Christmas and New Year - traditionally that time when everything stops, people here go to the beach or on holiday somewhere, spend time with family (or avoid them), and generally laze around. I managed to do nearly all those things. 10 days away in Tasmania (island state of Australia off south coast of Victoria) which included husband's family, a little touring around, a lot of food and wine, and a huge amount of sitting outside on the verandah (patio to you in the US) gazing at the Tamar River.
But all that downtime on the brain gave the cells a real rest and I managed to then spend many hours working on the pirate novel. Mostly fine editing/fine tuning but I had a rethink about the main character's arc and have rewritten little bits here and there that I think strengthen the story more.
I read lots of books - Sue Grafton's new one (S is for Silence), a Kathy Reichs I'd missed, and a historical mg novel called "Powder Monkey" which is set on a Royal Navy frigate in 1800. I was very interested to see how the author handled the historical details, and mostly it was good. In the first 40 pages or so, the main character took a while to grab me but after that it was an enjoyable read.
I also took photocopies of two novels (a few pages from each) and did some analysis, looking at language and rhythm and voice. It all sounds like work, not holiday, doesn't it?! But I had a great time and fitted in the lazing around with the writing very nicely.
Back to work tomorrow - it's called paying the bills. But I hope to keep up the holiday mode writing, giving it lots of headspace.