Of clutter and escapes...

With a new release coming next week (STRESS RELIEF on April 17th; no cover yet or you know I'd post it), I should be going full-tilt into promo-mode – getting my name out there and letting readers know there soon will be another Diana Hunter novel for their enjoyment. And I will – just as I’ll let know people know I’m a finalist in the Best Writer category at the Bondage Awards (if you want to vote, you can, by the way. Just go here and scroll to ‘Best Writer’ and choose me from the drop-down menu. You can vote once a day).

But recently I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the crush of online information. For example, I like my Twitter account, but decided I really didn’t care what some people had for breakfast and so stopped following about a dozen people. I belonged to a list-serve for my day job that only seemed to clutter the email address I got just for them. The flaming and sometimes unprofessional attitudes only served to tick me off –and for what reason or to what avail? None. Bye-bye list serve!

The level of stress in my life has dropped dramatically this past week because, besides these actions, I’ve also unsubscribed from several lists I wasn’t really following anyway. I went no-mail on a bunch of others and added others to my RSS reader instead of getting the emails to further streamline my time. I truly feel so much less burdened. It isn’t that I don’t care about any of these topics, rather that I just am spread too thin and as a result, am not able to go deeply into any of them. My interest can only be superficial and time-consuming and that only leads to frustration. If it is true that, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” then I’m choosing to be blissfully ignorant of some issues regarding the state of publishing today, the machinations of educators who can’t be professional, and what people ate for which meal.

So what have I done with all this time? Believe it or not, I gave myself back nearly an hour a day. I’d like to say I’ve spent it writing a new book and next week, I promise, I will. But this week I went for a walk in one of my favorite worlds: Uru. Telling a story in a non-linear fashion has always fascinated me and the Myst series remains one of the most well-done examples of this budding genre. It was a wonderful escape and makes me long to write the fantasy I started a while back.

Which brought me to a decision: after I finish my current work-in-progress (which should be by the end of the month), I’m going into a world of my own creation for the summer. I’m immersing myself in a story that has been niggling at my brain for too long and is now insistent. At this point it’s a fantasy with erotic elements rather than a straight erotic romance, so who knows where it’ll end up once it’s done. But I’ll worry about that later. For right now, I’m planning to leave the real world behind and live in my imagination for a while.

And to think – authors are not only allowed to do this, but we’re encouraged to! I love being a writer!

So what about it? What are your favorite de-cluttering activities – and your favorite escapes?

Play safe,
Diana