Instead...

One of my favorite weekend pastimes is writing fiction.

This weekend, after coming off an intense mental workout where work writing was concerned, I gave my mind a break.

So instead of writing fiction, I chose to

* Read a book and a half

* Get a badly needed trim for my hair

* Format a book

* Watch an Asian drama with Rebekah

* Catch up on some miscellaneous marketing for WriteOn Joliet

* Catch up on some miscellaneous (non-writing) work for the BryonySeries with Rebekah

* Walk and work out

* Run a few errands

* Take a ride to New Lenox with Daniel for video, photos, and a couple quick interviews

* Read through some of last week's writing for two novels in progress (because I couldn't stay away completely, ha ha).

What about you? How was your weekend?

Quiet Moments and Mini Vacations

Although much is written recently about"down time" and treating weekend like "mini vacations," many people feel they work more and longer hours than people in the past did.

I'm not certain people actually do.

My father, for example, even before he owned his own business, had many nights where he came home for dinner, showered, and went right back out to a meeting.

On weekends, after perhaps a Saturday morning (or longer) at the office, especially after he did own the firm, he did yard work or other projects around the house. In fact, he had enough yard work to spend both Saturday and Sunday afternoon with it.

On many Sundays, he also served as a reader (St. Bernard's, Joliet).

If one goes back further than that, even the literature for children from the nineteenth and early twentieth century doesn't show adults with lots of down time.

In fact, my mother said my dad once told her (and she wasn't happy about it), that even when his mother was sitting, she was always doing something (i.e. darning socks, etc). Think of the days when the family sat in the parlor in the evenings, polishing boots or engaged in needlework while someone read.

So the fact many of us find work extending into evenings and weekends is nothing new.

What's new, or fairly new-ish, is that we've forgotten to pause.

And notice.

And maybe even admire.

An example: In the late 1850s, the French painter Jean-François Millet created an oil painting of two weary peasants in a potato field, heads bowed in prayer.

In many Catholic countries, the ringing of the church bells reminded people to stop their activities and pray the Angelus. When I attended St. Bernard's as a young child, we actually took a break during the school day to pray this prayer, with one of the Sisters reciting the first part and the students saying the response.

The water cooler cliche may have been less about quenching thirst and catching up on gossip.

Our jobs may no longer fit neatly into the post-World War II model of forty hours a week with weekends off for fun and leisure.

But (hopefully) all of us have the power to stop and breathe.

Heck, even the medical literature says we should get up and move around every hour or so to cut the risk of diabetes and heart disease (for those of us at desk jobs).

It's not always possible, I know. And, for me, I also like the relaxing feeling of finally stopping after running mental (or writing) marathons.

We don't need to duck under a tree and sleep. Slow and steady may indeed run the race.

But we can still take time for a drink of water and to bask.

Illustration by Christopher Gleason for "Staked!" Follow him at www.artworkbytopher.com.

White Space

According to Merriam-Webster: the areas of a page without print or pictures.

Essential to art to see the work.

Essential to writing to hear the words.

Essential for creativity and clearing the mind.

Essential to life.

A Writing Break (Of Sorts)

To be clear: I don't think writers ever completely take a break from writing. Our minds are always absorbing and creating.

But starting in September and continuing almost until Christmas, the amount of features work I compile and manage rises A LOT, mostly because of the extra community events that need processing in The Herald-News in some way.

While doing all the holiday stuff one does during this time. Especially, but not exclusively, when one has a family, etc.

This means I shelve quite a bit of non-timely work.

It also means an increased need to exercise my creative side. And I've truly had a productive few months.

So for the next couple of weeks, I need to address the items on the overflowing virtual shelves. And while our managing editor is on vacation, and our associate editor is assuming his duties, I'm assuming some of hers.

And the holidays aren't quite over. At least not for moi and mine.

I'm also the weekend/holiday editor for New Year's Eve and beyond. So I won't have another day off until Jan. 6.

But it's all good.

I'm catching up, and I'm looking forward to returning to Before the Blood with renewed energy and a fresh perspective, especially since my current chapter took off in a direction I hadn't anticipated before it sucked me in.

Oh, and I still need some time for fix the formatting errors in Cornell Dyer and the Missing Tombstone. And I have an event in January. And I have some photos to take for next year's Bertrand the Mouse Christmas story.

See what I mean?