I'm not saying any of this applies to me (right this very second) and I am not saying it doesn't, but...

When do you get the I suck 'ems, assuming you do. Actually with most authors I assume they get them at some point, at the very least once. Maybe with each book, maybe between each book. Me, they come and go and often when they shouldn't be there (not that there's ever a good time).

After my glorious six days at conference, now that I am home and completely ensconced back in *real life* of "Mom...." I can admit it came and went several times at the conference. My girlfriends and I talked about it during our forever long wait at the airport—did you know that you could get to an airport *too* early—anyhoo, I digress. As we waited, we all talked about how excited we were, then an hour later we said, "oh why were we fooling ourselves," then an hour later—remember, too early takes a long time—an hour later, we were back up to the "we can do this."

Back and forth this went. For me this is a theme that has plague me since book 3 or 4. Book one and two I was really too naive to think everything wouldn't be perfectly perfect and perfectly easy. But, but, but... It's hard and it's frustrating and I want to give up, but really I can't because I feel compelled to write almost in the same way I feel compelled to breathe--I have to! But, but, but... Then I need Sam Axe (Burn Notice) to say, "A bunch of bitchy little girls", sure he's talking about spies, but it applies to me. At the same time I can hear a little voice in the back of my head say, "pull your big girl panties up a keep moving".

So I do and I will.

Back to the question, when do you get them? Do you get to that point in the "process" that you know it's coming and you try to thwart it? Makes me think of my migraines, when I get the signs one's coming I can lessen it if I act on, but if I don't ... whammo full-blown misery. The suck 'ems are similar and sometimes as stifling. Or do they randomly pop up like a 24 hour bug?