Busy, busy, busy

Here is what I've been doing today to avoid getting on with my work:

1. Messed around with an Excel spreadsheet of literary contacts.

2. Spent over an hour trying to work out how to create mail-merge mailing labels with actual words/coherent addresses.

3. Prepared mailing of flyers promoting two upcoming signings, one at Maple Street Books this Saturday, and one at Octavia Books on September 15.

4. Wrote thank-you notes for birthday gifts.

5. Persuaded T. Middy to come home for lunch, which meant driving to campus to pick him up and re-deliver him safely an hour later.

6. Spent too much time at the Post Office standing on line, affixing stamps, observing crazy people, etc.

7. Visited the big Borders in the Garden District to see if they had any copies of my new book, given that the novel is set in the Garden District, and Borders is doing a September promotion of it; found no copies.

8. Visited Garden District Books to sign more copies, as they've already sold their initial shipment.

9. Called into the new Village Coffee on Jefferson to buy an iced tea, pretending it was event-related research (i.e. I asked if they had a community bulletin board; they do not).

10. Sent unnecessary emails.

11. Wrote an unnecessary Facebook status update.

12. Made unnecessary comments on other people's Facebook status updates.

13. Read Twitter unnecessarily.

14. Dropped off a box of signed copies of Ruined at the UPS store, for return to Scholastic for use in contests, etc.

15. Walked around to my friend Sarah's house with an invitation to this month's salon.

16. Checked on reviews of Ruined on Amazon, trying not to feel annoyed by the irritating ones.

17. Re-ordered my Netflix queue.

18. Wrote this blog post.

And now I better get on with something.