Monday, June 16, 2014

The Summertime Writing Life

The past month has been slightly insane, so I apologize for not giving this blog the attention it deserves. I always forget how hectic the last two weeks of school get with various special events, last day of school parties and field trips and scrambling at the last minute to get our teachers some well-deserved end-of-year gifts. To top it all off, we got a puppy on Memorial Day weekend, and I'd forgotten how much time is spent potty-training, making sure she doesn't electrocute herself on a power cord, and trying to prevent her from having an accident on the one small rug left in the downstairs part of the house (of course)!

The newest member of our family on the left.


I always have a hard time balancing having my kids home over the summer with completing my contract work and sending out new article queries. This year I'm also revising both a YA and MG novel so I can have the opening pages critiqued at our local SCBWI Conference in mid-September, which I don't get paid for, unfortunately. I really don't have the option of sending my kids to camps all summer long so I can work (camps for two kids can get expensive) but I do try to send them to at least two camps so I can meet pressing deadlines and attend meetings. The rest of the time we work out an arrangement where I try to work during the morning hours and we do extracurricular activities like the library, piano lessons, playdates or the pool in the afternoons. Because they are now both 8 and 11, it works out pretty well for us. They like having the time to relax at home, and I like not having to shuttle them back and forth to school and pack lunches for a few months.

I started my freelance writing career by writing about my kids, so I was excited to get the chance to interview Kerrie McLoughlin,  a fellow mom writer and author of the e-book "Make Money to Write About Your Kids: Get Published in Parenting and Family Magazines" over at WOW! Women on Writing. It helped motivate me to begin querying regional parenting magazines again with my own list of reprints.

Happy (Summertime) Writing!