Balls in the air, and balls to the wall

Okay, before you get too excited, this post is not about testicles. :) Perv.

It's about having a lot going on at once (like, you know, juggling so many balls at one time) and going all-out, full-speed ahead (aka balls to the wall). That second analogy has some interesting history. Most places I researched say it refers to fighter jets, when they slide their joystick/throttle lever into the fully open position, the knob at the top (ball) hits the wall. Clever, eh? And I thought "balls to the wall" meant the G-force kinda, you know... mashed a guy's junk. I feel so enlightened.

I find myself looking up phrases such as this all the time when I'm editing. Sometimes the author misspells a word, or uses a similar-sounding word in the metaphor, and I have to go looking to make sure I have the phrase right. For an interesting time, Google "raising Cain".

In any case, I seemingly have more time than ever to do my job(s) as Quickbookskeeper for hubby's business, editor, executive editor, and writer. But every week is just as busy as the last. That could be due in part to my enormously grown roster (I think I've added about 10 authors since this time last year). Also, I'm trying like heck to edit 2 books per month. Which means in a world where I'm all caught up (aka Imaginaryland), I'm reviewing 2 successful submissions per month, getting 2 authors per month started on their pre-edits, formatting 2, content editing 2, reviewing line edits for 2, building galleys for 2, correcting galleys for 2, and completing the final file formats for 2. Whew! Listing that out makes me tired. LOL

But it's part of my master plan, to be home where I'm more likely to have writing time. Did I write today? Well, a paltry 200 words, but hey. It's something. If I did that every weekday, it'd only take like a year and a half to write a full book, right? ;)

So, well, I went looking for a YouTube clip to embed here. Remember on the old Star Trek when they'd take off at Warp Speed, and crew would be tossed and thrashed around their stations? Yeah, that's what I wanted to embed. LOL But after dinking around for 10 minutes, I got nothin' (even tried for a clip of the Delorian from Back to the Future, but ended up watching some parody trailer for Brokeback to the Future. Not the best use of my time...And now I might have bad dreams about Marty and Doc getting it on). So use the imagination God and Willy Wonka gave you, and picture me slamming around in my office chair in front of my laptop, will ya?

Cause I'm taking this publishing career on... Warp Speed!

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Tubesday

In honor of a most lovely country tune I used for my Tune Trivia today on Facebook, I had to share an (almost) equally famous rendition of Tammy Wynette's classic: 



Have a great Tuesday.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

All I got today is...stomach flu. And it defiinitely sucks more than Mondays.
Doing it on a Monday is about as suckish as... I dunno. Quicksand?

Blech.

Good day to lay around and read submissions, I suppose.

Piper

You don't know what other people do with their time.

Soapbox moment here.

A certain someone who I follow on Twitter (and who often has informative and/or entertaining things to share) ruffled my feathers this morning, in a big way.

She's pretty proud because she's written 25k in 5 days, and expects to top 35k by day 7. Awesome. Really cool thing to share. Except she prefaces this pride by saying those people who don't have time to write simply don't make the time. Because, after all, she has a full time job and a blog. So don't tell "her" you don't have time to write.

Now, hold on here, Ms. Superpants. You have no idea what responsibilities other people take care of. Maybe they have kids. (doesn't sound like you do, since you're singing the anthem of singles everywhere, so proud of yourself for managing 1 whole fulltime job. *insert Welcome Back Kotter gang going "wooooooo!"*) Maybe they care for aging/ill family members. Maybe they--gasp--have more than 1 job, or maybe they go to school in addition to working. Perhaps they have health problems, or direct the local charity organization.

Yes, women--moms especially--are prone to putting their needs on the backburner, and often forfeiting their wants entirely. I have to make a conscious effort to claim my writing time, or it'd be taken over by cleaning bathrooms more often, mowing, painting the house, laundry, errands, you name it. I'm well aware some days I don't get time to write because of my own poor time management or lack of aggression in claiming the time. But I also know people with little kids, with businesses, with multiple jobs, with diseases like MS who impress the hell out of me when they turn out a chapter.

So in the end, I didn't unfollow Ms. Judgmental. Nor did I post a reply comment saying "You are far superior!" like I'd wanted. But it probably would've been worth it. :)

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy! --bragging is fun, judging is neither