For years, I’ve told people that I’m an extroverted introvert, and they’ve always looked at me like I was c-r-a-z-y! Well, it looks like I’m not crazy after all. It seems there is a new personality type called ambivert.

According to dictionary.com, the definition is as follows:

Mountain Man has been trying to convince me to get a Fitbit for over a year, but I didn’t want one until my daughter, my younger sister, and my niece-in-law all got one and started competing to see who could walk the most steps in a day. Being a very competitive person, I wanted to join in on the fun. I went and bought the Fitbit Charge HR this past Sunday night (the night before the 2016-2017 school year began).

I didn’t realize that the sleep tracker feature of the Charge HR would become more interesting to me than the concept of competing to get the most steps. (I’ve said many times in the past twenty years that there is no tired like start-of-the-school-year-teacher-tired…okay, in all fairness, new-mommy-tired does compare to start-of-the-school-year-tired, but unless you’re Michelle Duggar, you’re not likely to experience that tired feeling as many times as a teacher who teaches 20+ years.) As you can see, last night (Friday night) I was asleep well before 8:00 p.m. and I slept for over nine hours! I only woke up once, but I was restless twenty-six times.

This has gotten me to thinking about how I’ve beaten myself up for the past three school years (since I started seeking publication) when my writing productivity has dropped dramatically the first few weeks of the school year. This new sleep tracker has given me insight into the reason behind my feeling of exhaustion. Now, I just need to figure out how to reduce the number of “awake/restless” episodes each night. Then maybe, my writing won’t suffer as much.

In the meantime, I’m thankful for Saturday writing days.

I can’t believe that my summer break is almost over! The 2016-2017 school year begins one week from tomorrow. Where has my summer gone?

I had such grand plans to complete revisions on both of my manuscripts that have revision requests from editors, start a new manuscript, read at least two of the writing craft books sitting on my bookcase, and meet with a writer friend for a writing retreat.

Of these things, I’ve only completed one. Now, before you give me a hard time, you need to know that I have completed about half of the revisions on one of my manuscripts (after having to go back and undo some of the changes I made earlier in the summer because I didn’t like the direction the story was going) and ordered three more craft books to go on my bookcase (why is there not enough time in the day to write, and read, and take care of the thousand and one daily household chores?). The one thing I did accomplish was arranging a writing retreat with friends.

Honestly, if I’d been told at the beginning of summer that I had to pick one item on my list and it would be the only thing I completed all summer, I hope I would have had enough sense to pick the writing retreat. It was exactly what I needed to motivate me and get me back-on-track with my writing.

I don’t know how I was blessed with writing friends like these, but to have a friend who would fly (seven hours with layovers and delays) to meet me for two nights/three days to brainstorm/motivate/encourage, another friend who would drive forty-five minutes just to meet us, and an author friend who would graciously open her home to us for lunch and then take time out of her day the next day to meet us for dinner to discuss writing was beyond anything I could have hoped for. I was so blessed by my time with each of these three women. They encouraged me and prayed for me and my writing journey. I went home recharged and ready to tackle my revisions. As the saying goes, Life is Good!

So, this just happened! I won the Inspirational Romance category of the Wisconsin Fab Five writing contest! I’m so thankful for writing friends and mentors who push me to step outside my comfort zone and enter contests I wouldn’t normally enter.

You may be wondering, what are the benefits of entering contests? Well, I see two main benefits. First, it’s a great way to get unbiased feedback on your writing. Second, entering contests is an excellent way to get your work in front of an editor who might not have seen it otherwise. So, if you’re a writer and you’ve been “sitting on the fence” trying to decide if you should enter contests, I say go for it!