Word of the Week: Manicorn — a mythical male creature who is successful (read: pursuing his passion and can pay his electric bill/rent), funny, chivalrous, masculine (read: not chauvinistic), adventurous, artistic (read: not suicidal).

For example: All of the heroes in my novels are manicorns.

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Did you ever have one of those days, weeks, or—God forbid—months when nothing seems to go right, every time you turn around another crisis is cropping up, & you think that if one more thing gets piled on your already over-burdened plate, you might just start screaming & never stop?

Last week was like that for me.  It was just “one of those weeks.”  I was battling back & forth with my agent about titles for a new project, & we just were not seeing eye to eye.  Neither of us was even being argumentative, we simply had two different visions for the same story & couldn’t seem to find a middle ground.  He didn’t like any of the titles I suggested, & I didn’t like any of his.  We must have exchanged fifty e-mails, all riddled with big, giant question marks.

Then, every time I turned around, another of my cats cropped up with an infection or inflammation of some sort.  I’m not sure what possessed me to start taking urine samples to the vet to be tested, but I’m glad I did because something showed up every single time…with no outward symptoms that I ever would have noticed otherwise.

And then, of course, there was the prerequisite laundry list of one-thing-after-another.  All the minor stuff that makes your head want to explode.

But then Friday 5pm came & I realized no more business-oriented stuff would be happening until Monday, & three of the kitties had vet appointments on that day, as well, so I’d have the chance to talk to the doctor in person about what the heck was going on with them.  Deep breath.  Whew. Never had a weekend been so welcome.  I made myself block out all the minutia & relax.  I read a little, slept a little, & got a little writing done on my novella.

And then…Monday morning.  Back to the salt mine & possibly back to the stress-mill.  But like Annie, I always believe that “the sun will come out tomorrow.”  Sometimes it just takes one good night’s sleep for things to right themselves & for formerly stressful issues to work themselves out.

Which is, thankfully, exactly what happened.  First e-mail of the day with my agent resulted in a project title we were both happy with.  I suspect we each settled a little (LOL), but at least we finally came to a meeting of the minds.

Then it was off to the vet, where he outlined what may or may not be going on with the cats.  None of the symptoms that usually go with serious health issues are present, so he’s leaning toward…get this…stress.  (Two of the kitties are very high-strung, jumping at every noise or sudden movement.)  I’m not entirely thrilled with that diagnosis & we’ll be keeping an eye on them, but at least I’m no longer worried about all of the other possible causes that were going through my head.  (Do you think I can get therapy or stress relief CDs for them?

Which means that in a matter of only two days, all of the things that had been driving me crazy disappeared.

And to top it all off, this week also contained a book release!!! REAL MEN LAST ALL NIGHT is finally here, finally available, finally ready for all of you to read & enjoy & go ga-ga over.  (Well, I’m hopeful, anyway. )  That is definitely enough to overshadow any of the bad stuff.

So, see, a weekend really can make a difference.  Thank God one comes at the end of every week!