like. I edited before submitting, so yeah, I thought I had a great handle on what I was doing. Now? Not quite so sure.

My editor is great though. She said she is going through and loving the story. That helps. LOTS. The other nice thing is, once this is cleared off my desk, I have 2 stories waiting for me to pre-submit edit them.

So, here I am, tapping out my blog, finally finished the edits and sent them through, waiting for hubby to come home and deal with the crisis of the snake, the kids are busy (the house is quiet - I probably should be worried, but peace is reigning supreme) so I am going to take the chicken route. Wait til I'm needed. Lol!

Emails, telephone and kids. Editing love scenes with kids wandering into the office is not easy. :) But the crowning glory? A snake. In the laundry. Long and gray and just sitting there. Right. Not doing ANY washing until it is gone.

Bright notes? Lots!

I'm visiting Barbara Westbrook for her Christmas Recipe Blog on the 15th December...

I'm blogging for the Secret Cravings Publishing 1st Anniversary Blog Hop on January 5 - lots of great giveaways and prizes, including a Kindle Fire.

January is also Choc Block full of visitors including:

• Dawne Prochilo
• Shannon West
• Raine Delight
• Natalie Bates

Oh and Australia Day (26 January) I have an Aussie SCP author Jan Graham

So, signing off for now. Remember to stay calm, eat lots of chocolate...and above all, have fun!

Imogene