Tuesday, September 4, 2007

T Minus Zero: Book Day

Happy September 4. For most people, this will be a day of trudging back to school or work. The light, fun summer is over, and it's time to get down to business.

For me, it means my book is due to my publisher. And rather than a frantic rush that I thought I'd feel at this moment, I'm calm and ready to take on the day (though after some sleep -- I'm writing this at midnight).

I worked most of Labor Day, doing one final read through and putting together all the things I'll need to ship off tomorrow. I stopped working around 11:30 pm, watched a bit of Letterman while enjoying a glass of wine (Cape May Table Wine, in fact) and a snack. Now I'll go to bed and hopefully get a good night's sleep before the morning push. I sometimes have a problem turning off my work brain so I can go to sleep, especially in the last few weeks leading up to this big deadline, but I'm feeling okay and think I should get at least six hours.

There are things to do, too many to list here, but I have no doubt that I'll make the deadline.

I bet September 5 is going to still carry that "my fun time is over" for a lot of people, the same way it does with September 4. Not me. After all the work I've poured into this book for the summer, September 5 will be my freedom day, my signal that the good times are about to begin. I'm not taking any substantial time off -- I've already got three assignments waiting for me -- but at least I'll be able to shut my computer down before dinner and not worry about what work I'll have to do that night.

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