The Ballerina Balancing Act

This post has to lead with Losing Hope. Because today is the day. It's available and at your fingertips...just a click away. See, click here or here!

But my guess is your fingertips, brain, and every other part of your body are just as overwhelmed as mine.

It's a holiday circus, and one of my three rings is devoted to a book release, you know, just to keep me on my toe shoes.

There are frantic gift wrapping sessions in the basement where I snarl at the kids to 'stop asking questions before Christmas' then pop up groundhog-like, long enough to realize my inbox is full of last minute changes of the 'could you just take a quick look' variety.

My editor, publisher and I have different definitions of quick look. My definition means five minutes. Theirs is anywhere from five minutes to five hours.

In between wild-eyed, quick look marathons I'll check my email, just for fun, to find, OH MY GOD, is that another cookie party invitation, whew, just a last minute cocktail party except I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR, which means I need to drop everything to make an after dinner trip to mall.

And I know I could politely decline, but isn't January the month to demur and stay home?

"You're not really going to wear that, are you? You look like a crazy ballerina," my husband told me after my frantic mall trip.

"I'm absolutely going to wear this because that's exactly what I am. A crazed ballerina doing a crazier holiday balancing act."

My pirouette is about to get trickier. A book release in the holiday season feels like the equivalent of things I've seen performed on stage, executed by professionals.

Keep your fingers crossed that I don't break an ankle or my chin.

And if you, caught in the act of executing your own holiday dance, wait until January to download and read Losing Hope, I'll understand.

From one ballet dancer to another, let's make a plan to meet on the couch in 2013 for some restorative reading time. I'm going to hope that, when we get there, Losing Hope will be at the top of your list.