While I Drink My Mocha

The year is almost over

and so are my posts on balance.

For your enjoyment

here is 

Laurie Cameron

I love writing. When I’m stressed out, which seems to be a disproportionate amount of time, I write. Or I think about writing. Just the idea of being a writer has intrigued me since I was about 10 years old. I always envisioned myself with a cool typewriter and a big wooden desk, in a cozy den with a great view. Perhaps I’d sit at my desk and write wonderful stories, pausing to look out at the woods – or maybe the ocean – just beyond my window.

Have you ever noticed how movies portray writers? They often have such a romanticized life, hunkering down in a quaint coffee shop and penning page after page while sipping a cappuccino. How dreamy. I love those movies. I pretend that that is the type of writer I am. I’m wearing a very stylish sweater, with a scarf knotted smartly around my neck. There is a pencil tucked behind my ear, and the words pour onto the paper effortlessly while I drink my mocha. At a glance of my watch, I notice that it’s almost time to pick the girls up from school. My son is just waking from his nap, and he stirs a bit. I’ve just put in two glorious hours of work on my latest novel, and now I can spend some quality time with my kids. How fabulous!

Reality check. I look down and recall that I’m wearing my husband’s college sweatshirt, faded with age. The dryer has just clicked off, a reminder that I can now switch the laundry, and I have several stacks of papers to grade. Yes, I am a writer. But, I’m not the kind that you might envision if you’re thinking of one of those glorious films. Nope, I’m a full time working mom with a house to keep clean (if you call the constant pile of laundry and the obstacle course of blocks, cars, and dollhouse furniture clean), and bills to pay. I make time when I can to squeeze in a few minutes of writing, though this generally makes me feel guilty because I always feel that I should be doing something else.

Then again, books are my passion. I think they always have been. I want my kids to have great books to read, adventures to whisk them away, stories to bring them comfort. So, I write them. My writing partner and I discovered, almost simultaneously, that there was a serious deficit in great adventure/mystery stories for kids in a very pivotal age group. So, what did we decide to do? Write some.

But when? How? I get home from an exhausting day of teaching and try my hardest to be energetic for my kids. I don’t look or feel the part of a real writer. For this reason, I pretend. I imagine myself the author that I always envisioned. Then, I pull on my sweats and a t-shirt (which I pretend is a very artsy/writer-like outfit), grab something to drink in a plastic cartoon character cup, and plunk down on the living room floor – my own quaint café. Then, I write. Sometimes, it’s during the wee hours of the night. Everyone else in my house is sleeping. I don’t feel guilty. I’m not shirking any of my duties. This is an okay time. I crank out a few pages, and can barely hold my eyes open. Sleep calls me. Tomorrow night, same place. I’ll be here.

 ________________________

 

Laurie Cameron was born in Montana and moved to the Washington, D.C. area after completing her advance degree in Economics. There she met her husband and took up the nomadic life in the U.S. Foreign Service. For more than twenty years, she has lived and traveled throughout many parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. She has two sons who are both in the Peace Corps.

Laura Meagher was born and raised in Plainfield, Illinois, and continues to reside in that same Chicago suburb today with her husband, Joe, and three beautiful children. She received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and her master of arts in teaching. Laura is currently in her thirteenth year of teaching in the public school system.

Laura is Laurie's husband's sister's daughter (phew!). In other words, she is Laurie's niece. They have been writing together since 2008. When they started, Laurie lived in the Dominican Republic and Laura lived and continues to live in the same Chicago suburb where she grew up. Since then Laurie has resided in Honduras for four years and is now living in Sedona, Arizona. 

For this reason, all their writing happens over the internet. First Laura writes a chapter and e-mails it to Laurie, then Laurie writes one and e-mails it to Laura. The chapters aren't always sequential. If one of them is inspired to write a particular chapter, she writes it. They worry about putting it all together later. But each chapter provides inspiration to continue.

Laurie and Laura co-authored The Ghost at Old Oak Way, published by Untapped Talent, Inc in 2009. The Ghost at Judy Creek Station was published by Acorn Mysteries in 2012.

Everyone Else Puts Up With It

Now I'm loving Tuesdays

as well as Thursdays.

Here is another author

I'd like to share with you,

Alana Woods

I have a perfect writing and life balance.

I write and everyone else puts up with it.

Just kidding.

Let’s jump back several decades.

In my youth I wrote short stories as and when I thought of one, so it wasn’t a scheduled regime.

A schedule of sorts happened when, after reading an appallingly-written bodice ripper (does anyone remember them?), I threw it down in disgust and said ‘I could do better than that.’

(I always remember that book, among others, when people scorn the so-called poor quality of indie published books).

But to get back on track ... my husband happened to overhear me and came back with ‘Why don’t you.’ Something I think that if he were really honest he might in hindsight have been a bit more careful with.

Twelve weeks later, with me scribbling at all hours and in all places into a notebook with a pen, he asked ‘Haven’t you finished yet?’

Fast forward 30 years. The question he now asks is ‘When are you going to start making money?’

Back we go again in time to when I had a full-time job and children still at home. When the children were young I negotiated two nights a week with my husband for writing. When they were past wanting my attention I renegotiated the two nights to all day Sunday. During the rewriting stage I also pulled in the two nights.

I imagine others do the same sort of thing. My husband has always been extremely supportive but I’m conscious of not letting the writing take over to the point where he would start to resent it.

And you know the saying that if you want something done ask a busy person. I think that can be extrapolated to this situation. By that I mean that I found it easier to find time to write when I had a full-time job and a family to care for. I now work at home as a part-time editor, so you would think I have plenty of time during the day to also write. Wrong. 

So many other things of a computer nature now draw me in. 

Every indie author alive will know what I’m talking about. The marketing, the blogging, the promoting, the looking for promotion and marketing opportunities, not to mention keeping all of my social network sites current, as well as interacting on other blogs to get my name out there in the blogosphere. 

Every day I wake up saying ‘Okay, today I’m going to ignore the 50 or so emails that come in. Today I’m going to write.’ Then I log on, download the email and something always catches my attention and ... groan ... I’m gone.

If I have a paying job then I work on it to the exclusion of everything else.

And then there are the family duties such as collecting grandchildren from school occasionally.

So as you can see actually getting creative can be difficult. In reality I tend to work in bursts. When I’m in the thick of writing I try to put in the afternoons. When I’m not, it’s a bit more of a scattered approach.

 ______________________________________

Alana Woods’ bio

 

My family emigrated from the UK to Australia when I was four.  I grew up in the coastal suburbs of Adelaide but now live in Canberra.  It’s where two of my children live. We (that’s me and my husband John) also spend time in West Sussex with our oldest daughter Simone, also an author.

I’ve been a professional editor for over 30 years. I’m no longer in full-time employment—haven’t been for about six years. Most of my time now is taken up with my own writing but I continue to contract edit part time.

 

I have four books published. Two are thrillers, Automaton and Imbroglio. Another is a short story collection, Tapestries and other short stories. And the fourth is non-fiction, Family medical history, which is a journal for families to keep a record of everything that happens of a medical nature. They are all available on Amazon.

I’m currently working on a writing guide for aspiring authors which enlarges on advice I’ve given to young writers who have asked for my help over the years.

I’m also working on a third thriller.

 Alana Woods is a thriller novelist, short story and non-fiction author and editor.

Her books are available on Amazon:

Automaton

Imbroglio

Tapestries and other short stories

Family medical history

Alana Woods books on Amazon

Writing Into The Wee Hours

I'm so very busy these days.

Guess it's good that I have the balancing act

figured out.

Today's featured guest is

 Shirley Ouw

 Why do I write?  And why do I  write science fiction or speculative fiction (fantasy), whatever you call it.  Is there such a thing as enjoy doing it?  People look at me kind of funny when they ask how was your weekend, by which they usually mean to ask what have you been doing in your spare time away from the office and I tell them,oh, I spent the time writing and making amazing journeys through the sight of my mind. Always that quick look of disbelief and condescension that can be interpreted as "you must be joking" or "what the heck is she talking about?" or "she must have a few screws loose".

Yes, people, I write because I enjoy it. Being presumptuous or not, I enjoy dreaming up new worlds and impossible situations to put my characters in. I'm thrilled the way that in the course of the story process, heroes and villains take a life of their own, and choose a path different from that I have plotted in the beginning. Of course I am not a scientist and my stories mostly are planetary romance and deal with social issues. 

Even so, the hard reality is that simply loving to write doesn't put bread on the table. Not for this author anyway.  Thus, I have to stick to my daytime, full-time, job and it is a busy one in a law firm. After wrestling with legalese all day, 5 days a week, my brain is mush. Still I write maybe a few lines each night, while multi-tasking and connecting with my online buddies.  The best time to write is when everyone is asleep in the house, including the dogs, writing into the wee hours.  I love the nights because of the quietude, but I have to get up early to go to work, so night writing is not a habit I can stick to, except on weekends and holidays. 

Still, to write you need a certain peace of mind, even while you're plotting death and destruction of worlds, and of people and creatures. The situation at home as it is, on which I won't go into details, has upsetting moments, that throws your focus off balance. 

But write I shall, and write I have tried in face of distress, keeping watch over a dying mother, in hospitals and in the nursing home, with my laptop on my knees, wedged on a hospital chair of discomfort between the sickbed and the wall. Write I continue  while somewhere in the house someone breaks things, drunkenly amok.

I am not in any relationship but my sister is, a relationship that I wish had never, never come about. 

But so I persist, and write I shall and Jessie, my dog, is my favourite companion while I, propped up with pillows on my bed, spin my stories on the Netbook and she lies beside me snoring, and twitching as she goes on her own adventures in the canine dreamworld. And I wish I can see into her dreams and what a story that would be. 

                                              ___________________________________________

Shirley currently writes under the pseudonym of Sterren, under which pen name she has written RESONANCE and ENGELINKYN: THE WINGED HEMISPHERE (both available at Amazon).  THE WINGED HEMISPHERE is the first part of a trilogy that will be concluded with ENGELINKYN:  THE JEWELS OF HUEMANCY and THE TOWERED HEMISPHERE. The series are finished except for some further editing for the last two books

She is currently on a new series DIM STARS IN THE BRIGHT of which the first two books, A PRIDE OF GEMS and DEMES OF THE WREATH are in the first rough drafts.  She currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Writing While Being Wife and Mother: Balance or Insanity?

It's Thursday!

My absolutely favorite day of the week.

Today I have author,

Amy McGuire

As a mother of a nearly four-year-old drama queen and wife of a busy youth pastor I have learned the art of multi-tasking.  I think it started when my little one came into the world.  I used to make a sandwich and eat it with one hand while feeding her.  Dinners too were one-handed while I carried around a fussy baby.  Now that she’s older it’s teeth brushing while she sits on the potty or feeding her a night time snack while reading a bedtime story.

As a stay-at-home mom I have heard the whole range of comments, from “You’re a stay-at-home mom?  What do you do all day?” to my personal favourite, “Oh, I wish I could just quit my job and be home with the kids all day.”  And then there’s, “All that free time! No wonder you’re a writer!”  I’ve learned to ignore the jibes and chuckle under my breath at the misconceptions and misplaced envy.  I think if I didn’t, I would cheerfully strangle my ‘well-meaning’ friends and acquaintances.   

When I decided not to go back to work after my maternity leave was up I had no idea that being a full-time mother would be more work than my full-time job.  Before I got pregnant I worked as a receptionist for a condo development company for almost four years, 8:30 to 5, Monday to Friday.  At the end of each workday I would take the subway home, cook dinner, enjoy a nice evening with my husband and turn in early.  Oh, and I got every weekend and holiday off.  

They say hindsight is twenty-twenty.  Never has that been more true than now when I try to find a few moments in each day to write, edit, market and prepare my books for sale.  I didn’t start to consider becoming published until my daughter was nearly ten months old.  If I had been writing all those years I used to take the subway back and forth to work, forty-five minutes each way, I would probably have a whole stack of books to my name.  Maybe I would even have a publishing contract by now.  As it is, I have taken it upon myself to publish my own works and while it is rewarding to see my novel out there, at times it would be nice to have the support of a traditional house.  At the very least I would be able to charge a little more for my books.

And yet, would I trade this season of my life?  Not for a million book sales.  I write in my ‘free time’ between dishes, cooking and raising my daughter who makes every day shine with her bubbly personality and zest for life.  I write and edit and market between making beds, folding laundry, cleaning up messes, changing the kitty litter and making sure the cats don’t starve.  I write between church, family and life obligations.  It’s certainly harder to be an author now that my life is so much fuller, but it’s more rewarding.  I’m leaving my daughter a legacy with my books.  I’m teaching her that she can follow her dreams, whatever they may be.  Life is busy, but I love what I do.  I’m so blessed with an understanding husband who sends me away on ‘writers retreats’ every few months.  My family’s support has definitely helped keep me sane.

 _______________________________

Amy lives in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and their young daughter.  As the child of missionary parents she grew up in East Africa and has gained a rich knowledge of the world around her.  She has had a passion for English Literature and romance since she was a little girl.  She began writing poetry and stories almost as soon as she could pick up a pencil.  She writes young adult romance under the pen name, Amy McGuire and Sweet Love is her first published novel, available both on her website and Amazon.  Sweet Love is the first in a five book series entitled, The Heart’s Five Senses.  She wrote books one through three in 2009 while her daughter napped and is currently working on book four.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/Htnaoa

Website: http://www.shesanauthor.com/apps/webstore

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authoramymcguire

Twitter: @shesanauthor