In high tradition of me, I took the week of Christmas off, and worked only half-time on the week of New Year’s. This was wonderful and terrible.

The glorious consequences:

*I experienced Plants vs. Zombies 2 on the iPad. For hours. The chicken zombies were particularly fearsome, but I slayed them all. Well, except in endless mode. (I may never get the theme song out of my head.)

*I played through the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, a video game based on a graphic novel with a story that plays like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. I am hooked. I want to write many such things, and see them come to life. Because it was awesome.

*I spent time with family and friends. This involved many board games, card games, and a rediscovery of my mad bridge skills. Also, conversation and cooking. My chicken parmesean recipe & homemade granola won Christmas. (Yes, perhaps, not a competition, but if it was, I totally won.)

*I completed much needed Boring Paperwork for the writing business.

*I cleaned out my office. (I’m looking at you, Leaning Tower of Random Paper to Sort. I have conquered you. Please do not return.)

*I did some planning & idea work on Super Secret Projects.

*I slept in. Every day.

*I cleaned the entire house.

*I learned that Ecco Domani Moscato is amazingness.

*And many amazing readers reached out to me to say how much they’ve enjoyed my books. It has been extraordinary. I’ve also gotten positive reviews, and two folks referenced my book(s) in their end of year lineups. (Tara Day https://bit.ly/1a54yrz and Fantasy Literature https://bit.ly/1ie33gi.) I am blown away and deeply honored by all of this. You guys are amazing.

But, of course, not everything can be glorious. There must be downsides and sadness to all great things as well.

The sad tragedy of the vacation:

*I got a total of 950 words written. (In two weeks. Very sad.)

*The internet ate my brain. This may or may not have had anything to do with the zombies game and reading comments on blogs. Holy crap, social controversy. And… wow, there were three logical fallacies in that two-line comment on that blog post there. Plus a character attack. My brain is deeply confused.

*It became Deeply, Horribly Cold. For days and days. My heating blanket and I have refused to be parted.

*I have discovered that tiny pet giraffes are an urban myth.

*My to-do list has procreated with itself while I walked away. The resultant budding has grown to the point where I Will Never Get Everything Done. This makes me sad. Also, email.

*And worst of all, in coming back to Book Four this week, my writing muscles are stiff and slow. They–and my poor internet-eaten brain–are stretching out only slowly. I am remembering why I rarely take such a long vacation.

*Also, I must now get up at a reasonable time.

 

And how about you, dear readers? How did your holiday vacation time go? Tell me of your tragedies and triumphs. Go.