Deadlines...

When deadlines loom, I may as well "eat" my coffee as drink it for all the sleep I miss and energy I need to make it to the finish line.

God's grace and mercy never cease to amaze me when I draw near the end of a manuscript. I always doubt myself, thinking I'll never make it, and truth is I probably wouldn't were it not for the strength the Lord ALWAYS provides me as I crawl toward that finish line.

Last night was one of those "night-before-the-exam" all-nighters. You remember them, don't you? The trouble is I'm about 44 years older than I was in college, so all-nighters aren't nearly as easy as they used to be - if they ever were easy, even as a youngster.

I just said to someone the other day, "I wish I would write just half as fast in the middle of my manuscripts as I do at the beginnings and ends. I would complete a book a whole lot faster if that were the case."

At any rate, this book I'm drawing very close to sending off to my editor with a looming deadline of March 1 is the first in a new series called "Tennessee Dreams", setting: Paris, Tennessee, 1890s. I'm excited about it, but I'll be even more excited once I pass that deadline date. But what am I thinking? After taking off a couple of days I'll be jumping into book two, and then after a September 1 deadline, jumping headlong into the third and probably final book with yet another deadline.

All I can say is - It's a good thing I'm still WILDLY crazy about writing. God gave me a passion for it, and so far, it hasn't let up.

(Yawn...now to get some sleep.)I love you all!