For reasons beyond my comprehension, I always expect every January to feel “different” from the days preceding it. What actually happens is that every January I get lost in the year; i.e., I have trouble remembering what day or month I’m on. It sometimes takes me until March or April to get “grounded” in the new year.

This has nothing to do with being able to write “2009″ instead of “2008″ on letters, checks, and memos. It has more to do with my visual image of time passing. This part of the year is crystal clear in those visualizations but never quite present in my physical experiences.

Mine is the mind of a ghostwriter. We are not normal people. We are not even normal writers. We are invisible. We are ghosts.

I also start every year with a padful of plans and goals. I rearrange furniture. I make new alliances. I re-invigorate old ones. I sadly put away (every year) those jeans that are now either too small, too large, or just too worn. It never fails; January is goodbye beloved jeans month.

And so the year starts.

For 2009 I have even more plans and goals, but, alas, fewer stores of energy. I need to accomplish all my wondrous dreams and ambitions between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM for a change. A normal work day for most people, but not,as y’all know, for ghosts, who tend to work from early morn to past nightfall.

This is also the time of year when I dream of doing something else–almost anything else–other than write. Fact is, I’ve written. I no longer feel that craving first-time authors have to “have written.” I’ve done wrote. I’ve wrotted lotsa stuff. Muy good stuff. Some not-so-good stuff. Several more than a few bad stuffs. Been there, done that. Book #100 came and went. It was accompanied by no trumpets. No band struck a chord or sounded a flourish. No parade marched past my window, no confetti needed sweeping up.

Instead, I received an email from a college instructor asking when I’d be coming out with the Fifth Edition of This Business of Books.

Never fear, I answered her: “Soon.” In fact, I’ve been answering “Soon” to that oft-repeated question for quite some time now. Book #101 and 102 passed, and still I answered, “Soon.” But, alas, I fear it is a lie, for I am blowing all my time working on the 2nd edition of Secrets of a Ghostwriter instead. And creating a series of booklets called Better Papers Mean Better Grades. And rewriting chapters for my historical-romance client. And planning and teaching classes and workshops.

Not to mention cleaning the toilet. Contemplating my need for a manicure. Musing about finding a partner to play gin. Toying with the possibility of moving a picture from one wall to another. Making piles of receipts to input and constructing lists to check off.

Hmmm… is it possible I’m avoiding the 5th Edition of This Business of Books?

O, Me, say it isn’t so!

Sorry, Me, I think it is. Buck up, kiddo, it’s just another version of a book you’ve written five times that is still selling even though you refuse to market it. It’ll be fun!

Oh sure, says me. But what about me?

Enough! I thought this blog was suppose to be about ghostwriting!

It is! Except when it’s not.

Which is pretty much my state of mind come every January. I have not written the 5th Edition now for five years. This is the year–it says so right on my list of plans and goals–that I finish the 2nd Edition of Secrets and put together the 5th Edition of TBOB.

And this time, as Larry Miller would say, I really mean it.

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