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This week: Combatting Holiday Madnesses Edited by: Fyn  
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Your best ideas, those eureka moments that turn the world upside down, seldom come when you're juggling emails, rushing to meet the 5 P.M. deadline or straining to make your voice heard in a high-stress meeting. They come when you're walking the dog, soaking in the bath or swinging in a hammock.~~Carl Honore
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.~~Pablo Picasso
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.~~Marcus Aurelius
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.~~Douglas Adams
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For me, this week is do or die. Books need to be at the printer. No ifs, ands or buts about it. That deadline is huge and looming and if I don't 'get it done' then I'm so dead! I see Thanksgiving week as a calm at the end of one wordstorm before the next deadlines hit...Thanksgiving...food, stuff, people, more food, etc. Then the annual Christmas party. House and tree decorated, some stuff wrapped looking pretty under the tree. Somewhere shy of a hundred people, more food, clean house (again) as well as the additional clean basement. Book orders come in, happy authors, book events, picking up more books and other publishing stuff that happens regardless of being buried otherwise. Two weeks after that is the influx of family, finishing shopping, finding places for eight people to sleep, cooking for sixteen, wrapping (oh dear, the Wrapping!!) and tons more cooking, traditions, craziness and fun. (FUN?) YES! Oh, and then there's all the wonderful fun of Writing.Com stuff that a)goes on, b)I'm always involved with and c) I'm dragged kicking and screaming (and giggling) into helping out with. No stress. Nope. Not a bit. (Uh huh!)
I am NOT, by any means the most organized person on the planet. Probably, I am somewhere near the bottom of the heap of disorganized souls. SOMEhow, I still always manage to get everything accomplished without losing my mind. (What there is of it!) My secret? Well, I try to get shopping stuff done early. (Food, supplies, stuff, gifts, etc.) Try being the operative word. Beyond and above that is teamwork here at home. Without it, well, I don't even want to think about it. The last thing, and BY FAR, the most important is just this: We laugh. We sing. We love and hug. We don't lose the reasons beneath the stresses that can pile up.
Took me a while to learn that little fact. Now, although I've tons to accomplish, more yet to do plus all the stuff (which at the moment I've not even thought about yet) that is remembered at the last minute, I will enjoy the next six weeks. I will love it, relish it, rehash it, and be a most happy (if a bit crazed) lil elf. My favorite time of year! I've learned that stressing about stuff does not get it accomplished any quicker or better. All it does is put a damper on my own enjoyment. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other, a snowball fight or three and it all gets done! This will happen in spite of time taken for impromptu visits, fireplace enjoyments, unscheduled catastrophies and whatever else comes my way.
Tears make your eyes red. Tempers make blood pressure rise. Fights...nope not in our house...total waste of energy. Hugs are pervasive! Hugs (at the right time) can cure almost any holiday screw-up. (Or at least give one time to regroup!)
I WILL NOT STRESS!!! HEAR ME? I.WILL.NOT! Yeah, I will. *grin* I just take a moment and a deep breath, have a cup of coffee, find a hug lying around and get it together so I can enjoy all the hustle and bustle, the family and friends, the anticipation of all that's coming one event at a time.
--two days after writing above. I was wishing for another month between now and Thanksgiving...stressing over no sleep and needing six pairs of hands and three 'mes' when someone in the house said..."I thought you refused to stress? That's what you wrote in your newsletter, didn't you?" Hmmm. Oh yeah, I did.  OK. Deep breath...OMMMMMM. Deep breath. OMMMMMMMM. Yeah, I can do this!  And if I can...you can too!
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Matt Bird MSci (Hons) AMRSC  says: I have to admit, I have committed to judging only to not have the time to do it. I should have known before hand. It isn't fair to the host or the contestants. Now I only ever judge my own contests which I only run when I have the time!
I love your diabolical prompt!
Thanks :)
Marci Missing Everyone writes:Awesome article! I also sit on both sides of the contest. I not only run the Thirteen Days of Halloween, but also NaPoWriMo and Hook to Book. It's very important that work is judged fairly. I have been a contestant in an endurance competition where it was extremely obvious that favoritism was shown. And in the same contest, I was judged on content instead of quality. I've found that when I write Christian work in these contests, it doesn't get judged as favorably as other pieces. So I totally agree with you on judging for quality instead of content. Thank you so much for highlighting my book of entries for endurance contests. Thanks again! Sincerely, Marci
Just a thought...even if it 'should' be an unnecessary one...this could be where writing for/to your audience comes into play. Getting to know various judges likes and dislikes. When entering a contest, your audience is the judges. Keeping that in the back of your mind can sometimes help.
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For Authors: November 18, 2015 Issue [#7328]
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