I can be a wee bit obsessive sometimes. This can be a good thing, sometimes. It’s probably part of what kept me determined to publish, even after hundreds of rejection. But it can also be a bad thing, when I (for example) get obsessed with checking goodreads to see if anyone has marked my books “to-read”. Or when I start stressing out over whether people are blogging about my books. Or when I feel massive guilt for not updating Facebook and twitter often enough. Because while online stuff is useful and cool, I want to do it for FUN, not because of some obligation, or to shove my books in peoples faces saying “look at me!”. I’ve started to think I need a little break.

Then there’s the fact that I’m planning to start seriously working on the Circus Galacticus sequel tomorrow. It’s the first day of the month AND a Monday. It must have good project-starting mojo!

So I’m taking inspiration from author Laurie Halse Anderson and embracing Blog-Free February. No blogging, no twitter, no facebook, no goodreads (other than adding things I read), no google reader. Also, no self-googling and no worldcat stalking. And hey, I don’t have to worry about Amazon ranking anymore!

I haven’t quite worked up the guts to say no livejournal friendslist reading, but I will restrict it to a small subset of close friends so I don’t miss urgent life stuff.

Wish me luck! I’ll be back March 1 (or, um, sooner if I fail to control myself) to blog about how it went, and if I learned anything. And before I ride off into the blogless-sunset, here are some tidbits…

First, I have an essay up in the latest edition of Hunger Mountain (the journal of the Vermont College of Fine Arts) called “Proactive Princess: Re-imagining the Fairy Tale. Stop on over to read it and leave a comment if you like! Then go read Erin Dionne’s companion piece here. There’s a lot of other great stuff in this issue, which is dedicated to the memory of author Norma Fox Mazer. Check it out!

Second, I’ve been in a scifi state of mind lately, and thus was quite excited to see the trailer for this new short (20 min) scifi film by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu:

Third, here’s a poem that’s inspiring me at the moment:

An Adventure Begins

An adventure begins,
when the one who was grimacing
suddenly grins.

An adventure begins,
when the one who was losing
suddenly wins.

An adventure begins,
when the one who acts saintly
suddenly sins.

When the smooth surface pops up with circling fins,
when soft drums surrender to bold violins,
when the light of the moon starts to shine on our skins,

an adventure begins.

~by JonArno Lawson, from Black Stars in a White Night Sky

And now I’m going to take inspiration from my goofy dog and go sit in the sun and just enjoy being.

Tags: writing