Stuff I think about when I should be writing...

Happy Fourth of July all Americans!

It's the one day everyone, whatever political party, whatever race, creed, color, whatever you are, we can all get along and feel good about life here in this country. It's the one day we don't fight, we don't argue.  Instead, we try and catch candy at parades, drink beer, serve grilled food on red white and blue plates and spend the night watching the city we live in blow up stuff made in China.  I love the 4th of July.  It's pretty much what being an American is about:  spending time outside, drinking, eating grilled everything, making a lot of noise, cheering for random things, singing "God Bless America" because no one normal can actually sing the National Anthem and not hurt themselves.

It's just one of the many things I think about as I'm trying to now crank out the second Elsie Book.  The thing about writing when writing isn't your full time job is that a lot of other thoughts creep into your brain when you are writing.

20 plus people in their family...I still
wash more clothes than they do.  I just
know it!

Is the laundry done?  (How many loads to the Duggers do?  I know I do more loads of laundry per month than they do.)

Is the bathroom clean?  Do I care?

Did I pay the house payment this month?  Phone bill?  Cable bill?

I wonder where the kids are.  Am I a bad mother because I don't know where my 16 year old daughter is at this exact second?

What page am I on in this book?

Those of you who write and are trying to launch a career as an author, you know what I'm talking about. Being a creative person in a very non-creative world bites. 

I just read an article the other day about how people in certain jobs making less money, but they are happier with what they are doing.  Typically those in the creative arts don't have the income at those in business or in some form of non-creative job.  But they are happy.

Last week I spent Saturday putting my first Elsie book together.  It was truly the best day I'd had in a long time.  Every minute I spend at the computer writing, blogging, creating my own literary world is a happy minute.  Every minute I spend away from it is not.

But writing, for me, doesn't pay the bills yet.  It will, someday, I believe.  But for now I have some staggering bills I need to pay and those aren't going to go away just because I've found my bliss.

People asked me when I was young what I wanted to be.  I always had an answer.  I wanted to be a librarian, a paramedic, a rock star, a jockey, a world class gymnast, a horse breeder.  (All of these things my mother

informed me would never, ever be my lot in life.  Seriously, who tells a ten year old she's too fat to be a jockey?  Who tells an 8th grader being a librarian isn't a job, or being a paramedic would be impossible since I, as an 8th grader, don't know what to do if I see some one's brains on the grass.  I guess they would have taught me what to do, you know, in paramedic training, but since I didn't know what to do when I was 13, I gave up that dream.)  The one thing, though, I knew from the time I was in second grade was that I wanted to write.  I wanted to tell stories.

I think most of us creative types know what we want to be when we grow up.  But making what we want to be into a job that will support us is daunting, sometimes scary.

Thinking about these things takes up a lot of time.  It's a big reason why that second Elsie book isn't completed...

BTW, for those of you who must have your books in print, Elsie W. book #1 is now available!
Click here to purchase!

Click here to purchase for your Nook or other reading devices.