And life returns to normal (mostly)

After a busy summer taking care of the kids I nanny for, they are back in school and I am (finally) back to my pre-summer schedule.  Granted, I didn't always manage to keep up on my blogs even when the kids were in school, but during the summer, when I was working twice (sometimes more) the hours, it was totally impossible.  What little time I had left, I split between my novel, my horses, and my home life, and as a result freelancing and blogging both fell by the wayside.

Now that the kids are back in school, I feel like I've been gifted with several more hours every day (not to mention more sleep, since I can now sleep in again -- finally!).  Some of that time has already gone to the horses, and some to freelancing, which is why I'm writing this post after the kids have already been back in school for several weeks.

Just to get everyone up to speed, over the summer I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo, NaNo's summer edition.  In June I didn't actually write, just worked on revising last year's novel, the last 50k of which I wrote for NaNo.  I finished the majority of revisions a couple days into August (all I have left is the major rewriting, i.e., a couple of scenes that need to be overhauled and several that need to be written from scratch and added in), so in August I started the second novel of the series.  I got to 50k -- albeit just barely -- and emerged a winner, despite my slow start.

I've been meaning to continue working on the novel, with the intention of finishing it before November so that I can start a new one for the regular session of NaNoWriMo, but I only worked on it for the first few days after Camp NaNo ended.  Part of the problem is that I'm not entirely sure where to go next -- I know what has to happen, but I haven't figured out yet how to get there.  So I'm thinking I need to spend this time between sessions with planning and finishing revisions to the first novel, and then finish book 2 in November.

And freelancing.  I'm picking up some more freelancing work, which I had completely abandoned over the summer, and it feels good to earn at least part of my living from my keyboard again.

How was everyone else's summers?