Ask Me Tomorrow

Today's featured author is 

June McCullough

Read on!

Write on!

This is one of my favourite subjects, because one of my greatest beliefs is that most times it is not what you do, but what you do too much or too little of that can cause the fall. This is with all things in life.

I honestly don’t remember when I started writing. Even as a young girl I wrote. It is my release. It is my therapy. It is my joy. I am convinced that I have lost more of my stories during my many moves than most people have written. So, how do I balance the writing with everything else in my life? Well, I must admit that sometimes writing does get in the way of my life, but not to be ignored, sometimes my life gets in the way of my writing. How I balance it depends on the stage in my life.

As a young girl I sat on the couch with pen and paper writing while the rest of the household slept. Years went on and being a wife and mother took more of my time and writing was something I did only a few times a year. Later, as a single mom, it is something that I did only on occasion.

Now, even with the children grown it is difficult to find the time to fit everything in. How can I have and do it all when I am only given so many hours a day? I’ve tried setting aside an hour each day to write, but the problem there is that I find it hard to quit if I’m ‘on a roll’. Or I find it hard to start when events of the day are still on my mind or the phone rings.

So to write my first published novel On the Other Hand I wrote anytime I could manage to steal a few hours alone. Also, I would book a week of vacation each year solely for this purpose. During that vacation, I would let everyone know that I was unavailable and I would write from morning to evening. As you can guess, this didn’t allow much time and it ended up taking me a few years before On the Other Hand was written and re-written until finally it was ready for publication. One month before my 58^th birthday On the Other Hand was made available to the public.

Now, I am fortunate that I have been able to go from full time employment to only working three days a week. I thought this would allow me more time for what I really love to do – write - but I find that I am busier than ever marketing and going to book signings. Somehow I did publish a second novel, Home to Stay, and I did start a third book. I was hoping to have the third book published by the end of 2013, but I have been asked to write a novel based on a true story about a Canadian who was arrested in a foreign country and is still fighting to get his passport back to return home. It seems that now my writing is even getting in the way of my writing.

So, how do I balance my time for writing? Ask me tomorrow; maybe I’ll have it figured out by then. 

_______________________________ 

 

June McCullough grew up in the three most western provinces of Canada; although her family never lived in one town or city long enough for her to consider any of them her hometown. In 1989 she moved back to central Alberta with her two children. She set down her roots and has lived there ever since.

 

Writing is something that June started so long ago; she can’t remember the first time she took pen to paper to write her first story. June is a firm believer that you can make your dreams come true. Two of June’s lifelong dreams were traveling and becoming a published author. At the age of 43, she used her passport for the first time and one month before turning 58, her first book, On the Other Hand, was published.

June loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her through her website www.junemccullough.com, or her blog http://jmccullough.authorsxpress.com/.

A Desireable Point

The first Thursday in December.

Can you believe it?

I can't. 

Today I have author,

Matthew Hayduk

Read On!

Depending on what type of balance you are looking for, Wikipedia defines the metaphysical definition of balance as a desirable point between two or more opposite forces. If I were to take my writing and put it on one side of the scale, the necessities of my life would be far outweighed. On one side of the scale I’m a rookie writer at the age of 50 looking to achieve something similar to Grandma Moses but in a literary sense. On the other side of the scale I am a recovering alcoholic, a father of three sons, a husband, an employee at a large chemical storage company and a son to a mom with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. That’s the necessary stuff. There is a lot of peripheral stuff that I can add to that side of the balance but I need to draw a line somewhere. 

As you may begin to see, there really is no desirable point between the opposite forces in my life if you look at the necessities versus writing but if I take the things that I need most and divide them by six. I can give an equal amount of time to each one. Maybe not an equal amount but compartmentalize each component and address each responsibility as needed.

The most important part for me is this recovery business. Without that I can’t be any of the other titles that I listed. I learned that important lesson almost 25 years ago. The spiritual values are what gives me that desirable point between two or more desirable forces. When I maintain that balance, then and only then, can I have the emotional balance to not only put things in my life but also be able to handle life on life’s terms. I attribute those spiritual values in helping our family get through one of “life’s” most difficult moments when we buried my oldest son after a valiant fight with leukemia.

Being a responsible productive member of my family is paramount to my writing. It has a track record of providing the material things needed to sustain my family’s life. I don’t want to mislead anyone here but my writing has not made a mountain of cash yet. I would love to write for a living. I had the second most successful book signing by a local author at our little local bookstore here in Manasquan NJ. I consider that a huge success because I was second to Mary Higgins Clark. Not too shabby for a rookie author who may not have literary balance but has some figuratively. 

______________________

Husband and father of three, Matthew Hayduk spends his summers in Spring Lake Heights as well as his springs, winters, and falls. Matthew is a kinder, gentler, United Steel Worker, heavy equipment operator. Local 397! An aspiring author with his wife Nancy, and their two boys, they share their home with a rescued golden retriever named Belle and her dog therapist another golden retriever named Mack. Having been a friend of Bill Wilson’s for well over 20 years, Matt felt a need to share his experience on dealing with his loss and grief of his son Matt. His mission is to bring some hope and comfort for those daunted by the task of caring for a terminally ill loved one. Readers need not to be in recovery to relate to this book. Matthew wrote this for people that suffer from grief, loss and those that watch Crossing Over on demand. In his spare time Matt is obsessed with surviving one more round of zombies and going for really long bike rides along the Jersey shore.

You Have To Have Support

Today I have a special,

special,

guest.

Author 

Rona Simmons

I consider myself fortunate in that though it has taken me thirty years to get here, my real life is one of my own making. Three years before I retired from the black and white corporate world, I began planning what my next steps would be. Leaving the carefully and intentionally structured world of work for the many shades of grey was not stress-free. To overcome the anxiety, I turned to familiar territory: to what I knew and to the skills I had developed over the course of my career.
Organization and planning were two skills honed over at work (some might say they were more than honed, perhaps even bordering on obsession -- but that’s another story. Ah ha! See how these flashes of inspiration appear as if out of nowhere ... let me jot that down before I continue.). So, it was a natural transition for me to organize and plan my post-work life. I created a schedule for writing, committing to set days and times to start and stop. That worked for close to a year. I was faithful to my schedule. On days when I struggled for inspiration, I did not give up and do something else. I stuck with it and alternated writing with the research I needed to do for my novel. Again, my former life of note taking and filing came to the rescue.

Now, just over a year after retiring and embarking on my self-imposed scheduled life, I have allowed myself a bit of leeway from the schedule. After all, retirement is also about having time for friends and family, for traveling, for attending all those concerts or classes that never seemed to fit into the daily grind before. Still, I more or less adhere to my original schedule. I don’t even feel guilty now when, on occasion, I allow myself to switch a day of writing for a day of some other pleasure. In fact, I have found that having taken an unscheduled break, I not only feel refreshed but am anxious to return to writing when Monday morning rolls around.


One last item worth mentioning is my “support system”. Oh dear, I think those words might be another hangover from corporate life. In any event, it has been tremendously helpful to have the support of my family -- a husband who is very supportive of my pursuing my interests, though he hates to read himself, a sister who is a former language major and avid reader and has volunteered to serve as an initial reader and editor, another who is an artist and has been down this road before who has provided tips for websites and presentations, and of course my father who without hesitation pulled $0.99 from his wallet to be the first to purchase my recently published eBook.

__________________________

 Ms. Simmons recently retired from thirty years in the world of corporate finance to pursue the call of her long suppressed creative side, including creative writing and photography.  Though having written countless memos, letters, and reports and published business articles throughout her career, she is enjoying the freedom and creative aspects of fiction.  In one short year, she has published two articles, one showcasing her photography, completed and submitted one short novel for potential publication, and is working on the second draft of a general fiction novel.  She lives with her husband outside Atlanta, Georgia on eight wooded southern acres that provide inspiration for both her writing and photography.

 

 

Rona Simmons
https://www.ronasimmons.com
https://sites.google.com/site/ronasimmonsphotography/
Author of: Meryl's Commitment, a contemporary, southern romance novel
Sample or purchase Meryl's Commitment at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/148458

A Single Act of Kindness

Thursday!

Today's featured guest is

Maggie Singleton

My mom tells me that when I was a little girl I wanted nothing more than to be a vegetarian and care for animals in need.  I practiced my skills extensively on my cats – caring for them… feeding them… clothing them. However, I abandoned my dreams and aspirations of becoming a veterinarian soon after encountering high school chemistry and all things math.  Thus began my quest to discover what I really wanted to do and who I really wanted to be when I grew up.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in English Education, I dabbled for two painful years as an eighth grade English teacher.  I soon realized that my personality (serious, idiosyncratic, and analytical) just did not mix well with raging hormones! Thankfully not all was lost in my adventures.  In addition to gaining a laundry list of names I would never use for my offspring, I met a young man from a nearby university who asked for my hand in marriage a year later.  God certainly has a knack for turning ugly situations into good.

Eventually I found my niche as a technical editor working for a military contracting firm that has kept me employed for the past ten years.  They were kind enough to keep me on part time when I started a family.  I didn’t realize that this single act of kindness would produce such an exhilarating, yet not-so-steamy love affair between mothering, part time work, and housekeeping (which always feels like the third wheel). Later I began accepting freelance editing, formatting, and writing opportunities which I have thoroughly enjoyed for the past four years.

I have recently discovered something else I want to do when I grow up: be a writer. The desire (obsession?) to write my own work has been such a natural and obvious progression for me.   And being a work-at-home mom (WAHM) of three provides me with MORE than enough subject matter!  Through my blogs, you will get a glimpse into my journey called mommyhood… especially of the WAHM variety.  I am so excited to see where that road might lead.

Although I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining what I do, that’s only half the story.  I will end with a few things I want to be when I grow up – which I remind myself daily is of far greater importance than what I do.  First and foremost, I want to get reacquainted with the calm person I was before little people entered my life.  I feel like I have a long way to go, but I’m taking baby steps toward it every day.  And I want to be on time for things, too.  If the words “hurry up” could be eliminated from my everyday vernacular, we all would be a happier family.  I also want to be unselfish when I grow up and, for instance, share the entire bag of potato chips with my kids instead of scarfing them behind the pantry door. Well, maybe. And lastly, I want to live in such a way that God shines through the strengths (and weaknesses) that He has given me.

______________________

Thursday's guest

is 

Lucille Rains

As a piano technician and sole breadwinner of my household, the writing came after the children were in bed. Despite hard times, writing kept me alive and in touch with myself. Writing, especially writing humor, softens the harshness of life and transports you to a better world. Then one day a Pulitzer Prize Author of American Humor wrote me that I have talent for Satire. A light bulb went on in my head that led to my book, Ya Wanna Laugh?, a collection of humorous stories. My time is now divided between piano restoration and writing. To me, it is just as miraculous to take a relic of a piano and transform it into a magnificent musical instrument as it is to take a barrel of words and transform them into a meaningful human experience. They are both works of art. I did not pursue writing, writing pursued me. I wrote a letter to the editor and it caught the attention of a mayor. I became her ghostwriter. At the same time, the editor of a local paper asked me to do a column. For the past four years, I have been writing monthly humorous story for a Volvo Newsletter. 

_________________________

 

Lucille Rains was a jazz pianist and bassist in New York City until she became breadwinner of her household and left New York for the suburbs. She had been tuning her own piano right along, so it was inevitable that she would go into tuning to support her family. She happened to write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper that got the attention of the mayor; she became the mayor’s ghostwriter. The local editor also invited her to write a column. This unexpectedly launched a second career for her, in the writing field. Then when a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer put his stamp of approval on her writing, it led to her book of humorous essays, Ya Wanna Laugh? (Xulon Press, 2011). At present, Lucille Rains divides her time between tuning and writing. She can be reached at lucille.rains@gmail.com

Heat Warms Up Brain Cells

Good Thursday Morning

to everyone!

I'm feeling better about balance already.

I'm hoping you are as well.

Today I am honored to have as a guest,

Sandra Nachlinger.

So many times I’ve been told, “If I was retired like you are, all I’d do is write.”

WRONG!

That’s not the way it works for me. First of all, it seems I’m busier than ever these days. There’s a garden full of flourishing weeds that need to be evicted, an unfinished quilt top to stitch, lunch dates with friends, dust bunnies procreating under the bed, my adorable granddaughter to babysit, and the dog whining at the door, begging for a walk. That reminds me—I really should exercise more. And since I have so much free time, my still-employed husband has a few errands I could run while I’m out and about. Who has time to sit at a computer all day? But I’ve observed a phenomenon that I first noticed as a young mother working at a full-time job—the more I have to do, the more I get done.

You’d think the opposite would be true – that my imagination would soar when unfettered by obligations, but that just isn’t the case. When a whole day stretches in front of me with nothing planned, I don’t write as much as when I set aside a treasured hour or two squeezed in between other responsibilities. On my free days, my brain seems to realize it has plenty of time, it gets lazy, and the urgency to create just isn’t there.

And since Nature abhors a vacuum, that’s when the Internet sirens call. Emails, LinkedIn posts, Facebook friends from my high school years. Posts to my own blog and readers’ comments that require responses. Then there are the weekly blog memes, Amazon threads, Goodreads updates, book reviews. Maybe a quick game of Word Scram or Solitaire. All of that leaches away the minutes until the day is gone and few words have been added to my manuscript. After all, I had all day and … poof! … where did it go?

But when there’s a lot going on, I ignore the computer’s overtures (well, most of them) and focus on what has to be accomplished in the short window of time I’ve allocated for writing. I go to the computer with an idea of what I want to say, and I make it happen. For some reason the ideas come and the words flow.

So although it sounds intuitively wrong and completely the opposite of what you’d expect, my advice for balancing writing time with life is to fill your days with as much living as possible. You’ll train your brain to take advantage of those spare moments when writing is what you crave to do, and you’ll bring more experiences to the writing desk.  Best of all, you’ll still have time for all those other fun things that come along in life.

PS: And if that doesn’t work, wash your hair. I’ve found that my best ideas come when I’m soaping my head in the shower or drying my hair. My theory is that the heat warms up my brain cells.

____________________________

Bio:  Sandra Nachlinger is a Native Texan who moved to Washington state several years ago.  She has been writing seriously for the past 15 years.  Her works have been featured in Woman’s World Magazine, Sasee Magazine, and various local publications. Her first novel, I.O.U. SEX, was co-authored with Sandra Allen.

~ Sandra Nachlinger, co-author with Sandra Allen of I.O.U. SEX

What happens when three grown women track down their high school boyfriends, decades after graduation?

Available in eBook and paperback on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/I-O-U-Sex-ebook/dp/B004CFAPA4/

Also available from Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

Blog: http://iousex.blogspot.com

It's Like Flying A Kite

It's Thursday!

Today's featured guest is:

Raksha Shukla

Balancing writing/ creating with real life is like flying a kite. My writing is the life-cord between the imagination flying high in the sky, exploring the vast expanse of the unlimited space and the concrete reality limited to its one fourth share of land on earth, the remaining three fourths having gone to the sea.

When the confines of reality become unbearably suffocating, I cross its boundaries and release myself to soar high in the realm of unlimited imagination. The change of reality into imagination is like the change of mass into energy; following the equation of E= Mc sq. This energy leads me to another plane which is subtle, ethereal, and vapory. While the body remains on the solid earth with its hands on the keyboard, the mind reaches out to find its soul in a different territory; connected by writing: the string that joins as well as separates the two worlds we are destined to inhabit. It is a coordination between the gravitation of the earth and the attraction of the adventure to go beyond and explore the unknown; experience the inexperienced and reach for the sky. It is only a short break. I come back to enjoy the real world with renewed vigour.

  When writing, I am not only a writer: I am the reader as well. Besides that, I am an actor, being ecstatic of the applause and being wary of hooting while enacting the roles of all the characters; at the same time sitting in front as audience: not to mention the role of the editor, the director, the proof reader and so on. The whole exercise is a pack of paradoxes, bound in the string of alphabets, words and sentences lined with punctuation marks and stuffed tightly in the boxes of books in attractive jackets embellished by the design artists.

   Writing for me is the freedom to be the way I want to be. I enjoy the freedom to go back and forth in time with a device like “Time Machine’, made accessible through writing; and this ‘Time Machine’ is combined with the ‘Space Machine” where the distances vanish with the freedom to move in each and every direction.

The records of the memories of visuals, voices, sounds, smells and so on, played and replayed become clear, vivid and sharp, facilitated with reproducing and experiencing them at will. Writing makes the reality more interesting by adding drama in the drab humdrum of everyday life by presenting it with the most subtle, sophisticated and multifaceted device called Language.

_______________________

Raksha Shukla         

 An  Introduction -------

A free lance creative writer ---    Born in Ajmer, Rajasthan, on the 15^th of august before 1947, when the day: 15^th August, came to be known as Independence Day; grew up in Agra, the city of “The Taj Mahal”, in Uttar Pradesh, India, Mother Tongue - Hindi, completed masters in philosophy from Agra University, indulged in writing as a hobby without any effort to get published, initially, decided to get published much later.

List of published works---

1.      Poetry --- Two collections, “Yey Shati” (this century) and “Parat Dar Parat” (layer under layer), in Hindi; a third one is under publication.

2.      Short Stories ---Two Books --- “Ajanabiyon ke Beech” (among the strangers) and “Maulshree” (Name of a flower with sweet fragrance), In Hindi

3.      Novels ---“Chir Aparineeta” (forever unwedded), in Hindi and “The Nose Pin”( it’s English version)

4.      Translations –3 Penguin Books – (from English to Hindi) “Yadav” an autobiographical novel about a love story of a woman inflicted with wanderlust, “Sarak Chhaap” (street children) and “Yadein Jee Utheen”( Memories resurrected) Autobiography of the famous playback singer: Manna Dey.

5.      Samjhauta Express”, (a book from Pakistan, translated from English to Hindi, Hindi translation published in India.)