How do you do it?

I'm having a difficult time trying to balance blogging, tweeting, working on my book, my volunteer work and my job.  So many people seem to have managed a system to be able to balance these parts of their lives. I just feel like I'm shorting myself on the quality of everything I am doing outside of work.

 If anyone could share their recommendations I'd really appreciate it!

Celebrating, Celtic-American Style

I've been working on this project for 6 years.  This last stage is killing me - I see the finish line but I can't reach it.  So now it's time for re-energizing, and I have a couple of things in mind.

First and foremost, this weekend marks my 38th birthday.  To celebrate my birthday, I am going to the Worcester Irish Music Festival and the Rhode Island Scottish Heritage Festival. (I'm also going to a friend's college graduation party - no rest for the wicked!)

I figure, what better way to get pumped up about Celtic culture than by surrounding myself with awesome Irish and Scottish music and games!

I'm also parsing out my social networking, and trying to separate work from my writing.  This is slightly complicated by the fact that my career is actually in publishing, but just a different type than fiction.

Now back to my fiction. I'm up to 63,000 words on the manuscript.  At 75,000 (the est size of a fiction novel) I will stop futzing with it and start trying to find an agent.  If I don't set an endpoint, I'm afraid I wont be able to stop myself from perpetually revising and developing characters/scenes.

If anyone knows of additional celtic cultural events in New England, New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania - please let me know.  I'm ready to keep on celebrating!