If it's Thursday it must be Belgium

Here's a photo that has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

So it's time for another blog and I am definitely stumped for a blog topic. This was a new release week for me and what I've discovered is my new release days (because it's now days not just a day) mean I get nothing else done. Nothing because I'm jetting across the cyber space spreading good cheer and promotional fairy dust every where I go -- and answering all the comments and emails on Blogger, LJ, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter -- well, and your normal every day email.

This is not a complaint, by the way, it's just the observation that one tends to fall behind. WAY behind. As a matter of fact, I am currently a minimum of one week behind on regular email (horrifying) including an email to my good friend ZA Maxfield who was asking about tips and tricks for staying motivated when the pressure of work begins to...pulverize you.

As it does all of us sooner or later.

Maybe one reason I've put off answering that email is because I hesitate to say what I'm thinking, which is...the only real fix is to take some serious time off. That's easy to say and not so easy to do when you rely on your writing to pay the bills.

I do have some little rejuvenating tips and tricks and hopefully some other folks will chime in with their own just-add-water moments.

1 - Cultivate a garden. Hey, it can be a rock garden or one of those sandy zen gardens, but having some physical activity that frees your mind and brings both immediate and long term results, is really relaxing. And improves the property value of your home.

2 - Read outside of your genre. Maybe it's just me but when I'm reading within my own genre, I analyze the work in a way I don't when it's poetry or literary fiction or just fiction that I am in no way -- key word here -- competing with.  It's pretty simple, really, we're all fighting for cyber shelf space and so it's not remarkable that we might read a highly acclaimed book within our own genre and feel a tinge of ...why her and not me?

3 - Get out of the house. Unchain yourself from the computer and go do something that has nothing to do with writing. Ultimately it will have to do with writing because, as writers, everything that happens to us is grist for the mill. But go somewhere and do something with zero expectation for your writing. And I don't mean go to the dry cleaner or the grocery store. I mean go somewhere you've been wanting to go but haven't had the time. A museum. A long drive. A visit to a friend.

So what about you? What are tips and tricks do you have to offer your fellow overworked authors?