No Rest for the Literary

Technically, I am on vacation right now. Practically, what that means is I am on vacation from my day job (I produce two, official, soap opera websites) only. Aside from the kids (note to the interested: Taking a naturally shy five year old on an amusement park 3-D Dinosaur ride? Maybe not the best of ideas), I am also doing this cool, blog thing, finishing up the logo I intend to slap on my “NY is Book Country” and “Bouchercon 2004” (see you all there?) goodies, PRing my little heart out for “On Thin Ice” and also polishing the manuscript of its sequel, which might be called “Death Drop,” or might not be. (Titles haven’t been my strong-point with this series. I called the first book “Death Drop,” which is a skating term with the obligatory word “death” in the title. The publisher, Berkley Prime Crime, changed it to “Murder on Ice.” So, for the second book, I tried to keep with their pattern and called it “Missing on Ice.” The publisher promo-ed the first chapter at the end of “Murder on Ice” and told readers to keep an eye out for “Missing on Ice” coming October 2004. Then went ahead and changed the title to “On Thin Ice.” At the end of “On Thin Ice,” there is a chapter from “Death Drop.” Which may not be called “Death Drop.” Got that? There will be a quiz at the end of the week.)

But my point, lost way at the top before the attack of the parentheses is: Can writers every really be on vacation? Even if you’re not doing anything practical, like working on a manuscript or article, can you ever stop THINKING like a writer? Can you keep ideas, scenes, dialogue from flitting through your brain at inopportune moments? (Oh, you mean I’m the only one who hears people plotting a murder in her head while enjoying a picnic with her lovely family? In that case … never mind, move along, nothing to see here….)

Have any of you ever successfully taken a REAL vacation from writing and managed to actually turn your brain OFF?