Some things take longer to learn than others. Like how to get my blog posts written before 12:30am the day it’s due. But hey, gotta leave something to work on later, eh?

In any case, I’m happy to announce that English Breakfast, the second in my tea-themed sweet romantic suspense series is now available in audiobook format! It’s a short story narrated by Wayne Messmer, so it’s only a little over an hour long, and perfect for a housecleaning session or a decent-sized commute.

You’ll find it available at Audible, Amazon and iTunes. Enjoy!

have been making some progress on paying more attention to what I *need* vs what I think I *should* do in certain situations, however. Like Sunday morning around 4am when I finally went to crawl in bed, and realized the electric blanket wasn’t on. I went through my little routine of turning it on and then standing there, freezing, trying to decide whether to crawl in or not, and then for once, I decided not to. Got my robe and my kindle and read in the living room for 20 minutes until the bed was at least warmer than it had been.

And I was very glad I’d waited – it was much easier to fall asleep with warm feet. Or maybe I was just 20 minutes more tired, and the warmer bed was a perk. I went to sleep in a better frame of mind than I would have otherwise, so it was worth it, either way. When I go to bed crabby, I wake up crabby. Go to bed happier, I wake up happier. Odd, but true.

Sunday night, I’d been wanting to crochet all day, but I got up really late (like 12:30pm late) so hadn’t found time with the household chores and prep for Monday, etc. I was trying to work on this post and a bunch of other things, and I kept thinking that I just wanted to work with yarn for a bit. My fingers were just itching for it. Finally I just put my laptop aside, got on the floor with the dogs and started a new project (that I won’t have enough yarn to finish, ironically). It’s all good though. It means I’m up incredibly late again trying to get this post done, but in a better frame of mind for the 45 minutes I spent playing with yarn.

I’ve also started keeping a journal (or two) again. Finding the time to write in them is a bit tricky, but as with everything, I’ll eventually find a way to work it into the regular schedule. It really does help though, getting things out of my head so they aren’t swirling around in there, distracting me from other things I need to be focusing on. Much healthier.

So basically, I’ve been listening more to what I *need*, and doing that instead of what I think I *should* do. Unfortunately, while it’s helping my attitude toward life on a day-to-day basis, it’s negatively affecting my sleeping habits. But that’s fixable…it just requires better planning. Story of my life…

I’m also redefining my goals at the moment as far as my writing/book business goes, and trying to figure out how to organize my schedule better both for the rest of this year, and next year as well. To that end, I’ve posted big calendars on my office door to keep track of important deadlines, as well as schedules to finish up drafts in progress. Whereas my main schedule/calendar is digital, the physical view of my schedule and goals is sometimes just more motivating. I expect that as I get my daily writing schedule pinned down better, and my long-term goals defined, a lot more things will pop up on those calendars as I plan ahead.

Except for November. The only thing in November is NaNoWriMo, and I’m keeping it that way.

Next year, I’m planning some serious changes to the way I approach my writing – and I think they’ll be for the better, both in terms of quantity and quality. So I’m kind of excited about it, but I need to get through the end of this year first, finishing everything I have outstanding so I can start with a clean slate in 2015.

And now I really need to get this posted and get some sleep. I hope if you’re an audio-book listener, you’ll check out English Breakfast – the narrator has done a truly fabulous job, and I’m very happy with the way this one turned out.

Either way, here’s to a great week!

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