2023 A to Z Challenge Blog: Juggling

I can see your frown and hear you ask, what does juggling have to do with being an author? In my case, everything.

As a fulltime author, I try to write every day, and that involves a great deal of time and responsibility juggling. As much as I might like to hide myself away in my office, put on my headset, and forget everything else, I can’t. I have responsibilities that take up a great deal of time.

The first one is my responsibility toward my husband. We’ve been married 51 years, so he’s a keeper, but he does need to be fed, have his clothes laundered, and counts on my company every now and then. Since he works out of our home, occasionally I get to play receptionist, too.

I have family obligations that could include attending events for my grandchildren, although only four of them live in the same city that I do, but there are sports events, medical appointments, a school pickup or drop-off that require Grandma’s assistance. Neither of my sons live in the city, but they do come home for visits and when that happens, my time is needed with them, too.

My mother is 95 and living in a nursing home which I visit two mornings a week. I’m fortunate that while she lives in a delusional world of her own, she still knows me. There are days when she isn’t good and that makes it almost impossible to focus on work when I get home. But she’s still with me, so that’s a good thing.

And then there are other things like appointments, shopping for groceries, cleaning the house, meals with friends, that also cut into my writing time. And add to that the weather. The false summer weather expected this week will make it even harder to work than ice and snow.

Then, there is juggling in writing the book itself, editing, it, meeting the deadlines and submitting it, promoting it, although truth be told, promotion is my weak spot. As a rule, I try to write one book at a time. That way, I can stay focused on one story, but I know other authors who have several works on the go at once and that must take a considerable amount of juggling!

In my novel, Make Mine a Manhattan, my heroine has a lot of juggling to do, too. Check out the preview!

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter K. Enjoy your day.