Since it was pouring rain this morning, I gave myself permission to go back home to work after dropping the kids off at camp rather than go to my favorite coffee house, where I am always much more productive.

“I can work effectively from home,” I told myself.

This was, of course, a lie that I didn’t believe for a second.

Nevertheless, I went home and here I remain. In the last oh, two-and-a-half hours or so, I’ve managed to do a good fifteen minutes’ worth of work. Here’s what else I’ve done:

1. Checked my e-mail ten times;

2. Ordered books from e-Harlequin;

3. Subscribed to discounted magazines from Amazon;

4. Repaired my brand new umbrella, the tip of which I slammed in the car door this morning;

5. Posted questions to the AskAnAuthorAll loop;

6. Eaten a snack;

7. Made two cups of tea;

8. Researched vacation options;

9. Called my husband to tell him I was wasting time; and

and … and…

My God. Is that REALLY all I’ve done this morning?

Sadly, yes.

Now I’m writing this blog rather than work. Pitiful.

I always get into time-wasting trouble between books. I turned in the manuscript for Eric Warner’s story, Road to Seduction (Harlequin/Kimani Press—February (I think!) 2009) in the middle of May, and now, in theory, I’m “researching” the next romance because it’s not about lawyers and I truly don’t know anything about this topic. What I’m doing in practice, though, is, say it with me … wasting time. The book isn’t due until September 15, which seems really far away, and that isn’t helping.

What do they say about wasting time? The more you have, the more you waste? I think that’s right. But here’s the corollary to that rule: when you have a lot of time, something will unexpectedly happen to snatch it all away from you. So I figure that a big fat revision letter is now FedEx-ing its way to me and will soon stop me from wasting time.

That’s my theory, anyway.

Do any of you out there (I can hear you breathing!) waste valuable writing time? Please tell me I’m not the only slacker.