summer writing

It's nearly 10 am on a chilly (for summer) rainy morning, and my little sweetie is snuggled up next to me. I'm trying not to move very much. I want her to sleep. This is the one who stays up until 11 pm and doesn't like to nap. Mama is getting tired. Mama has a book she wants to write. Mama says, Lent is over, dear, and it isn't Ramadan yet, and we don't need to do any sleep fasts. Despite how tired I am, though, the little creature is so cute and snuggly. And she likes to read and draw. I can't help but sympathize with her.

Which brings me to my question for those others with kids at home: what's your summer writing schedule like? I've been gone for two out of four weeks this month and I'm going to have to revise my June goals. I've finished only one chapter. I think I'll plan on doing just one more before June ends. July is full of end-of-school events, and then it's me and the four kids all day, every day. It's great that we can all be on the same schedule; that will help a lot, actually. But I've got to find a time of day when I'm not entertaining and I can write. What's reasonable? What's possible?

I have two projects I'm trying to work on at once, with not enough time in the day. I'm converting novel A from journal format to regular first person, as well as rearranging chapters/scenes a bit for a stronger flow. I like it, it's making the book stronger, but I'm also impatient to keep going on novel B. I want to take what I've learned and apply it to whole cloth. Have I mentioned that there just isn't enough time??

Little Cutie is not falling asleep, after all. Sigh. I might just have to stay up late again tonight to finish that second chapter.

I want

I want to hear back on the query + pages, on the partial, and on the two fulls I have out.

I want to finish my WIP so I can make it perfect and send out queries, while I still remember everything from the last research round.

I want to take a two-week field trip to that bookstore called Powell's in Portland, OR that I keep hearing about, and wallow in books in English.

Most of all, bookwise, I want to write something that will grab readers by the entrails and follow them around, crawling into their dreams, making their life feel empty when they've finished the book. A book that people can't help going back to, over and over, because they want to re-live it. Because they know there's something they missed the first time they visited. I want readers to fall in love with people from my mind and half-believe they could somehow, somewhere, be real.

I'm pretty sure none of those things are going to happen today. Sigh.