Ahem....Excuse me....

For the long, um, vacation from blogging.

So where the hell have I been for the last, um, few MONTHS?????

Well, I had my first YA novel, Rotten Apple, released in October. And I had another book deadline that I just finished. It's an adult fiction that I sent in with the title, "Clover and the Lucky Sperm Club." I hope they keep the title, but, hey, you never know.

Right now, my brain is as dead as my fingers are hurting.

(Honestly, would it be weird if I booked an hour massage at a spa and just asked if they could massage my hands? That's how much they hurt right now....)

So, basically, I've been doing nothing but working. In my recent round of press for Rotten Apple, I had a lot of reporters ask me how I am so prolific. The sad truth is that when I'm working, I shut off my e-mail, and don't answer my phone. I sit at my computer from the minute my daughter is at school, to the minute I go pick her up.

I don't get out of my pajamas, and sometimes I go days without showering. I know. Attractive isn't it? I become a bad friend too when I'm in work mode. My mind is only half in the real world when I get into fiction writing. I fall asleep thinking about my characters.

When I'm not working, I'm spending time with my daughter, who is, by far, my favorite person in the world. Every day, I love her more and more. One day, I think my heart will explode with love for her.

I also want to let you know that I'm now going to be a regular blogger at sweetmama.ca.

If you don't know about this site, you should definitely check it out.

I'll be writing about Single Motherhood every Thursday. As a single mother now, I really thought about whether I should do it or not. The truth is, I'm not thrilled to be a single mother. It's far from ideal. It's not how I pictured my life ending up.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should share the good and the bad about being a single mother - As mommy bloggers know, other mommy bloggers just make you feel better when you know that other people are out there who understand what they're going through and that you're not alone.

Truthfully, I'm not happy about being a single mother, but it's my reality, as it is for so many others out there. In fact, I've had a very hard year. I hope, at the very least, that by blogging about being a single mother, that I may, in some ways, make others feel they are not alone.

There are also other great bloggers over at sweetmama.ca, including a blog by founder of Sweetspot.ca, Joanna Track, who is writing about being a step-mommy.

I miss all of you mommies, I really, truly do. I'm going to try and be a better blogger here at ninepounddictator as well.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to look into hand massages.

xoxo
R