How Do I Do It? Really? You Really Wanna Know?

Ok, I'll tell you.

First, let me say... I don't think that you should do it this way. It works for me, but that's all I can say.

Second, I just poured a cup of coffee and it's 9:45 pm.

Third, that's about it. Coffee and lots of it.

Cross-post: What happens after you get the contract

Over at Mama Needs A Book Contract!

My Glamorous Fashonista Life

Yep. That's right. it's glamorous all right... I thought you might like to see what I'm wearing around the house today:


Yes, those are Socks With Crocs. The First Great Mortal Fashion Sin. You'll notice I'm also committing Sin Number Two with rolled up pant legs because the pants are too long.

I need Tim Gunn, that's all I can say.

Day Care Cam

I can't watch this from work, but because I'm working from home today, I can watch my daughter having fun at day care:

They are playing at the water table, E has her back to the camera and is wearing a white smock to keep dry. The lady sitting next to her is the teacher in charge of the room.

She's the sweetest little lady, only about four-foot-nuthin' and E quite likes her.

E has so much fun at day care that even though I'm home working today, I didn't keep her at home. She saw her dad getting his jacket on and she ran to her jacket saying "on? on? on?" and then as soon as she got her jacket on she grabbed her stuffie and waved at me, saying "bye!", then proceeded to knock on the door so we'd let her out.

Yeah, day care is horrible for children. I'm such a mean parent for subjecting her to institutionalized day care. And even worse, a 'big box' day care like this one.

It's done horrible things to her like send her home singing and dancing and learning to share. What was I thinking?

/sarcasm

You know, if at some point I did find myself working from home, I think I'd still send my daughter to day care in the mornings. I get a lot of work done and she has FUN!!

When I'm feeling judgy

Have you ever had a moment when you are just feeling judgy? You know, when you just want to smack someone or your eyes are rolling so far back in your head that if the wind changes they'll stay that way?

Today was one of those days.

We went to the zoo. (Note, brother carrying his sister's coat and sister saying "get me out of this flippin' contraption, there are animals to squeal at!!)

We did have fun, we had a lot of fun. The kids wore themselves out and they both love the zoo now. M was never a zoo kid, but in the last year he's started to love it. E is a total zoo kid because there are Animals! With fur! And they are cute! Her favourite is the warthog, I swear. She goes nuts when she sees him.

It would have been perfect if it weren't for ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE. I don't mind the kids running around, it's just some of those parents. The lady yelling at her son because he wasn't pushing the stroller right ("you just about ran into that lady!") who five minutes later nearly ran over E with her crazy stroller-pushing-while-dragging-kid maneuvers.

I did feel bad for the one mother who was trying to jam her stroller up a hill and thought she was ramming it over a bump, until she realized that the reason it wouldn't go forward was her child's leg was caught against a fence. Yeah, that sucked for her, I did feel bad.

And the people who STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD or, in the middle of an exhibit without pulling over to the side. What is with that? You are not the only person in the zoo today.

But the zoo was fun for the kids. It was a bit chilly off and on, about 6 degrees celsius. Even I needed a nap when I came home.

But the judgy feeling was still there.

I was watching a show, one of those reality shows where contestants try to lose weight. (It's called X-Weighted, I tried out for it once, but was rejected because there wasn't enough conflict in my life!) This woman is stressing about going back to work after her maternity leave (which in Canada is one year).

She's crying and saying "I don't know how people do it! I don't want to leave my baby!" Which translates to me as "all you other women must be heartless". Which, let's face it, probably wasn't what she meant.

But my inner judge said "suck it up princess".

Which I find really sad! I find it sad that when I'm in uber-PMS, judgy mode because it means that my capacity to love anything and anyone is compromised. And my capacity to receive love is compromised.

So this is what I do:

I clear my mind and pray, asking that the spirit of strife leave me.

I imagine the person I'm judging is sitting in a room with me and it's just them and me... then I try to imagine the words I'm thinking actually coming out of my mouth. I imagine what their face would look like if they heard those words.

I ask forgiveness in my heart for thinking those things. (There but by the grace of God go I.)

I receive the forgiveness (crucial step!!) and I move on.

It can be hard to stop being judgy. I think I mentioned earlier that I was diagnosed with Premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PMDD a few months ago. I take a daily dose of vitamins. Or, rather, I am supposed to. But sometimes I forget. Luckily I have a job that has the side benefit of just enough stress to remind me each day to take my Happy Pills.

But more than a physical reason, being judgmental (well, I call it judgy because it sounds nicer!) can be a habit. And I don't want it to be MY habit any more. The first step is stopping the words from coming out of my mouth. The second step is stopping them from forming in my brain.

I'm a work in progress.

Choosing Happiness

I am watching a program this afternoon about being happy.

Travelling across the country, using surveys to determine the extent of the average Canadian's happiness, Sonja and Jon meet people from all different social-economic levels including a cheery funeral director who loves his work and a disabled single mother who happily spends her free time volunteering. Sonja and Jon find that money and prestige are not a reflection of a person's happiness. In fact, many people who are lower on the social-economic scale rank much higher in terms of happiness than many high-income professionals. Sonja reveals that the life traits adopted by satisfied people are the ones that contribute to a truly happy existence and are lessons that everyone can learn in order to live a more fulfilled life.

They say that 50% of your happiness quotient comes from genetics, 10% from life experiences and 40% from ... ?

Leaving many to think that 40% is choice. Can you imagine? They interivewed one woman who says she wakes up happy every morning. And looking at her, you truly believe that she is happy. She shows us a prime example of the "Duchenne smile". Another woman has used that smile to actually predict the lives of her students. The ones who have that smile are more likely to be married longer, sometimes into the decades, where the others either aren't married or are divorced.

You can find out more at Happy Canadians.

What does this have to do with being a Writing Mother? I'm not always happy. Big surprise there to friends and family ;0).

But starting today I'm going to choose to be happy more. I'm going to say thank you more to my friends rather than complain that no one comes to my parties. I'm going to delete emails that upset me or make me want to react in anger. I'm going to smile and laugh when I am frustrated or tired.

The key is... choosing to be happy isn't about faking it. It's about letting go of anger. Yes, there are deadlines to meet and kids who won't sleep. And there are days I oversleep and rush to work horrible hair. There are piles of laundry and kids who would rather throw spaghetti than eat it.

But there's also the promise of income and children who make the days worthwhile. There are days when I have a wonderful job full of opportunities and hair with it's own personality. We have enough clothes on our back and food in the cupboard.

These are the things I'm going to focus on. These are the choices and opportunities I'm going to seek.

Working Squared

We fall asleep with a pile of laundry between us. A testament to the day's unfinished business. Most nights a six year old boy clambers over the pile, sometimes using it as his blanket and I wake up to find boy drool on my pillow and my son using my good work pants - the ones that don't cut me off in the middle and hang nice with their pleat - as his binkie.

My husband, Major Man, is softly snoring on the other side of the mountain of laundry. I can reach him with my fingers and sometimes fall asleep with my hand on his arm. I say snoring softly because we recently discovered those nose, uh, thingies that open the nasal passages.

So my hand can rest on his arm, instead of my toe or finger poking him in the side to Roll Over Already You Great Snoring Oaf.

I've been working a lot lately. My new-again job is in sales and my hours (which recently changed) are 7am - 3pm. Three days a week my husband stays home to take M to school and watch E for the rest of the day, until I return. Two afternoons a week, the sweet neighbour lady watches E until my return.

Upon my return I have a few minutes to download my email and check for emergencies in my inbox.

I know I've babbled about this before... so lets move on.

In theory, it looked like I'd have plenty of time to write in the afternoons. But instead my time feels strained, condensed and overflowing all at the same time. I feel that so many tasks are being left undone (the laundry being one of them) and so many balls are being dropped (a query? what is that?) that I feel suddenly like I'm only half a mom and half a writer...

Sure, I can almost read your comments already: just let the laundry go, don't worry about having a clean house, make more macaroni...

But I love my house in order; I just don't do it very well. I need to have clean work clothes; I just can't wash clothes worth a damn. I like feeding my kids healthy food; I just don't have the time to shop for it.

I'm re-reading To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife by Caitlin Flanagan. I quit reading it last time right around the same chapter I'm on now. The chapter where she starts talking about a nanny.

First of all, it would cost me about $2000 a month for a nanny... and then there would be the guilt. Oh, oh, oh the guilt of having someone else rock my babies to sleep. Someone else hugging their bumps better.

But then.... someone else doing the laundry. Someone else reminding me to pick up diapers before I reach in the bag and pull out the last one because Major Man apparently thinks that the Diaper Fairy brings them...

This time I kind of get it. Last time I was disgusted that Flanagan would think about hiring a nanny... I was bothered by her admissions that she was ok with someone else doing all the child raising. But reading it now, I see she wasn't ok with it at all.. she is ok with it now, which is easy to be when you've done something.

She just realized that something had to give. She wasn't going to do It All. She wasn't going to buy into the story that I have, that I can bake my own bread, work full time, write the rest of the time, be a good mom, have the laundry done, the shopping squared away and still get to Beavers and swimming and .... and .....

So I've been re-jigging the priorities. I may write a bit less, I no longer feel the burning desire to write anything and everything that gets offered to me.

I Have Broken the Flux Capacitor

At this moment in my life I believe I am operating at full capacity. I don't think I have room for one more thing. Perhaps that's why Jordan Sadler's article, An Open Letter to My Son's PTA really struck a chord with me.

Some of us need to work full time. Some of us even need to work more than full time. For the past year and a bit I've been revelling in my abilities to work from home while raising my kids. You could say that I might even have been smug about it. I tried hard not to be. After all, I'd been a full time working single mother for a while so I knew that we all do the best we can at the time.

But even last year as I wrote my book and I juggled a full slate of columns and articles, I squeezed in a piddly four or five volunteer mornings in the Kindergarten classroom. The teachers were very accomodating and let me bring my daughter in while I volunteered. But it became apparent that we were more of a distraction than anything.

And I tried to get to the PTA meetings, I did. But, um, they coincided with my Thursday night off. And I love my Thursday night TV line up, it's my night to relax and veg and maybe even drink a beer glass of wine while hanging out with my husband.

And I admit, that activity had priority over listening to moms with pet projects complain about the lack of funding for security cameras/rubber bits for the playground/paint for walls... It seemed that there was already a clique of moms who had either raised their kids next door to each other, had their kids on the same team or volunteered at the same preschool. I did not fit in.

I tried. But I couldn't get revved up about their projects. I asked questions about why they were necessary or why we needed to paint the library wall two months before the end of school when a) the walls are covered in posters and b) the unionized maintenance staff will get around to it one of these years.

Anyways. I thought maybe I'd get involved this year.

But now I have n+1 projects on my plate where n = the maximum amount I should have and remain sane.

I now work from 6 am to 2 pm and let me tell you... me going around and saying I had "better hours" is somewhat of a pipe dream. Sure it's nice to leave the office at 2pm... but it's not so nice to leave the house at 5:45 am. They say I'll adjust.

I have one proposal sitting at four publishers. I have a query into my current publisher and I'm waiting to find out if they want a detailed proposal or an outline.

I have an article due on the 12th.

I also fly away for four days on the 12th.

I got sucked into going to a golf tournament for work on Monday. Forgetting that it's been four years since I've golfed...

I just begun my Pampered Chef training.

I am late in sending out my eNewsletter.

My juggling act is wobbly. My hold on sanity is tenuous. My veneer is cracking. I may be at maximum velocity, Captain.

(Cross posted at Mama Needs A Book Contract)

Of Other Mothers

Joshilyn (Joss, never Josh) Jackson has an interview up today on her blog Faster Than Kudzu. If you don't read Joss' blog, then you are missin' out on some funny stuff.

Julie Kenner is back to talk about the latest in her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series and she talks about how her life as a writer changed after she had a child:

My schedule has changed dramatically over the years. At first, I was practicing law while writing and my husband was in grad school. We would both come home from work/school and write/study. Worked great :)

Then I had a baby, and life got hectic. I wrote in the evenings after she went to sleep until I could afford to quit and write full time. Then I had her in day care and would write during the day.

She has turned 5 and is in school now, but since we homeschool, she’s home with me during the day, and so is her sister, who we adopted at age three last October. So now I have two kids at home with me doing school (or preK play) during what used to be my writing time. So I’m back to writing in the evenings and squeezing it in.

Right now, a day might be:

7:30 — get up and veg in the recliner while the girls watch Curious George.
8:00 – noonish — school with the oldest while the littlest does “play school” and some speech and sign language games.
noon-1 — lunch, and I’ll usually answer emails while they eat
1-2 – any school we haven’t finished
2-5 – they play, sometimes by themselves, sometimes with me. I try to do non-writing writing stuff (emails,mailings, etc.). Or errands.
5-6 – daddy time. I write
Family time until their bedtime.
9-whenever. My writing time.

When I’m on a crazy deadline (like last week) going to bed at 2-3 is common. And I often will beg my mom to come over around lunch time once or twice a week to play with the girls so those afternoon hours can be writing time. During those weeks we squeeze in karate, piano and speech therapy for the little one!

It’s insane, but I’m loving it.

I heartily encourage you to go read it the rest of it. This past month I've also been begging my mother to come over and help with the kids, or I ship them over there for a break. She brings them back bathed, pajama'd, tired and ready for bed. That is a big secret to my success! (Thanks mom!)

Interview: The Writing Mother

No, I'm not interviewing myself... but Kelly Robbins of the Copywriting Institute interviewed me a while back and my interview is now up!

Find out how I cope with writing at home with my kids, and how I broke into my niche market!

IN WHICH I HAVE SOME CHEESE WITH MY WHINE

Oh I'm a little cranky today. It was one of THOSE days where nothing gets done. Where every time I ventured within a foot of my computer I would be pulled away by one of the kids.

My son is pretty easy to appease. He can pretty much be pointed in a direction and he'll run with it. My daughter, 10.5 months, not so much. Her favorite thing to do as soon as I sit at the computer is to crawl over and head for the cables beneath the desk I really wish I was organized enough to have my cables all neat and tidy and tucked. But I'm not.

I try to block her with my legs, but I can't really move since I'm usually worried about moving my chair and rolling it over a finger.

That lasts all of a minute before she objects and I pick her up and go play. Apparently she doesn't yet understand "Mommy has to transcribe three long interviews, honey!"

So why am I sitting here blogging...?

Just us chickens

I think that the midnight hour is a time seen by many writers. Especially the Writing Mothers. It's the quiet, still time of night when everyone is asleep and you are either just finishing up for the day, or just getting wound up.

Back when I worked full time and wrote "the rest of the time" I would rarely go to bed before midnight. It was just the way it was. My son was in bed, asleep by 8 pm and I would be sitting at the computer with the TV providing some background noise (and distraction).

These days I don't often see midnight as much as I used to. I get more done during the day. Normally. Today was not a normal day.

I had a photo shoot for my book, which was a blast. My model is one of the top professional horse trainers in Canada. In fact she is THE top rider. And she's gorgeous. And a sweetheart. You can't even hate her.

I battled traffic and road closures and was (unfortunately) late for our shoot, but we got it all done.

Earlier in the day a family friend had called. She's an accountant and had offered to help walk me through the hell that is QuickBooks. (Oh sure, you all SAY it's easy but you overestimate my mathability) She called and said "So, we're on for tonight, right?"

She'd forgotten to call and ask if Tuesday was ok for me. I made it ok. We walked through the process and I learned a great deal about what I can and can't do in the program. I have some data entry to get done... but other than that... I think I'll be ok.

The issues stem from the fact that there are many ways I receive money from publications. One, I send in an invoice when I submit my story and I'm paid on publication. Another is paid on acceptance. Another pays in US dollars and another pays in US dollars but on published word count only.. if they use it.

It's all straight in my head, really.

I started a new book yesterday. Jodi Picoult's Perfect Match. Boy, this is one emotionally draining book. But it's SO good. I'm not reading any more tonight as it's time for me to hit the sack, but you can bet it will be calling me in the morning!

The Whys.

If you are a part of my Writing Mother Yahoo Group, then you may have already heard... I'm officially, officially a full time freelancer. But weren't you already? Yes and no. Yes, I freelanced full time. But I had this wonderful thing called Maternity Leave Benefits going on.

And at the end of this month, the benefits run out. So it was time to let my boss know that I wasn't coming back.

So I did.

Then he offered me a raise AND a promotion.

While I told him that I'd think about it... there really isn't anything to think about. I will still be mentally and financially better off staying at home. Truthfully, I might be a bit financially ahead if I went back, but is a couple thousand dollars a year worth the sacrifice mentally?

Today I helped my daughter stand on her own. She's ten months and can only do it for a few seconds before she's over come with giggles and she either starts to topple or she flops down on her butt.

I was here when the neighbor kid came over for the first time to ask if my son could come out to play. My son's face lit up because he's been quite leery of the boys in the neighborhood and now it seems they are buddies.

I was here to stack blocks with my daughter and giggle with my son as she smashed the blocks down with a mighty baby roar.

When my son splashed water all over the bathroom, I had enough energy left to accept it calmly and deal with it rather than get frustrated because it was another job to do before I could go write for the day. I'd been writing all day, I wasn't pressed for time.

I was worried about giving up my RRSPs and DPSP (deferred profit sharing plan) until I realized that I don't have to share my profits with anyone. And yesterday I signed up for a new RRSP with a really hot financial consultant... who happens to be my husband.

A fellow writer cautioned me about leaping into the freelance pool too soon. I understood her concerns, she'd tried to do it before. I did too... as a single mother with hardly any writing credits to my name. I wasn't in a good place emotionally as I'd just come out the "sunny" side (supposedly) of a divorce. I was too stressed to be a good writer or a good mother. Now I have five years experience with both.

And some savings... that's important. I've known this day was coming for over a year... ever since I got pregnant with my daughter I knew that I'd stay home when it was time. And I know WHY I'm staying home, deep in my heart and soul.

All moved!

Sorry for the delay in posting my friendly internets, I was moving! It was a little stressful and not nearly as organized as our last move. I throw my hands up because I had no part in this move. Yes I had a temper tantrum and told the family that THEY could plan the dern thing if they didn't want to listen to me. I feel vindicated. Disorganized and chaotic, but vindicated. "Ha, I won that argument!" she said from behind the pile of boxes.

How disorganized am I? Check out my new office:

It doubles as the play area for the kids. And apparently a storage spot for my saddle over there in the corner!

One thing that's great about this place is that the main floor is all one floor. There are no stairs at the entry way and I can close the door to downstairs. My daughter isn't ready to climb up the stairs yet, but when she is, a baby gate will work nicely. But for now, she can do her crawl/scoot thing all over the office, dining room and kitchen.

Off to the left side of the picture are the sliding doors to outside. There's a small yard that barely contains all the outside toys.

I got quite overwhelmed in the last week with moving and family stresses. I have been waking up in the middle of the night with my jaw clenched. It doesn't help that my daughter has been waking up 3-4 times a night either. What's up with that?! I considered going for a nap this morning while she did, but I really don't want to fall further behind in my writing.

So, without further delay... I'm off to write. Er, check email... er... have more coffee.

Just another day at the office

What does your writing space look like?





If it's anything like mine:





Then it's probably messy!





I do have a desk in my bedroom, it's a corner desk and my regular computer is there. But for actually getting writing done during the day, I need to be out among the masses. (The desk in the room leaves little room for kids)

So I sit here, in the living room with a TV tray in front of me. I sit on the piano bench. The kids play around the rest of the room. My five year old isn't always up for playing with the baby, but the mornings are usually spent together. (The TV isn't always ON, I should mention.)


Notice that the baby has copious amounts of padding around her. She's in this kind of spastic, body-flinging phase.

In fact, I have a confession to make. Yesterday she launched herself off of the bed. Yes. Off the bed. I managed to go five and a half years without dropping a kid and I've let this one fall twice. Gah.

I saw her do it and I just wasn't fast enough. She was sitting in the middle of the bed, kind of cross legged. She leaned forward and I thought, "oh, she's going to try crawling". At that moment she kicked her feet and FLEW off the bed. She landed on her cheek, which I thought was going to bruise, but hasn't. Yet.

This is another reason why I won't be writing in my bedroom any more, unless she's asleep, I can't turn my back on her while she's sitting on the bed.

I remember when I could just lay her down and she'd fall asleep on the bed behind me, but we've entered a new era now. The Mobile Era.

You will also notice TWO bouncy chair-type thingies. The Jumparoo in the top pic and the exersaucer in the second. We perfer to call them the "Circle of Neglect". I still baby wear, I still have my sling, but it doesn't work as well now, she's a little bored playing with my lips, nose, eyes and hair... and to be honest, it hurts like heck when she does. So she gets to play with things now... on her own.

I don't actually neglect her, when she cries or fusses, I pick her up, foresaking the writing. I find that if I do that (let her play independently until she wants me) then she goes for longer periods of time playing on her own. It's amazing that she can be entertained by a stuffed animal or single toy for twenty minutes.


So there you go. I feel like the internets have seen my underwear or something... anyone else want to share?

Tax Tips for American Writers

Now, I'm Canadian, so I don't know one whit about the US tax system except for one thing: Americans get to write off the interest on their mortgage.

Well, that and Americans pay way less tax than I do!

But the Paperback Writer has some more information for you as well as some resources. Check her out!

Also posting tax tips is Debbie Ridpath Ohi on her blog Will Write for Chocolate. I have only JUST found Debbie's blog, so I shall go peruse now... seems she has some tips for those of us North of the 49th as she's a Canuck too.

Interview: Alyice Edrich

Alyice Edrich has been writing from home since 1999, when she was encouraged by her mother-in-law to pursue a book idea. The book never became published, due to various circumstances, but it was just the nudge she needed to start an exciting career as a freelance writer.

After years of hard work, studying, and dedication, she produces an award-winning publication known as The Dabbling Mum®, three free e-zines, and has self-published several books. She also ghost writes for small businesses, writes columns for both print and online magazines, and has had a few articles included in book compilations.

Some consider her “Super Woman” but she says she’s just a mom with a dream who works very hard at making it all work together. Learn how she manages to juggle it all in our exclusive, one-on-one interview!

1. What came first, being a writer or a mother?

Definitely being a mother came first. When I was a little girl, I was often asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I could think of nothing more than being a mother. I wanted to have a family of my own one day and raise beautiful, God-fearing, God-loving, happy, healthy, joy-filled children.

When I looked towards my future, I saw Christmases filled with my children and their families—grandchildren, great-grandchildren, cousins, aunts, and uncles—all gathered around a warm fire, listening to Christmas gone by, laughing and giggling as we waited for Santa Clause to come with presents to unwrap. I saw family vacations in Hawaii and the Bahamas and Dude Ranches where we gathered once a year just to relish our time together.

Those are still dreams I hold dear and pray will one day come to pass.

Writing didn’t really take shape, as a career, until my daughter died several years ago. I journaled 24 hours a day through my grief. I journaled about anger and hurt and confusion. I journaled the whys and hows and the good memories. I journaled because I felt closer to by daughter and to God, because it somehow gave me hope and peace of mind. One day, my mother-in-law read my journal entries and told me I should get it published. So I sought publication. It went to the final stages of a big time publisher before it was turned down for being too narrow a market. That fueled the flames to consider writing for a living.

Then one day, after starting a career as a Mobile Notary, I wrote a book on the subject—a book because there wasn’t any of its kind and I wanted to share what I learned, I wanted my life to count for something and it was fun earning money doing something I had a natural talent to do—write.

Researching ways to market that book, I began writing free articles in exchange for advertising. The next thing I knew, I was querying newspapers, small magazines, and starting my own magazine. All it took was a spark—one person’s interest in my writing to tell me that all those years I had written “books” to friends meant there was a writer within trying to get out.


2. How do you manage your work day? Can you give us a ‘day in the life’ snapshot of a regular work day for you?

Over the years I’ve tried many different routines, but I think I’ve finally found one that works for me—though I do occasionally sway from it.

I wake up every morning to breakfast with the kids. In the past, they’d skip breakfast, but after my mom died, I began reading feverently about health and nutrition and taking care of our bodies and realized that even though they hated breakfast, it was too important to skip! So now I have a little breakfast schedule on the refrigerator—ever meal takes no more than 20 minutes to make. I get up early—no small feat since I am not a morning person—and we eat breakfast together. (A true blessing came when the other day my son was asked to say prayers and he said, “I’m thankful for breakfast in the morning.” I looked at him in bewilderment, and he said, “What? It’s true.” Out of the mouth of a 16 year old!)

After the kids leave for school, I check my email and make an entry in my personal blogs (http://shoutlife.com/dabblingmum and http://myspace.com/dabblingmum). Monday, Wednesay, and Friday I post a Q&A on DM Speaks (http://thedabblingmum.blogspot.com/). It’s a fun blog filled with expert advice from business owners, writers, authors, and literary agents. I give myself an hour for this.

Once that is done, I sit down to read my Bible, pray, and then exercise.

I usually start work around 11 am.

My work time varies: writing blog posts for clients, writing columns for online magazines, writing articles or web content for small businesses, or writing content for my latest e-book.

When I am done with work that has to get done I look for more work. I check out job boards like craigslist.com or search online for keywords like, “bloggers for hire” or “parenting articles wanted”. If something catches my eye and the pay is right, I put in a bid.

Sometimes, I write articles that I distribute for free in exchange for advertising space. This is explained in more detail in an article I wrote called, Marketing with Articles. (http://www.thedabblingmum.com/books/marketing_acampaign.htm)

And then there are the days I spend hunting down places to advertise—which is no small task, let me tell you! Advertising in print publications can be quite costly, yet advertising is vital to the success of my e-book business. Sometimes, I am lucky to find online newsletters that I can barter advertising with—they advertise in my e-zine in return I advertise in theirs.

When work is done—usually around 5 pm—I begin cooking dinner for the family. If the kids are in a playful mood, we’ll play a board game. If not, I will watch a television show with them. My daughter is a huge t.v. buff, so we enjoy watching a show and talking about it together. Other times, they just like to be left alone and I give them that space—that option to choose.


3. What is your greatest challenge as a writing mother and how do you overcome it?

My greatest challenge is stopping. As a sole proprietor, everything falls into my lap—advertising, public relations, publicity, marketing, web design, accounting, writing, correspondence, and so forth. There never seems to be enough time in the day to do everything I want to accomplish and it is easy to get burnt out.

Another challenge is getting started. There are days when I simply do not want to work—when I’d rather play hookie surfing the web, getting outside, visiting with people. And I have to force myself to work because if I don’t make time to work, my business will not succeed.

Let me give you an example.

Two years ago, I was making nearly $50,000 from home, before expenses, writing for others and selling my e-books. Last year we moved to a new state and to be quite honest, I was burnt out. I needed a break. I was overdue for a break. I had been going non-stop since I started the business and during those years we moved five times, to five different states, and my husband was a full time college student for three of those years. A lot of weight was on my shoulders and last year I just couldn’t do it anymore. My taxes came back from the tax lady this year. I made $31,000 from home, before expenses—and if I were to be quite honest, half of that was from e-book sales! I literally had to force myself to work every day of last year.

Thank you Alyice!

WAHM Thoughts

I know I didn't have a complete grasp of what it would be like to work at home. I thought I'd be sitting at parks writing and bouncing my baby on my knees while penning great works.

Or, you know, NOT.

I have been trying very hard to stick to some sort of schedule, but these little humans, the ones with the chubby faces and hungry mouths, they kind of want interaction and they refuse to be scheduled beyond the vagaries of "morning nap" and "afternoon nap".

My son is pretty good, although today when I was on the phone with my writing buddy, Tiff, he decided that it would be fun to attack me with nunchucks, yelling like a warrior and spitting spit. Not appropriate behaviour. So he followed it up with some climbing over the baby. Also inappropriate.

(She is learning to sit up and I have pillows propped all around her so if she topples then she won't crack her noggin on the laminate floor.)

I did manage to get my minimum 1000 words written though. It just took me most of the morning. Gee, I remember when I was working outside the home and I could write 1000 words in 15 minutes!

WAHM Week at the Writing Thoughts Blog

Over on the right hand side, you'll see a bunch of great blogs. One of them is Writing Thoughts which is run by Laura Spencer. She'll be hosting WAHM Week this week. Make sure you stop by!