The last few months have been in large part a process of paring away as many commitments as I could -- I've said 'no' far more often than I normally would. I've been trying to wrap up everything I had hanging so I could focus on dealing with the cancer -- and it has largely worked. I'm just finishing the last look at the book I agreed to edit; it's about to go out the door to the printers. There are just two more weeks left to the semester; just a bit of paper-guiding and grading to go. I might attend WisCon and/or the Nebulas, but I haven't signed up for any programming in advance. I'm planning to spend one week in D.C. visiting my sister, but otherwise, the next four months are shockingly free -- more so than...well, than ever.
It's a quieter stretch than at any other time in my adult life. A chemo infusion every three weeks, then every two weeks. And otherwise -- rest, read, garden as I feel like it, and think about the novel. My agent wrote me a really nice letter when I told him I had cancer -- among other heartening things, he said that this might actually be good for my writing. I admit, I kind of thought he was being silly.
But y'know, he might be right. If nothing else, I've gotten some practice now in saying 'no' a bunch (the sky didn't fall down!), and clearing away a stretch of time as a result. This could be a useful life skill for a working writer!