Instead...

...of the usual routine, I let some habits go this weekend to get whittle down a to-do list that was overtaking my time faster than Bryony grew on the Simons estate.

And while I do have some catching up to do on social media, I feel I made good of this past long weekend.

Some of it was work, but I feel, if not ahead, then at least not too far behind this morning.

Friday night I moderated a monthly fiction workshop a week early to help out the coordinator, who could not make next week.

I met with Colleen Robbins, my editor for the BryonySeries prequel Before the Blood for a couple of hours on Saturday morning and reviewed her notes and edits for the third installment.

Later that day, I incorporated many of her suggestions and did some rewriting to eliminate an overabundance (on some pages) of "was," were" and "had." This was not as easy as it sounded. The wording had to remain young and childish, as well as not change the meaning of the sentences (there is a grammatical reason for past participle as opposed to past tense).

I also began some of the formatting. This will take at least another weekend to finish since this book, and the two that will follow it, are significantly longer then the first two.

I also met with another member of WriteOn Joliet for my first calligraphy lesson.

I did some housework.

I caught up on personal phone calls.

I did some filing.

I did a little marketing.

I whittled down my AOL account "new mail" by nearly half. Three hundred more to go!

I saw a movie (Brave) that a friend had wanted me to watch with her for about six months.

The trade-off is I let some social media (limerick slam recap has been moved to this Saturday) and about half of my workout routine slide. 

But I'm resuming all of that today with a renewed sense of accomplishment.

Here's to a successful week - for you and for me! (raising coffee mug).

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."