5 Questions from The Porch Swing for Loree Lough

What have you written? Fiction and nonfiction for adults and children (107 books in print; nearly 6M in circulation 7 book-to-movie options); more than 2,500 articles.

What do you read? Research manuals, mostly, so I'm sure to include authentic and accurate details in my books.

Why do you write? If I didn't, I'd get into trouble for repainting all the wood surfaces in our house. (Men! LOL)

This book is #2 in Heartwarming's
THOSE MARSHALL BOYS series.
Book #3 is due out in May.

Fun writing factoid (not technically a question, I know): I act out characters' mannerisms and facial expressions, and speak their lines of dialog aloud. (That weird truck with the men in white coats doesn't show up anymore, thankfully).

One more thing: My all-time favorite thing about the job is reading letters from people who've not only spent hard-earned money on the books, but took time from their busy schedules to tell me which scenes and/or characters most touched them.

Friday Freebie: Gifting Books

Photo by George Hodan via publicdomainpictures.net

It occurred to me sometime last week that I really need to put Christmas shopping on my to-do list. It's not that I haven't started -- it's just that I haven't been to many -- okay any -- stores yet with the primary intention of doing specific Christmas shopping. I've taken advantage of Cyber Monday and picked up a few things here and there, but some things just require visits to the store.

Today's timely blog post by two of my author friends reminded me that Christmas shopping can be fun for me, too. Not only does the post talk about books and bargains, but it also talks about authors and writing. More than a few of my favorite things.

How about you? How's your Christmas shopping going? Let me know if you need a book for someone's stocking :-)

Saturday Special: December Book Feature

Last week, in the interest of helping author friends get the word out about their books and helping reader friends find some good holiday reads and gifts, I started posting a book blurb a day on my Facebook page. In addition, some of the authors offered giveaways. In case you missed it, here's who visited last week:

Loree Lough

Cate Masters

Sarah Reinhard

Chrissi Hart

Judy Wolfman

Laurie Edwards, a.k.a. Erin Johnson

If you haven't already done so, stop by. Throughout the month, you'll find blurbs, cover photos and maybe even some more giveaways. Who knows? You might even find a new favorite author.

And, if you have a book you'd like to recommend, leave me a comment here, or there. Let's share our favorite reads in time for the holidays.

Margins

It’s a beautiful fall day and I’m sitting out on my patio with my laptop, trying to capture a sense of peace, or at least turn off the to-do list in my brain long enough to make some progress on my novel. Yesterday was very busy, and writing went by the wayside. In the five minutes I allowed myself on Facebook this time last week, I saw that fellow writer Loree has been up since 5AM. I don’t know how she does it – I only know that I can’t.

It’s Sunday afternoon, and uncharacteristically, I’ve scheduled too many things to do. Or, more accurately, too many things fell into this beautiful day. As the back-to-school boom is lowered and fall activities fill what was, just a few weeks ago, a blissfully blank calendar, I wonder if I have already overcommitted myself.

I can hear my mother and my sister laughing. My husband too. Of course you’ve overcommitted yourself, they’d say. It’s what you do.

And they’re probably right. Earlier this week, I tried to explain to my students the difference between “I love to be busy” and “My life is busy.” The first one not only implies choice, it states it outright. The second…well, the second one is me. Me and nearly every other mother I know.

The thing is, when I look at my schedule on paper, it’s reasonable. Tight some weeks - last week, for example, was especially crowded, and if I'm to be honest, this week doesn't look a whole lot better - but typically do-able, and even full of things I want to do.

What I need to remember is that I don't need to do it all. My husband is just as capable as I am of chauffeuring my daughter from Point A to Point B, and best of all, he's willing to do so. I just need to let go and be willing to delegate (but that's a subject for another blog....) By allowing someone else to help me, I can build in what blogger Kristi Holl calls "margins," those wonderful moments of quiet time that keep one activity from slamming into or steamrolling over another.

So I'm going to take Kristi's advice and give my schedule, and my family's schedule some serious consideration. In fact, I already have. I'm not yet willing to extract things, but I am going to look for places where I can put in some margins, as well as working on delegating and just saying no.

Stay tuned.