Thursday, January 24, 2013

I'm BAA-ACK!!! And 18 THINGS

I can't believe I've trudged my way back here. There were times I thought I might never make it. So a big WUZZ UP my friends!!! I have missed you so!

How can I miss you, but stay away, you ask? Weell, let me just tell you, it has to do with severe burn out. I've learned some things about myself this past month or two since I've been gone. I've learned that we are NOT all created equal.

I thought I could do it!

I thought I could do a massive GUTGAA blogfest, help with two others, go to Disney for Thanksgiving, beta read a manuscript, multiple query critiques, Christmas, shopping, travelling, New Years hoopla, kids school crap and a pretty large and in charge revision of my my own.

Yeah, not so much. I started to beat myself up over it. I mean some of you all do stuff like this on your lunch break, but *insert major sigh* I am not that person.

And I'm cool with that now. Just so you know I still love you all. You were in my thoughts constantly:)

Now that I am back, I want to give my buddy Jamie Ayers a major shout out!

TODAY IS THE RELEASE OF HER NEW BOOK!!!!
Don't you love that cover?!

To kick off this crazy cool day right, you can join in the 18 Things BOOK BOMB. Don't know what that is? Go HERE to check it out! I'm so totally excited for her! I wish her the best in so many ways!!!

You should totally go buy this book. I am! Here are the links:


Now for the big question. What's everyone been up to while I've been away? I would seriously love to hear and and ALL the news!

30 comments:

ilima said...

Welcome back Deana! We missed you. And what do you mean you can't do all those things? I thought you were a robot. No? :) <3

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Welcome back! I love the 18 Things book cover.

Jaye Robin Brown said...

Was wondering where you'd dropped off to? I think you are allowed GUTGAA burnout. That was intense!

Rachel Schieffelbein said...

Welcome back! We missed you, too, and are happy to see you again. :)If it makes you feel any better, I am so not one of those people, either. But the important stuff gets done, right? I mean, my kids are fed and stuff. ;)

Tasha Seegmiller said...

Welcome back! I can't do it all - I'm so so so so so aware of that. Don't beat yourself up, just do what you can do and enjoy the ride as much as possible :)

Wendy Lu said...

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Deana! That does sound like a ridiculous amount of things to do. O_O I think we all deserve a break every now and then. I try not to take on too much, but sometimes it can be easy to overestimate my ability to juggle multiple to-dos.

Anywho, congrats to your friend Jamie! The cover looks really cool.

In recent news, my blog is turning three years old in about a week. :) I'm having one of my favorite bloggers guest post as part of the celebration! So excited!

Have a great weekend!

~Wendy Lu

The Red Angel Blog

Emily R. King said...

Burn out is natural. I don't blame you for taking a hiatus. :) Welcome back!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Welcome back and very excited for Jamie!!!

alexia said...

Everybody's different, so don't sweat it! Glad to see you here. And yes, I've got 18 Things on my blog, too!

Krista McLaughlin said...

Welcome back! Sometimes we all just need a little vacation. It's easy to get burnt out. Taking a step back is nice!

Unknown said...

Welcome back. I've missed you! And congrats to Jamie!

I'm afraid you don't want to hear about the trauma I've been through the past two months, but I've moved again and I at least have a happy announcement to make on my blog on Feb 1.

Anonymous said...

Yahoo! Deana's in the house:-) So, so glad to have you back, but you are just one of those AWESOME people who could go away for a year and then pop up again and we'd totally never hold it against you and understand and celebrate your return! Thanks so much for picking 18 Things book release for your new post . . .I'm overwhelmed with joy right now! It's showing up on the hot new releases for paranormal fantasy at #3 and #9 for Coming of Age and I think it's up to #30 overall or something. I dunno--can't keep track and can't quite believe it. I keep crying-just so thankful for wonderful blogger buddies like you that helped me along the way~HUGS!!

Kimberly Gabriel said...

I sure as hell couldn't get all that done either Deanna! You deserved a nice long break! ;) Welcome back.

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Aurora Smith said...

Welcome back! That cover is so awesome.

Alexis Bass said...

I love that cover! Gorgeous!

amy kennedy said...

I'm always happy to get something in my in-box from you! And everyone gets it, sheesh! Yu've got a lot, a lot going on. And yay for Jamie! She's killing it. And I'm so excited to have her at my blog on the 5th of February! She's all kinds of sweetness, just like you!

Katie Slivensky said...

I totally understand taking a break! I'm also someone who just keeps taking on more tasks assuming I'll be fine, and then lo and behold, nope! My brain fizzles out and I often end up sick on top of it all, so I'm forced into a break kicking and screaming.

Anyway, I'm glad to see you're back! It'll be great seeing posts from you again.

Kristin Rae said...

Girlfriend you are a rockstar for tackling all of that! Here's to a more manageable 2013!

Congrats to Jamie! Very cool cover!

Carrie-Anne said...

Welcome back! You did a lot during your break.

I've started my second semester of grad school, my first full-time grad semester (last semester I only took one course, to test the waters). I won't have as much undivided writing time as before, but I'm approaching the 200,000-word mark in my WIP and so am a bit under halfway done already.

Unknown said...

So good to see you in my reading list on Blogger! Yes, we've missed you!! Hope you've recovered from your burnout. I too, have suffered a bit on that end. I'm not sure how some do it all either. Something always suffers with me, and I hate when it's the writing that suffers. My answer is back off of the social media stuff, but then I feel some say, "Well, she never visits me, so forget about her." Probably my imagination.

I thought you did a fabulous job at doing it all. :)

So, what have I been up to? Well, I found an agent! Yup, that's the best thing happening in my life right now.

Look forward to reconnecting!

Kelley Lynn said...

I always wondered how you did it girl. Amazing, seriously. Good for you for taking a bit of a break. Glad to have you back!

Laurie Dennison said...

I'm glad you're back, and you really deserve a break! Thank you so much for all that you do for this community! **hugs**

Bethany Crandell said...

Dude, the fact that you post twice in the same month is impressive to me. Put your feet up, pop a bottle, and relax...it's so good for your writer's soul.

That said, I so enjoy your posts and all that you do for the writing community. Also, Jamie's cover left a little drool stain on my shirt. YUM!

Martin Willoughby said...

I agree with you on burnout. I've had to do a clearout and step back from some things.

Donna K. Weaver said...

Um, yeah. I had to cut back, too. I'm glad you survived though. *hugs*

PK HREZO said...

Welcome back! Whew you sound like you had much on your plate. Isn't it funny how we seem to think we can take on so much?? I've a bad habit of doing that too then kicking myself. Ah, well, it all turns out well in the end. I did an announcement post back in December that I signed with my agent from the GUTGAA fest. So just remember that you're craziness was worthwhile. ;)

Stephsco said...

The GUTGAA contest was such a great thing for me. It yeilded a lot of agent requests for me--and subsequently, rejections, but almost every agent gave me a reason why, and that information was invaluable. So, thank you for all your efforts. I'm sorry you burned out on everything from last fall, but I appreciated all the efforts with the contest :) Glad to see you back in 2013!

T.J. said...

Happy to see you are back after a good break!

I started and almost finished a new WIP, became a copy/content editor, had a great holiday, won several contests and am still in the running over at Harper Voyager. Not bad for two months ;)

Unknown said...

Thanks to GUTGAA last year, I signed with Musa Publishing to publish A PLACE TO CALL THEIR OWN!