We’re now fully settled into January. The thermometer is hovering around the single digits at night. The Christmas decorations are finally put away. I’m still waiting on word of a contract as I plunge on into the middle of THE WEDDING TREE.

I thought while I was not on deadline, it might be a good time to take advantage of my long wish to take a Margie Lawson writing course online. No matter how competent a writer is, s/he can always improve, right? I’ve attended a couple of her classes at ACFW conferences, but it was obvious to me that the content of a month-long course could only be touched upon in 2 hours or even an all-day conference, so it would be good if I could take the courses in their entirety online.

Being published since 1987, I think I’ve conquered some of the self-defeating behaviors, but I still battle with procrastination and pessimism–the latter is probably a worse handicap after you’ve been around in this business for awhile and received some disappointments. The former has more to do with all the distractions the internet provides. I used to write on an old computer that could no longer access the internet after a lightning strike. Now, there’s always the tendency to go online with the idea that there might be a letter waiting for me from my agent, and an hour later, I’m still reading email. Or I might need to look up some fact, and two hours later I’m still chasing cyber-rabbit trails, and my time is gone.

Today I’m doing pretty well in my self-discipline. I’ve stayed off the internet and completed Chapter 11, and now I’m blogging. My goal is to write at least 5 days a week, at least 2 hours each, and to blog at least 3 times a week. We’ll see how it goes. I’m off to a good start.

And for those who might be wondering how New Year’s Eve turned out, I predicted the exact number of trauma alerts–20. And the next day the Buckeyes beat the Oregon Ducks–YAY!

Blessings, Laurie