Being a Write-At-Home Mom

Any working mother will tell you it takes an amazing amount of skills to successfully navigate each and every day. Multi-tasking is imperative. A working mother must be chauffeur, chef, secretary and maid, in addition to the job they’re paid to do. 

When the job is writing, things can get a little more interesting. When you’re an accountant or history professor or waitress, you can separate your work life from your home life. As a writer, there is no “bringing work home”. A writer’s work is always with them, inside their head, fighting for attention. 

So, when I’m driving my kids to a doctor appointment or cooking dinner or fending off a grabby toddler while trying to fold clean towels, I’ve got a few other people inside my head saying things like “I wonder what would happen if …” and “Can you kill someone with a meat thermometer if you shoved it directly through the temple?” –The answer, in case you’re curious, is yes. At least in my new novel A LIFE BEYOND YESTERDAY the answer to the meat-thermometer-death-blow conundrum, is yes.

Unless you’re successful enough as an author to afford a nanny, working as both a writer and a mother can feel like the medieval torture of quartering. Sometimes I find myself feeling guilty for not giving my children 100 % of my attention 100 % of the time and then I feel guilty for not reaching my 2,000 words-a-day quota because I was busy with the children when they would have survived just fine playing safely in their rooms for an hour.
               

The answer? Do what you can, when you can, and hope for the best. If that means a question like “What’s that word? The one for having your body ripped apart by four horses?” creeps into your mind while changing diapers because you’re preparing to write a scene in which your main character feels torn in different directions, it’s okay. You’re not crazy, you’re just a writer.

What some people might call psychosis, writers call multi-tasking.

I'd Like To See E-Books Pull This One Off ...

How cool is this? A Tree made from books! In 20 years, I hope to have written enough books to build my own tree.

Also, Santa, if you're listening ... how about making my first release, A LIFE BEYOND YESTERDAY, a best-seller? Thanks!

Perfect Gifts for Writers

1. Scrivener writing software. $40







2. IP address fee paid for a year. (Mine would be around $90. If your wondering for your writer friend/spouse, I think that's about average.)


3. Author Swag for giveaways/promotion. Cafe Press and Zazzle are great places to start. $5 and up

4. A shiny new Author Logo. $125



5. Chic office accessories to make
desk-time more fun. See Jane Work has cute stuff online, Target has a nice selection in the store. $10 and up

 
6. Netbook for easy typing/researching on the go. Around $200

7. Unique USB Thumb Drives for the sale/giveaway of e-books.


8. Barnes and Noble or Amazon Books gift card. The best way to write great books is to read great books. Also, books on writing and books for researching themes (i.e. Celtic Myths for the paranormal writer, A History of Scotland for the Highland romance author.) $25 and up

9. A great coffee machine...cause every writer I know needs to mainline caffeine in order to meet deadlines on top of everyday life.

10. Dues or conference costs paid. Romance Writers of America membership $115, RWA Conference or Romantic Times convention.

Twitter Etiquette for Authors

• If every one of your posts is a plug for your writing, you're doing it wrong.

• If you only tweet excerpts from your novel, you're doing it wrong.

• If you send me SPAM the second I follow you, you're doing it wrong.

• If you post Review snippits once an hour, every hour for an entire day, you're doing it wrong.

• If you use # in front of half or more of the words in your post, you're doing it wrong.

• If you occasionally post about contests on your website, you're doing it correctly.

• If you sometimes post novel excerpts and self-promo but it isn't the majority of your tweets, you're doing it correctly.

• If you follow someone and then un-follow the moment they follow-back, you're doing it wrong.

What are some of the other annoying things you see on Twitter?

The Best and Worst of Christmas

Best Christmas Movies:

While there are many I could name as "the best Christmas movies", the original Gremlins and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation are indisputably two of the greatest. Two lesser known (at least to recent generations) movies that I've found to be some of my favorites are Christmas in Connecticut and Holiday Inn. If you haven't seen these, do yourself a favor and watch them this holiday season.

Worst Holiday Decorations

While no one can be blamed for having a slight curiosity about the "wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube man" of Christmas, you have to admit, this semi-recent craze is one of the tackiest Christmas traditions available at your local Wal-Mart.

"Hey, look! A ten foot, plastic, touch-button inflatable Snow Globe! That'll look great in our yard next to that old Ford we have up on blocks. We'll put it between the Ford and our trailer. It'll really tie the yard together."

Or, for some reason I'm not sure I even want to know, you can get a set of hollow, plastic, preferably weather-faded Nativity Scene people/animals and prop them up under a shoddy ply-wood lean-to. If you want to get real classy with it, drag out a bright orange extension cord and plug in a spotlight to shine on this atrocity so it cannot escape notice, even after dark. Presentation, after all, makes all the difference.

The Fictional Hymen

I've been reading a lot of historical romances over the last six months. At the risk of being ostracized by non-romance reading higher literary connoisseurs, I have to say: I love, love, love me some big brawny Scots in kilts.


There is one similarity, however, in nearly every single one of the historical romances I've read that drives me crazy, The Fictional Hymen. Or, rather, the breaking of said hymen.

Why is it, in historical fiction, losing one's virginity is so painful and terrible it always reads like the heroine is having an appendectomy sans sedation?

Okay, so the hero's wang is always of fictional proportions but still, why is it always the most painful thing in the entire world? I remember my first time clearly. Disappointing, uncomfortable, embarrassing maybe, but not the end of the freaking world. Of course, "he" was no where near "fictional proportions", still, I don't buy the scene where the heroine describes losing her virginity as being "ripped in half". WTH

Now, like I said, I still love historical romances. I'm just wondering what the deal is with this theme? I understand the nuances of the times may have left the woman with little to no knowledge of sex prior to marriage but I'm wondering how that translates to being "ripped in half" while losing one's virginity.

In none of the contemporary romances I've read have the heroines felt this way while losing their virginity. In contemporary romance, the heroine usually feels a twinge, a short spike of pain maybe, then she realizes she's having sex for the first time with a man who's cut like a Greek statue and she stops worrying about her stupid hymen.

I'm thinking maybe I'll make my daughter read only historical romances as a teen--and only to the first sexual encounter--so she'll never want to have sex. Hahaha On her 18th birthday, I'll gift her the last half of all those novels.

Annnd, on a lighter note...

I have some wonderful things happening during the first half of 2012. With my first book A LIFE BEYOND YESTERDAY set to release in February, I'll be doing some blog tours, shameless self-promo and even a few book signings in my local area.

I've been working on some promo stuff for give-aways and sale items for book signings and finally received my official, finished S.J. Drum logo.













I've also had a couple requests from literary agents and publishers to read the full SURPRISINGLY SUPERNATURAL manuscript for possible publication. *Fingers crossed, hoping someone is fabulous enough to pick it up!*

Now, for the Needs-Your-Input part of the program:

A lot of people are using e-readers these days so I've been working on some ideas for including e-books when I do author appearances. Specifically, I'm planning on obtaining a booth at the Yellow Springs Street Fair and will have printed copies of my book available for purchase. In addition to the traditional printed copies, I'm thinking of having some thumb-drives loaded with the e-pub/kindle/pdf version of the book for sale at the table as well.

My idea is to have the thumb-drives printed with my logo on the outside and attached to a book-sized, sturdy card-stock print of the cover of my book. I'll be able to sign/personalize the printed cover and you could, if you were so inclined, keep it (even frame it if you wanted, cause I'm just that awesome lol) This way, those that would rather read on their e-books don't have to walk away empty handed and I don't have to depend upon them going home, logging onto the internet, searching out my book, digging out a credit card, and ordering the e-book. Win/Win, right?

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Irrelevant profanities?