Outside Office

Panera needs to start charging me rent. I use two of their restaurants as my "office" when I'm away from home. I meet with clients, write articles, and totally abuse the free coffee refill privilege.

Why Panera? Free Wi-fi. I have to have e-mail and web access. Starbucks and Barnes & Nobles charge a monthly fee. Losers.  

These Panera workers have to wonder if I have a home. I'll come in on some mornings and work for a couple of hours, leave to attend an outside meeting for an hour, then come back and meet someone for coffee. That person will leave and 15 minutes later I'll be joined by someone else. I may spend up to 5 hours a day in a Panera. I wonder if it would be too much trouble to ask the counter help if they wouldn't mind acting as my admin assistants as well? "Ms. Harris is finishing a call but will be with you shortly. May I offer you some coffee? Yes? That will be $1.79, please."

 Some good news. That huge, monster project that spiraled out of control is finally done and the editor is thrilled with the end result. I'm thrilled just to have moved it off my plate. But it should be a great clip when it comes out in November--big cover story with glossy photos and lots of interviews.

I've accepted two new projects that promise to be time-consuming but a lot of fun. I'm not allowed to discuss one because I signed a confidentiality agreement, but it involves more dog writing and requires creativity and outside-the-box thinking and should provide a lot of laughs (when I'm not ripping my  hair out over deadlines).

Today and tomorrow are filled to the brim with work. However, the weather is supposed to turn cold and miserable which is always kind of fun for the first few days. It's the novelty of moving from warm weather to being snuggled up in sweaters and sipping warm drinks and working as cold winds blow outside.

RUNNING UPDATE: 7 miles in 70 minutes yesterday. Took advantage of the beautiful evening and had a great run. My running partner is signed up to run a 1/2 marathon this weekend in the 40 degree weather. Thank you, no. I'll be on the treadmill. 

Unfinished Business

Blair and I had breakfast on Sunday with a couple we're good friends with whose schedule mirrors ours in terms of sheer chaos.  The discussion turned to long-term planning and as a group, we all laughed aloud. Long term planning? It's a race to get through each day and get done what absolutely, positively has to be done that day. Who has time for long-term planning?

And yet without it, life stagnates and you  find yourself in a whirling circle, chasing your own tail but never moving forward.  I'll take the time now and again to write out some long-range goals or dreams and the steps to take me there and sometimes I'll follow the plan, but more typical is that the project of the moment rears its head and I turn my attention and energies to that instead. (And there is always a new project or issue rearing its head).

I'm not sure what the answer is. Blair and I are "watching" life at the moment to see if this has just been an unusually full two months or if the pattern of only seeing each other 20 minutes a day is more of a permanent issue that needs addressed.  What do you do if it is a problem? Work less? Turn down work? I have that option but Blair doesn't.  And since I like my work and only take on projects that interest me, I'm not sure turning down work is the answer.

 I have disengaged myself from several groups which I'm hoping will clear time. I've dropped 2 writers groups and Dale Carnegie ends in 4 weeks so that will free up Tuesday nights as well.  Leaving the writers groups not only frees up drive time and meeting time but also the time required to do the prep work to be ready to meet with the group. The trick now is not to take on anything new.

If I ever do clear some free time, here are a few projects I'd like to see completed: 

• Update my website - Need to add new book cover, new book page, new headshot photos, possibly overhaul the entire site and lose the maniac kitty-cat at the typewriter or at least move him back to a humor or pets page.
• Wash windows. We have 42 windows, each 16-paned, so this is no small task. But I love looking out sparkling clean windows and ours are approaching the point where the cats are going to start writing "WASH ME" in the dirt.
  
• Hang pictures.  We managed to have them framed, now need to find a home for them.
• Paint the exercise room. The exercise room has the same duck (yes, duck) border it had when we moved in and I've been ready to make it go away for years. However, that means scraping wallpaper, moving heavy exercise equipment, and a large time investment.
  
• Re-polyurethane the wood floors.  Not something I'm looking forward to. I've avoided it for 11 years and I hate to ruin such a strong record.
• Decorate for Halloween. This includes set building as we are "the" house for trick-or-treaters. We do themes every year and now have a reputation we feel obliged to live up to as being the "cool" house on the block--at least at Halloween. We're thinking of building a bridge and doing the Headless Horseman theme this year.
  
• Pull out winter clothes and pack summer clothes away. Once I get cold enough, I'll do this.
• Play more with the cats.  The guilt increases as I too often ignore them.
• Spend more time with Blair. (Goes without saying)
• Finish final draft work on public speaking book and get to critique group.
• Organize scrapbook. The papers and souvenirs from England/Scotland remain piled in a bag, crying to be sorted out.
• Visit friends. A close friend of mine moved back to Durham from DC almost 4 months ago and I haven't been able to find a weekend yet when I'm free to go see her.

There's a host of other things but I'm feeling slightly nauseas just looking at this list, so we'll leave it alone. Although, I'm a bit encouraged too. This was the first morning in months that I didn't have to be up at 5 AM. I slept in until 6 and it was heavenly. Since the festival was rained out this weekend, I got the house cleaned and we completed a few household tasks we'd been putting off. Had breakfast with friends on Sunday. Went for a 50-minute run yesterday. Am meeting friends for dinner before Dale Carnegie today.

I almost feel like I have an actual life going on again. 

Lovely. 

Awards

Each year the international Cat Writers Association (That's right--there are a lot of us. Be very afraid.) holds a writers conference and awards ceremony. I received notice in the mail yesterday that I'll be receiving "Certificate of Excellence" awards in the 3 categories I applied in: humor, column writing, and gift book.

The Certificate is the first step. Each category is judged by 3-5 judges and a point system is awarded. On a 100-point scale, you must earn 90 points or higher to receive the Certificate. The real award though, is called the Muse Medallion.  Let's say there are 3 certificate winners in a category. Those 3 will then compete against one another for the top award, which is the Medallion. I've won several Certificates of Excellence over the years but still haven't snagged a Medallion. 

I can almost guarantee I won't receive a Medallion for my book. I'm up against Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul and I (rightfully) don't see me beating that book.  Maybe for humor or for my column, which is also a humor column.

The one thing I've noticed with humor writing is that when in the same category against "reporting" or a "tear-jerker," it tends to get overlooked. I've talked about this with many humor writers at various conferences. Many of them complain that it's because people think writing humor is easy or anyone can do it, which is far from true. Humor writing is some of the hardest writing there is to do.

I think human nature comes into play. If you're looking at two columns and one is about rescuing a feral cat from a life of neglect and one is a humor piece about wiping a cat's butt, I think people would feel guilty "ignoring" the hard story in favor of the fun one. It doesn't mean the humor piece any less well-written, but I do understand why it's harder for people to select the humor articles as the winner. 

Anyway, it's still fun seeing who wins what. And the conference is held in conjunction with the Cat Fanciers annual cat show and that is a sight to behold. A coliseum full of felines--I'm in heaven. I'll do a book signing along with several other cat writers from our group. I was excited about the signing last year, thinking, "A cat show! What better place to sell cat books?"

Actually, it's a horrible place to sell cat books. That's because there are aisles and aisles and aisles of people selling nothing but cat crap - books, toys, food, furniture, jewelry, clothing, and on and on and on. It's so overwhelming that everything tends to just blend into one another and not a lot gets sold.

Besides, I've learned that people who own cats aren't the ones who buy my book.  People who have spouses, friends or relatives that own cats tend to be the people who buy my book as a gift for their friends.

Speaking of cats, there is a little feline face staring up at me now, wondering why I'm pounding away on keys instead of petting her. Good question. 

Headshots

I have spent the last 3 evenings staring at my face. 130 images of my face, to be more precise. And it wasn't enough that I do it. I have forced family and friends to spend their free time staring at my mug as well.

My headshot photos are in. As a whole, I'm exceptionally pleased.  Out of 130 pictures we discarded half right off the bat. We narrowed it down to a broad 30 that were "maybe's" and then sent the photos out for feedback. We entered the responses in an Excel spreadsheet so we could track who liked what and where there was consensus (sometimes having a CPA for a husband really works to your advantage).  

We got it down to a final 12 and it was hard to pick from there, but I went with 4 that I'm pleased with. The only thing missing is that most of the shots are casual. I was hoping for one strictly business shot but those photos didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. Not the fault of the photographer, who was brilliant and who I HIGHLY recommend. No, I just didn't wear enough jewelry with the business outfit I chose and the result was that I looked kind of "incomplete." No harm done, as I still really like what I have. 

The photographer, btw, is Stacey Hines at staceyhines.com. She's from Nova Scotia and is settled now in Greensboro but still travels extensively for her work.  Exceptionally friendly and professional and did a wonderful job putting me at ease. I will use her for all my photo needs from now on.

I've just ordered the photos so I'll post them once they are mine to post.  Many thanks to those of you who looked through the photos without complaint!