Stacking Hats--How to Survive Crunch Times

TODO:

• WisRWA conference June 1-3--Board Meeting and two pitch sessions. NOTE: Must finish second draft of Alphas Don't Wear Bows and write pitch before May 31.
• Black Diamond Jinn--get up on Barnes and Noble. Schedule ads. Pull excerpts. Send out review copies? Need to research that.
• Biting Oz--final ARC returned, have approved excerpt and final Word file but not final books. Need to schedule posting of approved blurb and excerpts, not too early. Pull secondary excerpts. Parties scheduled, but need to prepare. Oh well, that's August. Must remember to blog on compilation of awesome editor Christa's brilliant edits. Waiting for final cover--remember to post on blog when received! Contact ad sites to determine lead times. Thank goodness Samhain takes care of sending out to reviewers.
• Newsletter! Almost forgot that. Not until August though, so there's a little time yet.
• Publish short story Oz Bites on Amazon and B&N. Hope it's faster and easier with experience. That's not until July.
• Camp NaNo--June. What would I do without Mrs pushing me to get fresh stuff written? Get bogged down in promo, probably. Writing Rocky's story (already started, is that allowed?), Biting Love Book 7. Must do preplanning. What? When???
• WisRWA--new task! Asked to moderate one of the workshops. Can I do that??

If you're an introvert like me, the above might look overwhelming. That's okay, normal, natural and nothing to be afraid of. It's because of a couple things.

1) Your stimulus-to-reaction brain path goes through an extra loop. You do more work for each and every task than an extrovert does!

2) If you're highly sensitive, which a lot of introverts are, you simply notice more. You have more inputs to deal with! So you look at the task list above and you see all the people in the crowds for the workshop and will you have to moderate questions, and and AND.

What's the secret of getting through this without freaking? I used a technique at my concert Saturday which worked wonders. I gave myself an hour of me-time before getting dressed in my concert blacks. And then I limited my field of input and concentrated ONLY on the task at hand.

That's right. Give yourself permission for me-time before (and after). And give yourself permission to filter out the world while you're doing something hard.

So today, I'm focusing completely on a few tasks. I'm working on this blog and another due next week at The Book Binge as part of a June Read-a-Thon (is that on my website News page?). After that I'll finish responding to emails and pull a Jinn excerpt for Blackraven Erotic Cafe for an Author Spotlight.

But no matter what, after lunch I'm working on Alphas. Nothing centers me like writing a good book :)