Interview Queen

I dub today, "Interview Day."  I conducted a 10 AM interview with a jewelry artist for an upcoming article in Art Jewelry magazine on "How to Sell Your Work to Galleries."  (Still searching for a snazzier title...feel free to e-mail me ideas!).  Then I was interviewed at 11:40 by Mike Moore of WLOE/WMYN about my book. Unbelievable, but I forgot to mention my book launch this Thursday.  (Note to self:  Never, never interview from now on without notes).  Then I have a 1 PM interview with a NY literary agent for a piece I'm working on for Writer's Digest 2006 annual Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.  I've got 2 interviews scheduled for tomorrow for various works in progress, and one more on Friday.  For someone who prefers not to talk to people, I seem to be out there this week.

I'm focusing on not stressing myself out to the point of incapacity.  I have so much due this month.  Two unexpected but really good projects presented themselves, but they're both large, and they both have tight deadlines.  This wouldn't be a problem except I let some work slide last month, thinking I had all this month to work on them.  Not smart.  Procrastination is a bad, bad thing.

I was so stressed yesterday, I couldn't calm down for almost an hour.  Blair and I took a walk and about 10 minutes into it he asked, "Are you feeling better?"  "No," I answered, and picked up the pace.  I got some work done and then we drove into town for lunch and to do grocery shopping.   I was highly critical of our waitress for wasting time (bread not on the table, didn't take our order when she brought our drinks and we had to wait for our check).  I kept watching the clock, thinking how much all these little delays were setting me back and that I shouldn't have gone in the first place.

I don't want to be that sort of person.  I am not a "live in the moment" person but I really would like to be.  I used to be religious about meditating for 15-20 minutes every morning and I found that made a huge difference in my concentration and peace level.  I need to start it again but I'm not following through with the commitment.  I'll do it for a day or two, then I'll allow something to come up and I won't do it.  The key, for me, is to mediate at the same time every day. That way, it's something my mind and body start to adjust and look forward to.  I'll  have to pick either a super early AM time or late at night though, because my schedule varies so much from day to day, I don't think I could ever pick a time like "9 AM" and have it stick.

No time like the present, right?  I've got 30 minutes until my next interview, so perhaps I'll grab a cat and just sit quietly and breath.

Oh!  Speaking of cats, please say a prayer for Spike.  He's our neighbor's cat who we adore and our neighbor called this morning to say he's been missing for several days.  We're worried he got locked up in a shed by accident.  But he's a beautiful, friendly, funny cat and I'm nuts about him.