This week in the life of a writer mom
Hi all. I see I'm blogging less regularly. The truth is, my hands are pretty full. The good news is, they are full of babies. Wow, I really lucked out, guys. I hesitate to write this because I don't want to brag but I HAVE THE BEST BABIES IN THE WORLD. If you're going to have two, get two like these. (But paws off mine--they're taken.) They sleep at the same time! They smile and coo! They are beautiful and healthy and smell like heaven!
We're all doing GREAT. Of course life is very differnet after having twins. Recently both babies were napping at the same time for two whole hours and I was with just my two older kids, and I was astonished at how free I was. What did I used to do with all my time? I remember thinking I was busy before, and now I laugh at my former self. Wimp! WIMP, I say! I guess no matter what our life circumstances are, we generally fill up every moment and so always feel busy. Kind of like no matter how much money we make, we could always use a little more. I don't like that last bit, and Dean and I always promise each other we will be content with what we have, and as much as our income has fluctuated over the years, somehow we always feel like we maintain the same standard of living.
As marvelous as life is with perfect baby twins, and as surprisingly calm I feel, I know I'm two steps from the crazy attic. People keep asking me how I am and I say, "I'm fine! No really, I'm great. The babies are so wonderful, it's been so much better than I thought it would be." And then someone will say something like "Have you gotten out your Christmas cards?" and I almost have a panic attack. Sanity is precarious at best. I am a very tall Jenga tower. Don't nudge me!
So maybe I don't do Christmas cards or have an organized house or make homemade neighbor gifts or bathe, but I am still writing. It's more of a disease than a pasttime, after all. I delivered midnight in austenland the day before my twins delivery. A couple weeks later I contacted my editor and told her if it wasn't too late, I really could work on it some more, and she agreed. I am so happy I had that time. I did two more drafts. Although I didn't change anying major, and if you read the two drafts a few months apart you might not even be able to tell the differences, it was important to me to trim it some more and put even more thought into diction. It's all about the diction, baby. Because of the extra time, we missed our window for 2011 publication. It takes about a year after final draft delivery to publish a book, so we're looking at early 2012. Which means I'll go two years without a new book out there. As the writer L.E. Modesitt told me years ago, your front list drives your back list. When a writer doesn't have anything new coming out, all book sales go down, sometimes significantly. As of right now, all my books are still in print though, which means even if your bookstore doesn't have them on the shelves, they can still be ordered. I don't know what my career will look like a year from now. Many authors go two years without a new book, but I never have before. This is okay with me. I really want to just stay home and snuggle my kiddos for awhile.
And now I'm working on Daisy Danger Brown again. I spent most of 2009 writing the first draft. It's a lot of stuff and a lot of work, so I imagine I'll be rewriting it for most of 2011, maybe beyond. Hm, maybe I'll have two books out in 2012!
Ps. For all those new moms out there who have colicky babies and are hating on me because I somehow got sleepy angels, just know that I'm still in maternity clothes. I'm not that magical.