Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much much better.

We finished the book! It was kind of a tough few days there at the end. I even took last Friday off from work so I could try to get it as finished as possible. I’m pretty satisified with it right now, and not embarrassed to send it off to the publisher in its current state.

Next step: they look at it, make edits, and send it back to us for approval. I’m kind of apprehensive about that part. What if they completely change it? I mean, I think it’s pretty good the way it is right now. I’m not arrogant enough to think that it can’t be improved (or shouldn’t be), but I do think that we worked hard and did a good job.

Now I’m finding that I don’t know what to do with myself in my free time. For the last month, I’ve taken either a printed manuscript or the Powerbook to lunch with me every day and worked on it there, then worked on it at the train station while waiting to pick up Doc, then worked for several hours at home each evening. Now that it’s gone off to the publisher… um, shouldn’t I be furiously doing something productive? Doc keeps telling me to relax, but it’s hard. Last night, though, I fell asleep on the couch about 9:45 and, with the exception of trudging upstairs a few hours later, slept completely through until morning. I feel pretty energized today, so I guess it did me some good.

But I still felt guilty about “wasting” a whole evening without working on something. I could be starting another quilt, or starting back up with painting, or building the wooden portfolio case I want to build, or updating this website, or redesigning this website, or digging into my backlog of scifi novels, or backing up my computer files, or cleaning the house, or… um… you see what I mean? Too much stuff I want to do, and not enough energy.

Perhaps I should go somewhere to get my energy centered, or locate my missing chi… Har! That damn chi, always escaping my body and going out partying without me. [Don’t get me wrong, I think that some new agey stuff and Eastern medicine works just as well or better than Western medicine; it’s just that there are enough legitimately crackpot people out there talking about it to give it an unfortunate reputation.]