I grew up in a retailing family, and December was the time of most intense work; so that feels normal. As a writer/editor/critiquer/consultant, I've found that December is either madly busy or very quiet. People either want things finished by Christmas or they don't have time to get stuff to me until the first of the year. This is one of the busy years, which I prefer.
Writers often like to talk about what a hard line of work we're in: having to figure out how to make money and strive for immortal art at the same time. Once I heard writer Tim McLaurin respond on a panel to a comment about how hard the writing career is. He said, "Well, it is, and so is driving a Pepsi truck, which was what I was doing before."
I've come to think there aren't any smooth and easy lines of work. Which is why we need to keep the boldness muscles toned. As well as the keep-going, resilience muscles. Hats off to all those who are currently in the most intense period of the teaching semester.
Welcome to new regulars, Aimee Westbrook and Sue Ivy.
