The Soul's Holiday

Solitude is the soul's holiday, an opportunity to stop doing for others and to surprise and delight ourselves instead ~ Katrina Kenison

In December, and sometimes spilling over into January, I like to reflect upon the previous year and develop my goals for the next year.  Sometimes I do surprise myself.

Since January 2, I have been self-editing my second manuscript, Disappear with Me.  My surprise for myself is that I think I'm going pursue it and put A Place to Call Their Own away for a little bit.  It needs some work and I've worked with those characters and their story for five years now.  I think it's time to put them away, focus on Disappear With Me, which is a better story and better written.  Then I'll come back to A Place to Call Their Own and help that story along.

I've resisted this all year long.  A Place to Call Their Own is a simpler story, like most first novels.  Because I wrote it first, I wanted it to be published first.  Then my readers could see the improvement in my writing.  By publishing Disappear With Me first, I am setting some higher expectations for myself and others.  This is very scary for me.  But it's step in the "write" direction for my publishing career at this time.

When you have surprised or delighted yourself lately?  I'd love to hear!