Beware... Long Post Ahead

This has been a crazy couple of days. The end of last week and most of the weekend was occupied with a mad dash to incorporate my proofreader's edits on Rules of Redemption, read through one last time to try to make sure I didn't miss any glaring problems (please let me have caught everything), and to format it for publication (please, oh please, let there be no major formatting issues like last time!). I triple checked everything, but I'm sure something has managed to wiggle its way through.

It's done finally--thanks to some long hours on Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday. The final copy is uploaded and the whole book is out of my hands at this point. This is about when nerves start to set in.

Instead of obsessing, my husband and I decided Sunday was a good day to get a head start on packing up part of our house in preparation for our move later this month. We've finally found a place we both agreed on and one that passed inspection with flying colors. The last house we were in contract for had a boatload of problems including a failing septic tank and leach field, forcing us to walk away. Not this house, though. This one had a near perfect bill of health. Even the inspector said he would have liked living there. My husband is thrilled since it means he won't have to maintain a house full of issues.

Packing up has shown just how different my husband and I are in our approaches to life.  One of the things I do when I pack up and move is go through most of my stuff and get rid of things I don't need. Like books I never read or the weird plates someone gave me when I moved into my first place. The thought process being the less I have, the less I have to move. The husband, on the other hand, is perfectly content with keeping the status quo, pointing to the bigger house as a justification.

I went through a couple of his boxes in the basement to see what I was dealing with. I found one filled with baseball caps..... that he never wears. Another was full of t-shirts.... that he never wears. You see where I'm going with this. When asked why he was holding onto these things, he shrugged and said, "I don't know. They seemed like they'd come in handy one day."

Sigh.

Because of everything we did this weekend, I'd originally planned to relax today, but I doubt that will happen. Audio just landed for Mist's Edge and I have this panic demon in the back of my head telling me if I don't make significant progress on Dragon 4, bad things will ensue.

It's panic usually sounds a bit like this--If you don't finish this read through and fix the problems, there will be too big a gap between releases. Your fans will hate you. They'll desert you for an author who can write fast enough to feed their insatiable need for good stories. If no one buys your books, you won't be able to help pay this new mortgage. You'll be homeless. Homeless, I tell you!

Facepalm. If you hadn't guessed, my panic demon is a bit of a drama queen mixed with a teenager's conviction that everything will bring about the end of the world. To make it clear before people rush to reassure me, I'm fully aware none of the above is a likely occurrence. Still, working through a chapter or two today will pacify it enough so I won't feel too guilty when I finally download the new Faith Hunter book later today. :-)