Winter cleaning…is that a thing? Well, either way, that’s what I’m up to today.

It’s about one bazillion degrees below zero outside and I’m stuck home with a bad cold, so it seems an opportune time to get all caught up on writing life housekeeping. I’ve just finished sending stories back out to market that got the cold shoulder over the holidays and am now ready to face the more daunting task of organizing myself for the coming year.

I came up with several nifty ideas for stories while I was traveling last week, but they’re just ideas. Kernels. I need to sit down and think about how I might turn them into something that someone might want to read. You know, the really easy part.  😉

I’ve also got a writing retreat coming up in a few weeks. For the second year in a row, I’m taking part in a women’s only writing weekend in Las Vegas. Last year was both fun and incredibly productive (we spend the time writing, not critiquing) and I’m super excited for this year’s version to get underway. In addition to making travel plans, I also need to figure out what I want to work on during the retreat so as to maximize writing time and efficiency. Most probably this will entail a final push on the seemingly never-ending first draft of PROJECT AWESOME. But, I may also get wild and decide to spend the time focused on writing new short stories.

The other big task ahead is to revisit older projects, some completed but in need of overhaul and some just barely-fleshed outlines, and decide what I’ll work on this year, what I’ll shelve for later, and what I should shelve forever.

So, today looks about like this:

• Stay warm
• Get my writing life organized
• Drink lots of tea
• Blow my nose…a lot

How about you? What are you doing on this most ridiculously cold Tuesday?