Motivational Delay

Occasionally I wonder about the things that serve to motivate, and those that have the opposite effect.  Pressure is one to these things.  With me, a little pressure is a motivator, a lot… is not.  Likewise for  tasks, a few tasks are a good thing, but stack too many and none of them get done.

If you’ve read many of my words you’ll realize that this is really a form of apology.  I tried hard to have the second novel in the Malmaxa series – The Pilgrimage – ready for release last weekend.  Real Life jumped on that dream, squashing it beneath the burden of 17 hours of unanticipated overtime.  Then exhaustion took over and kicked me while I was down (I’m simply not as resilient as I was in my long lost youth).  By Monday I was back on track, doing my usual couple of hours work on the novel every night – that is, on the nights I didn’t just collapse into bed.  By this Saturday evening I had made up about six of the 17 hours I lost.

Which leaves me in the unenviable position of still having eleven hours work before I am reasonably happy with its state.  For some this might be a motivator, the final stretch, the last leg, and any number of other phrases.  Yet for me… it really isn’t.  Reluctance to relinquish my creation into the harsh light of critical eyes is building.  With that reluctance came a thought, and a frantic hand grasping at the straw of reprieve.  The first novel in the series was released on June the 6^th, last year.  That date meant something in the context of Malmaxa (no, it has nothing to do with 666 – that would be way too obvious), on reflection 6/6/12 is coming so soon that rushing The Pilgrimage simply doesn’t make sense.  So… looks like it will be “sent to the presses” of virtual eBookhood on June 6^th, 2012.  I hope it is worth the wait.