Going on Tour!
The last year and a half has been very good to me in terms of my writing. Actually -- when you get right down to it -- it's been good to me on all fronts. I feel truly blessed. On the other hand, I am also tuckered out. I had no idea how exhausting success could be.
Other more consistently-busy people might better withstand the hectic pace, but I'm accustommed to a good deal of down time between activities, and I'm just not getting it. My usual routine is to write a book, send it it out, and while it makes the round of rejections, I write something else. Eventually the first book gets picked up, I start sending out the second one, and begin writing a third. Throw some reviews and award nominations into the mix, as well as the occasional speaking engagement, and I'm happy. It's not exactly a whirlwind life, but it's comfortable and regular, and it works for me.
Lately, though, somebody has turned up the speed of my treadmill, and I am constantly on the run. Not only are the books I've written getting snapped up by various publishers -- setting me spinning on the editorial merry-go-round, but I find myself with contracts for books that have yet to be written. It's simultaneously wonderful and terrifying -- and exhausting. Did I mention the exhausting bit?
In addition, I've had several speaking engagements to prepare for and deliver, a couple of book launches to plan, a Manitoba book tour to arrange, and numerous other major non-writing related obligations to attend to. I'm so busy I don't have time to write anything that isn't actually already in the works. The music keeps playing, so I keep dancing.
Most of me knows this is a very good thing -- not to mention good for me, but the more laid-back part of me yearns for a few days in which I have to do absolutely nothing. I think it's called laziness. You see, I'm not so naive as to think that success comes without hard work. And I'm not afraid of work. It's just that I'm used to setting the pace. (My head is so full of things I have to do that this morning when I woke up, it took me a good thirty seconds to remember what day it was.)
And now the stakes have been raised again. Today I learned that my application to tour for TD Canadian Children's Book Week has been successful. I am one of the lucky writers, illustrators and performers who will be visiting schools and libraries somewhere in Canada in November of 2009. I am thrilled! I toured once before -- about five years ago -- and I know what a fabulous opportunity this is. I also know it is exhausting. (There's that word again.)
This is the part where I say, "I'm not complaining." And believe me, I'm not. I just wish I was better at keeping up. They say if you want something done, give the job to a busy person. I understand the logic, and I concur. But as my grandson, Brock, said when he was two and trying to keep up with his amazingly busy mother, "I need faster running shoes!"