From the Hermit Hovel

Hi! My name is Allure Van Sanz! Remember me? I used to be an active participant in this blog and others. I used to comment, run contests, see how many tweets I could get out in a day--and I used to be on Facebook 24/7. Yeah! *That* Allure Van Sanz.

LOL These days it feels like I'm an unknown to my friends, and if that's the case, what does that say for my chances at making new friends and fans.

But the reason I'm never around these days is because of how busy I am! I'm a social network/Internet hermit, true. I'm in my own little area, popping out only to say that I'm still alive in a tweet or on FB.

In the "real world", though, I'm becoming more productive.

Why?

I found myself spending so much time doing contests, giveaways, and blogs--I ran out of books to give out. I ran out of blog topics to speak about. I ran out of new readers to give freebies to. LOL

So I developed a schedule. ::gasp!:: I know! Who would've thought AyVee would ever go schedule. Well, I had to. I lacked discipline, and what's a writer without a book? Other than...not a writer? Ha!

Once you write a book and see it out there on the shelf or in cyber space where people pay to see what you created--you're an author. But in my eyes, you're not a true author if you throw out a couple of books and quit. You're a hobbyist. And I saw myself headed down that path. Sure, I had ideas, but unless I was going to learn how to play guitar and head down to the local Bohemian tavern to talk the stories out to the audience while I strummed--well, I needed to get my ass back behind the computer screen. Out of FB-Tweet-Blog-ville and into--what is commonly known as--the writer's cave.

Having a kidlet, too, (only child) who is of the age where she needs to learn to swim, bike, skate and socialize--I realized I didn't have the luxury to social-network my butt off all day then throw in some words between tweets. That would leave me about a half-hour to spend with the munchkin before the sun went down.

It just wasn't happening.

The fix? Yup--that schedule thing I was talking about. "Allure are you there?" "You okay, Allure? Haven't seen you in a while." I wish I could explain how awesome it is to know people actually notice when you go MIA and stop commenting, stop appearing. It's seriously, one of the best feelings in the world. I hate making people worry or wonder what's wrong with me, so I thought I'd share my schedule for those interested. (And it gave me a blog topic. ::grins:: )


Now, Mon-Fri, I:

- wake up and force myself to do my workout (formerly, I used to do it when I got around to it)

- take a shower, dress, feed the daughter and the dog.

- head to the library for two hours of uninterrupted romping with my laptop and newest WIP. (Lately, it's Savor the Kill--sequel to Murder Creek.)

- get home in enough time to kick the kid outside for some vitamin D and neighbor pummeling while I do some sort of housework (whichever part of the house is starting to look like an episode of Hoarders)

- get dinner started and check my 5 email accounts for good and bad news. (I still have a YA on Submission and fan emails are always good news ;-) )

- after dinner, teach the munchkin how to ride a bike, swim or skate (which usually backfires into an episode of "let's just go feed the ducks", but quality time is quality time)

- at night I put the angel to bed and flip through some TV stations while pulling up Facebook and Twitter and my blog so I can state the obvious. (I wrote today! #amwriting)

- realize I still don't have anything to promote or to 'yay' about, so I poke a few friends, try to atta-girl or atta-boy a few deserving peers and fall asleep so I can get more words done the next day--and maybe, just maybe get out of this writing Hermit Hovel with a shiny new book soon.

Sat-Sun:

- All Daughter! Except for Sunday nights where I try to respond to Six Sentence Sunday posts from awesome authors who post their snippets. And every other Saturday morning where I throw garage sales. ;-)


There you have it! Why I'm in the Hermit Hovel. I miss you all, and hope to be back to bugging everyone very soon.

Enjoy your summer all.