Down Time~Well Sort of...

It's been a few days since I've posted. From previous posts, you know I've been tripping the light fantastic over at the Southeastern Writers Association Conference. I picked up a few things that I had not thought about before. As usual, the queue for the "fifteen minutes of fame" otherwise known as the agent interviews were long.

I had lunch with the agent although I didn't know he was the agent at the time. A couple of author friends of mine were having lunch and he was at the table. We were discussing my new children's series of books. Jimmy, a fellow author, asked me if getting trademark infringement rights waived took a long time. I told him it took about as much time as an agent takes reviewing your query or partial. This received a laugh from fellow authors and a tap on the shoulder from the agent who was sitting on my left. Yes, I actually had my back turned to him instead of hanging on his every word. I guess it could have been an open-mouth-inset-foot moment, but he looked at me quizzically then laughed when he realized I wouldn't be hitting him up as an agent.

I did pick up a couple of new books at the bookstore. "Port to Nowhere" is an anthology of science fiction short stories...ISBN-0-9752542-2-7, published by Mystic Toad Press. Several stories are written by the SWA webmaster. A great read for those who have a little time to read in. I also picked up a copy of "The Dreaded Synopsis" by Elizabeth Sinclair...ISBN 1-892718-25-1, published by R. Smith Publishing. I can always use another reference book. This one is small but packed with information. A whirlwind of a conference!

Then I packed my bags and drove to Warm Springs, Georgia. I had two reasons for going. One for a public appearance and two to take my daughter up there for school. There is no easy way to get there. It's all back country roads. There's not much to that little town except the warm spring, the rehabilitation center, and a quaint, little town. One of the biggest draws is the "Little White House," FDR days.

Five hours of driving would not have been such a big thing except for the rain and twenty-one miles of road construction. Those miles felt like a thousand! Along the way around Baxley, my darling spouse complained of chest pains and shortness of breath. So it was a mad shuffle to find his nitroglycerin, aspirin, inhalers, his oxygen, etc. before we dash to the local emergency room. He is fine. My five-hour jaunt to my public appearance turned into a fifteen hour trip. This is one the main reasons I don't do too many public appearances these days, and settle for emails and blogging. Unfortunately, my cell phone and my wireless Internet would not work up in the mountains so I'm playing catch-up now. The return trip was uneventful other than rain again and logging trucks trying to take up the same space I was occupying on the road. You can't say my life is dull!

I'll post some more on writing techniques after I take my husband to his cardiologist and rest up a bit. This old body and mind just doesn't spring back as quickly as it once did.

The Master Juggler

Have you ever had so much going on in your life that you feel like you are constantly juggling? I think we all have. Mine gets so complicated at times, it's hard to remember my own name. It's pretty bad when you consider major surgery and hospital time...vacation time. Raise your hands and wave 'em wildly. Don't laugh, it actually happened just three short months ago in my life.

Like many people I juggle my family and career. Now, my family is complicated. Yeah, yeah, I know you are thinking how complicated can it be. Well, let me hit the highlights for you...one terminally ill husband, an almost 90-year old father in law with health issues of his own, four children (all grown but not all out of the house), six grandchildren who love their grandma, a dog, three cats-one of whom is four weeks old and too young to be away from her mama. Now that's just immediate family...the extended list of sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles would fill pages.

I can count four generations on holidays like 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. How many of you have an immediate family sit down dinner for sixteen? Well, that's standard for my house. Who needs to invite friends over when the immediate family in itself is a carousing, laughing, arguing bunch of youngens running down the hall every other day...even when it has been a month since we've gotten together... it still feels like yesterday. Now mind you, I'm not complaining. I love each and every one of them. I'll "kidnap" my grandchildren, in lots of one or two, for days. Having them all in my house for extended periods at one time is a yee-ha-ho-down for insanity, especially since they range in age from eight years to nine months old.

Then comes the career. I tried a lot of things over the years, job wise. Writing was the other thing I could do for me, about me, and for my sanity. I could hash out difficulties, spend time in my mind...ooh, a very scary place at times, and create. I found when writing I hit a chord with readers, on one end it was sympathy and the other end was thankfulness that they didn't have it quite so rough, and in the middle was empathy. It made them feel better about what they were going through. I chat with women going through health issues, dealing with the loss of family members, and dealing with a rare disease that doctors cock their heads at and go "Huh? I've never seen a case of this before." You think, "Nah, it can't happen." It happened yesterday in one of my husband's new doctor's office.

It's also the side I show in the writers forums I frequent. As it says in my bio...hard earned wisdom. This is my nonfiction side. The serious side of my writing articles and books. I believe that even hard earned wisdom can have humor. In in the face of adversity, you can learn, laugh and count your blessings. It could always be worse. Don't ever think it can't be, because just as soon as you do WORSE happens.

I used to look up in the sky and saying, "What now, God?" Well guess what, He showed me. I don't do that anymore. But that falls under my Christian genre articles and books that are part of my nonfiction repertoire. Being a lay speaker in my church only seemed natural when it was offered. I simply look at it as being able to come through the fire, being crispy around the edges, and not totally destroyed. If it helps someone else see what's going on in their life or better cope with it, then I've accomplished my goal.

Now, the fiction side of my writing is play time for me. I allow my mind to think of all the bad things in this world and put it in writing. As if I didn't have enough calamity in my own life I create more in fiction. Hey, sometimes you just have to read someone going through worse than you are. Let's be honest here, would you read fiction if it didn't have insurmountable odds conquered? That's the whole point of fiction...happy ending or not. It's an escape. It pulls you out of your body and transports you somewhere else. It may or may not be somewhere you actually want to be, but you struggle along with the protagonist and root for him/her. You curse the antagonist for putting the protagonist through it all, but you keep reading.

Most authors work on one article, book, or novel at a time. I write four or five. Right now, I've got a southern fiction- The Sacrifice, two non fictions- Wild Child-living with your brain injury child and To Have and Let Go, four of my juvenile fictions almost complete with illustrations, a science fiction tentatively titled Residespace, and an espionage thriller- The Mayan Serpent in the works. And just like any other writer, all have their respective deadlines on a flow chart.

Juggling is a way of life for me. Life is constant change and adaptation. My hopes for this site is to ease the way a bit. I will be posting excerpts of works in progress and some articles here to get some feedback, when I can juggle it into my schedule. I know you are probably wondering when, but ah ha, you are dealing with the master juggler...me. My schedule is set in sand and you know how sand is. Everything is doable in its time and place. Helen Reddy's song...I Am Woman...playing in my head. Don't remember the song...remember, I am a dinosaur headed for natural gas. Look it up and listen to it.