Mish and Mash and Michael Di Gesu

First, the Business Things.
My apologies for this being so long. Not my intent; it just happened.

With all that goes into publishing two books in less than a year, my normally somewhat-organized self got lost. In her place was a crazy-acting woman who didn't know up from down most of the time.

I've had very little writing time, and my goal is to reclaim it.

As the A to Z neared its end, I made a list of everything I needed to do - both in real life and in writing life - to re-organize myself and get my life back together. If I told you how long the list was, you probably wouldn't believe me. I knew I didn't need to actually DO everything on the list to be back on track, but I did have to knock a whole lot of it down before I could regain control.

So I've worked for two weeks and I'm down to 19 items. A couple of those are long term, a couple are ongoing, and a couple involve multiple steps. God willing, by next Monday I will have a list I can manage.

In order to gain more writing time, I had to make a difficult decision to limit my blogging and other social media time. I will still be here. And there. But I'm only going to be visible for a fraction of the time I've been spending out and about chatting with everyone.

I know the writers among you understand. It's easy to be swept away by the bright shiny things we're exposed to every day. I crave more writing time, and I've already sacrificed elsewhere to get what I've had. I'll still be blogging on the same days. I'll still visit your blogs. I'll still comment on the Facebook things I see. I won't be scrolling as much. It may take me more than a few days to get to your blogs. But I will get there.

Together, we'll see how it shakes out. And I'm charging all of you with kicking my butt if you spot me socializing too much :) I expect I'll need your help to keep me on track. Especially at first.

Moving along...In March or April I made myself a note that said Mention Award on May 4. And another note, in a different notebook, that said Do Award Thing. I have no idea who presented what award(s)? to me. For that, I sincerely apologize. Also for not doing whatever it is I was supposed to do to accept. But congratulations to you on your awards.

Moving along again...Have any of you noticed that you never see my name on any Rafflecopter sign ups? Or wondered why I didn't use Rafflecopter on any of my giveaways? It's because Rafflecopter doesn't like me. Not me personally, because I understand there are others it doesn't like. But it won't let me do anything, and on the few occasions it does allow me to think it may work, nothing shows up. So, I just wanted to let you know I'm not trying to be ugly or indifferent or whatever. I just sigh when I see The Big R and move on. And I wanted to share that.

And now to the FUN STUFF!
Your reward for sticking with this tome.

I signed up for

Randi Lee's 3Ups! Blog Hop

You can read about it via the link. 

I'm supposed visit a blog and say three good things about the blog and/or the blogger. She emailed me the other day and said the blog I'm supposed to visit is Michael Di Gesu. I was so smiling! It doesn't get any easier than that.

• Michael is an angel. See, that's one thing already.
• He magically concocts the most amazing book introductions EVER! That's two.
• And he shares some of the awesome photographs he takes. Three!

Michael's caring for others comes through loud and clear on his blog. If you haven't visited him yet, what are you waiting for?


Finally, on this Memorial Day, please take a moment to remember those who have given their lives. Thank you.

All photos, except Michael's, via morguefile.com.