If someone can explain this phenomenon to me, I’m all ears. You take one day off, but need three to catch up.

Last week, I got hit by The Cold. It’s been making the rounds, and after years of not being sick enough to avoid work, it finally happened. I wound up taking two days off. (Discovered that the people at Rite Aid who didn’t want to take my money were actually doing me a favor, too, but that’s a story for my buddy the Green Grandma.)

Now, the good part of all this is that I haven’t been slammed with post-NaNo requests for edits. In years past, I’ve had authors lining up with their NaNo winners, eager and thinking they’re ready for my red ink to decorate their pages. “Have you revised until you’re as far as you can go?” I often ask. “Have you used beta readers?”

The answer is usually no. So I encourage them to go through that and come back.

It’s probably not coincidence that dates for January and beyond are starting to fill up, is it?

I think the timing’s pretty fortunate. I can only take one more project this year (wow), and having been sick for two whole days… wow. Two days. Sounds like nothing, doesn’t it? And even though I’m still fighting whatever I did to my neck while I was sick, I’m also still fighting my inbox and the other business-type things I need to do.

That means I’m oddly grateful for the quiet. It hopefully means I’ll catch up on all this stuff. And yes, I’m still writing. I wrote both days I was sick, although my word count wasn’t great. You’re going to like the new stuff, I promise, so get ready. Total switch in what I’ve written up to this point; you may not even recognize it as coming from the same author.

For you: Keep writing, too. I aim for 1100-1400 words on this manuscript; it seems to be what it demands from me. Find your own manuscript’s demands and meet them. Revise. Use your betas. And remember to get on my calendar before it fills and you have to wait longer than you’d like.