Taking Time For Myself In Between Books

Elizabeth Black writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica, erotic romance, and dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, and three cats. Visit her web site, her Facebook page, and her Amazon Author Page.

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Mid-winter, I decided to stop writing and look for an agent. I've recently finished sending out agent queries for one of my erotic novels. That's nearly 70 queries in about a month. So far, no takers, but I have plenty of time to hear back from anyone who may be interested. I'm remaining hopeful that someone will want to represent me.

In the meantime, the mountains of snow here in Massachusetts have finally melted (for the most part), and spring has sprung. I can see out the windows for the first time in several months. When the piles of snow covered the ground, I couldn't see outside because the snow had piled several feet high, covering the windows completely. The cats were beside themselves with boredom not being able to see outside to see what creatures may have been running by in the middle of the night. Here's what the view from outside my apartment complex looked like. I live on the ground floor. The snow holed me inside for three months.

Now that I have finished my agent search for the time being, I've taken some time off. It's a good thing I have no urgent deadlines ahead of me. I can take a break. I'm not quite ready to begin writing again. I don't feel like it. When I do get back in the groove, I will work in increasing the word count in "Full Moon Fever", my bisexual ménage werewolf shifter book. It's at novella length now. I need to increase it to novel length and develop the characters a bit more. Then, I'll start the agent query process all over again. Déjà vu and back again.

So to recharge my brain so that I feel like writing again, I've taken to walking on the beaches near my home nearly every morning, weather and time permitting. The beach is mostly deserted save for a few couples or individuals walking their dogs. The weather is brisk so I still need to wear a sweater and sweat pants. It's not shorts weather yet. Here is the beach I walk on in the spring – Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

After May 15, I begin walking on Long Beach in Rockport, Massachusetts. I live in Rockport, so I take advantage of my beach parking sticker I get for the car every year. I can't park in the lot of Gloucester beaches during the summer because I'm not a resident, and I don't want to pay $100 for an out-of-towner sticker that I'd use for only two or three months.  This is Long Beach.

So, for the time being, I'm in rest mode. I'm not writing. I'm not promoting. I'm barely on Facebook and Twitter, and I like it that way. Frankly, Facebook has been depressing as hell lately. I've seen too much political bickering regardless of political affiliation. I don't want to see another picture of an abused kitten or a heartless, grinning hunter who gunned down a giraffe for sport. Everyone is getting sick or upset. I don't want to read more about Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies, and if you follow science fiction, fantasy, and the Hugo Awards you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, Google it. The awards have been gamed much the same way you can game the Preditors and Editors Poll Awards. So rather than see all this crap, I've been walking on the beach, watching movies, reading the "Game Of Thrones" books (which I will probably be reading until the U. S. has a new President, LOL Those books take forever to get through.), and cooking. It's good to take a break and replenish your energy coffers every so often. I highly recommend it. When I'm ready, I'll begin work on "Full Moon Fever". Until then, I play in the sand and surf.