I'm In Villete

One of the ladies in my writing group is doing a book translation to English from Portugese. It's a story about a young woman who decides to commit suicide, but survives the initial attempt. However, her heart has been so damaged, she has only five days before death takes her. She ends up, for those five days, in a hospital for the insane, called Villete (Vee-eh-tay). People who inhabit the hospital with her excuse their behavior, however bizarre it may be, by the simple phrase "I'm in Villete."

If I stop long enough to think about things, I realize that I have an awful lot on my plate. I'm revising the third book in my series about the Cotillion--this one features Basil. I'm back at work on the book that's been dogging me for years, about Jedediah Smith. My critique group has decided to compile a Christmas anthology for next year, which also has a deadline. Sometime soon, I'm going to start getting edits on my second book with Crimson. And, I'm trying everything I can to keep the word out in the public eye about my first book, The Reluctant Debutante. The job that buys my groceries is coming up on its busiest season of the year. Card companies don't talk in terms of months. Instead, September is Halloween, Sweetest Day and Thanksgiving. October and November is Christmas, January is Valentine's Day, etc. So our busy season isn't October through March. It's Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Oh, yeah, and since it's fall in Ohio, there will be leaves to rake next month.

So what do I do to ease my burden? I nominate myself for a huge volunteer job for January and February. What can I say? I'm in Villete.