The Very Bad No-Good Lousy Dunderheaded Idiot Blogger

I'm going to say that Cathy Pickens -- blogger below -- is a GOOD BLOGGER! She's on time. I'm belated. She's got ghost stories. I've only got quirky stories. (And aren't we all just a bit fed up with quirk? Speaking of quirky, I'm going to post the cover of MY HUSBAND'S SWEETHEARTS -- this cover just landed on my doorstep this week.)
But, why, oh why, am I late?
I'm not a drunk. I'm not hooked on prescription drugs -- though I've made a list of which ones I would get hooked on if I were the type. I'm not living a dual life with a family in Florida and another in, say, New Mexico. (But isn't that a man-thing. You don't hear of women living dual lives, having two widowers show up at a funeral, etc ... Because? Because it's a bit much holding one family together, much less two.)
I could be late due to the fact that I have four kids -- ages 13-1. But I've kind of used them as excuses for so very long it's worn thin -- for the disastrous housekeeping, for the disorganized tax receipts, for my embattled appearance.
But the truth is that it's three season here in one. A. the pre-pub season. I'm trying to nail down articles in glossies to time with the pub of MY HUSBAND'S SWEETHEARTS B. the deadline season. I handed in book two this winter and was told it was 100 pages short of a final draft. That book was shipped out yesterday night, late, but heftier. and C. the grad student season. I teach at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program, and, well, 'tis the season that grad students hand me their theses and dissertaions, weighty tomes, stacked miles high, and I must read them -- without blurring them -- and be able to speak of them lucidly -- which prompted the list, rank-ordered, of prescription drugs I'd most like to get hooked on if I were the type.
This is all I'm going to write -- and perhaps it stands as a glimpse into the chaotic life of a writer, which may be of use -- a warning? -- to others out there.
Now, go read Cathy Picken's blog! See below.

Julianna Baggott's fifth novel, MY HUSBAND'S SWEETHEARTS, will be published under a new not-so-secret pen name, Bridget Asher, in August. She's also published three collections of poetry and writes under the pen name N.E. Bode, novels for younger readers.