I’m finding that a lot of people ask how I juggle being a mum, a farmer and a writer.

Well, after a quick trip to the laundry, that I thought was empty (I thought wrong!), I think the most honest answer is, I don’t do it very well… but I’m getting better at it!

When I first started writing, I would get so obsessed with the story I was working on, that everything else faded into the background. I would ache to sit in front of the computer – I had to! There were characters that needed to come out. Never mind that the kids told me for the forth morning in a row, they didn’t have any socks and Anthony had mentioned that his work-shirts were all dirty and hadn’t I noticed the garden had suddenly turned into a jungle and what was I going to do about it?!

I’ve since understood that I need to manage my time better. I can’t send the kids to school, in the same shirt, three days in a row – the teachers will notice! (Although they are all very nice and wouldn’t say anything!)

I now try to limit my writing to early mornings (between 4:30am and 6:30am, when the kids wake up) and later in the afternoons.

Even if my characters are threatening a revolt, the mundane part of life still happens, kids need feeding and the farm and our animals still need looking after. After all, the farm is our main job.

So, if Anthony leaves early, which he often does, especially in the summer, I get up with him, make his lunch and once he leaves, I hit the computer. Often in these early hours, I answer emails and write ones up, that I need to send. I might write a blog or two and then re-read over the section of writing I’ve written the day before. I then make some notes of what I want to achieve over the day and write down my ideas, so I don’t forget – you wouldn’t believe how many brain waves, I’ve had that I’ve lost, because I didn’t write them down.

No matter what stage I’m up to, at 6:30am on the dot, I have to stop. The kids need to get up and be supervised. Lunches need to be made and the day, discussed!

Once they’re on they’re on the bus, the main aim is to tidy the house and garden (if I’m not working on the farm), hang out a load of washing and do all the boring things! If I even go near my office, I get distracted by Facebook, more emails and other authors websites!

All that done, I hit the keyboard. (Once again, without going near the internet.) If I’ve had a good run, I might get two or so hours worth, of good, solid writing in. I need to set the alarm on my phone, half an hour before I’m due to stop, so I can, once again, write down any ideas that I haven’t got to put down. That way, I don’t feel like I’ve left anything unfinished. There is nothing worse, than glancing at the clock and realising you’ve got two minutes to make it to the school bus and it takes you five to get there! I just feel that I need to go straight back to the computer… that doesn’t benefit my kids then and they feel like I love my computer more than them.

And there are, of course, the days, that all my good intensions fly out the window and I get stuck at the computer from the minute I put the kids on the bus or I’m in the sheep yards all day. Those days, I carry a pen and notebook with me, where ever I am!

So for any of you, who thinks writing might be glamorous and I just swan in, sit down and start typing… I wish! But I do try to get those three words together – mum, farmer and writer! They are all my passion.

Since this is a site devoted to the love of books, I thought I’d share a story with you about how I came to love books.

The story starts with my mother on a date with a man, her first date with this man. He took her to a bookstore in Seattle’s edgy Capitol Hill neighborhood. My mother has forgotten the name of that store now. She has not forgotten, however, that as she reached for a book on the shelf, he placed his hand on hers, sending a flood of energy through her muscles and marrow. That was the first time my mother experienced the transformative power of a simple touch. The man bought that book for my mother that afternoon, and six months later he moved into our house and stayed for nearly a decade.

They say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. I guess it depends on the girl. For it is not that stone that makes me swoon. No, if you want to build a home in my heart, if you want to cross the threshold to my unyielding affections, you need only make one modest offering: Buy me a book.

I attribute the fact that I my knees buckle when presented with a paperback to the arrival of that man. His name was Ashoka, and I was four years old when he unlocked my mother’s heart and keyed his way into our home. By her late thirties my mom was both a widow and divorcee.

Her first husband died unexpectedly of a heart attack when they were both twenty-nine. Just out of college and frugal when they married, they gave up the pomp and circumstance of diamonds and opted for matching gold bands that they exchanged along with their vows. A few years after her first husband’s death my mother met her second husband-my father-and although she was truly still a grieving widow, he managed to woo her with a gleaming engagement ring.

Soon after their wedding day, I was born, and even sooner after my birth, my parents divorced. Faced with the prospect of raising a daughter alone, my mom decided to pawn her fancy ring, needing money much more than bling. But it turns out my father’s diamond was actually plastic, a humiliating fact she learned after the jeweler peered down at her ring for four seconds and then looked up, loop still attached to his eye, and blunted her with, “It’s fake.”

That’s probably why she fell for Ashoka. Having learned that marriage vows cannot protect one from catastrophe and that diamonds aren’t always what they seem, my mother needed something she could trust. That something was the exact thing that Ashoka offered; that something was knowledge. Ashoka brought books into our house by the bag load.

Through those pages he introduced my mother to writers, philosophers and dreamers, to activities, skills and techniques that taught her that she was not merely a pawn to Fate’s wild will, but rather an active player, an architect, a conductor with the power to direct her own life as she chose. Ashoka took me to the library to obtain my first library card, an outing that remains one of my most vivid, exhilarating childhood memories. By introducing us to the books he loved, by encouraging us to ignite our own reading romances, Ashoka woke our minds and softened our hearts.

Nine years after moving in, Ashoka was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma and died one year later. His last gift to my mother was a hardback book about papier-mâché filled with vivid color photographs. That was fifteen years ago and to this day my mother still opens that book, using it as inspiration for the craft that has become her passion in the years since Ashoka’s death. Today my mother specializes in papier-mâché bracelets and bowls that sell in art galleries and boutiques around Seattle. She learned the art form from that book, and every time she finishes a new creation we marvel at how his spirit always imprints itself upon each piece.

For me, as I approach thirty, I often long for Ashoka’s advice on how to navigate the stormy waters of adult life. Luckily he was not the type to give a diamond ring and call it good. He was the type to buy books and pile them in stacks upon stacks. At my mother’s house we have room dedicated to his collection. Whenever I need guidance, I pull one from the shelves and let Ashoka speak to me through the words he cherished while alive.

I cannot say whether a diamond ring will ever hug my finger. I can say, however, that any man who arrives barring books will remain with me until I gasp my final breath.

***
Amanda Ford is the author of Kiss Me, I’m Single. You can visit her at her website by clicking here.

Sharing the Beauty and Culture of India Through My Writing

I more or less stumbled into my writing career. I had never written anything more creative than a class essay or thesis for my master’s degree until I hit the age of 50. I call it my “menopausal epiphany.” Along with hot flashes, weight gain, hair loss, and insomnia, I discovered a deep need to write fiction.

For years I had been complaining about the dearth of romantic Indian fiction. Most every South Asian author seems to write literary novels, serious slice-of-life stories that are beautiful works of prose, but are lacking in plot and drama. So when I took up creative writing, I decided to try my hand at romantic stories with a distinctly Indian twist.

I was treading unknown waters with my unusual brand of ethnic women’s fiction with romantic elements, and I knew it was a serious risk. There was no guarantee that a literary agent or publisher would like this type of literature.  And yet I wanted to write about my culture in all its multi-hued beauty as well as its dark side. I wanted to tell stories that were realistic and yet dramatic enough to make fun, page-turning fiction. What I longed to create was “Bollywood in a Book.”

My Indian culture, with its arranged marriages, spicy cuisine, quaint customs like dowry, and a religion that has many gods and goddesses, offers great opportunities for unusual stories. I had so much fodder to populate my books with that I often had to curb my tendency to put in an overdose of cultural detail. India is a land of controversy, where women are allowed certain freedoms but not others, where women are often considered liabilities and men are cherished as assets, where marriage can occur between two people who have never known each other and yet they can live in a happy, lifelong commitment. India’s culture is beautiful and colorful, yet there are harsh, even shocking facets to it.

I set out to put all these elements alongside the colorful silk saris and lehengas, the pungent spices, and the vivid hues of India in my tales. The result is three books to date, THE DOWRY BRIDE, THE FORBIDDEN DAUGHTER, and THE SARI SHOP WIDOW.  A fourth book is slated for release in 2010.

The video trailer of THE SARI SHOP WIDOW can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9uRlbkxxes.  My writing, photos, and recipes are available on my website: www.shobhanbantwal.com

Thank you so much for hosting me on your wonderful blog.

Because I’ve written Young Adult novels and my name was once fairly well known in that field, I sometimes get questions from high school students who have been assigned to find out about potential careers by interviewing someone in a field that interests them.  These kids assume that a person can plan on writing novels as a way to earn a living.  They’ve been given a questionnaire to be filled out.  Rarely do any of the questions apply to me — or to any writer other than an author of bestsellers.

The first advice I have for any aspiring writer is to forget any thought of living on the proceeds — or receiving any money at all, for that matter.  Short of producing a bestseller, the only way of earning enough to live on by writing fiction is to have a backlist of many successful books that have stayed in print, which is becoming less and less possible nowadays.   In any case, it is much too far ahead to plan for.  Write because you have a story to tell and enjoy telling it, not because you hope to sell it.  The vast majority of writers have some other source of income, not just when they start out, but always.

The expectation of income, or even of publication, stifles creativity.  When I wrote my first novel Enchantress from the Stars I believed it was unpublishable because it was obviously not an adult novel, yet in that era it was too long and too complex for a children’s book (there was no distinct Young Adult classification in the 70s).  Yet the story took hold of me and I couldn’t leave it alone.

To my surprise, it did get published and became a Newbery Honor book, and in later years won several more awards; but it didn’t support me except for a year or two, quite recently, when subsidiary rights were sold.  My other YA books, which I wrote with publication in mind, got good reviews but were considered less creative and were far less successful in terms of sales.  Then for many years I had no more fiction ideas, which was frustrating because my publisher wanted more from me and even small sums of money such as my past books had earned would have been important to me during those years.

Long afterward, I got the idea for Stewards of the Flame.  It was an adult novel, unsuitable for the market in which my name was known, and I knew it wouldn’t meet the marketing demands of the science fiction genre either, since it wasn’t slanted toward readers with a lot of background in that genre. Again, I wrote without expectation of publication simply because I couldn’t let go of the idea, and I found my long-dormant creativity restored.  When it was finished I published it myself.  Write because you care about your story, not because you look on writing as a potential career.

***

Sylvia Engdahl is best known as the author of highly-acclaimed Young Adult science fiction novels, one of which was a Newbery Honor book and a finalist for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Rediscovery category. However, her trilogy Children of the Star, originally written for teens, was republished as adult SF, and she is now writing fiction only for adults.

Engdahl is a strong advocate of space colonization and has maintained a widely-read space section of her website for many years. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, and currently works as a freelance editor of nonfiction anthologies.

More information about Stewards of the Flame, the topics with which it deals, and its newly-released sequel can be found at www.stewardsoftheflame.com. Her main website is at www.sylviaengdahl.com.

How To Juggle Writing And Your Day Job (And Still Have A Life)

No matter where you are in the writing process and how many books you have written so far, I’m sure you agree with me that writing is one of the most fulfilling activities in the world (with a few frustrations every now and then). However, most authors, including me, need to divide their time among writing, their day job, friends, family, hobbies, and yes, we would also like to sleep sometimes. (Although if your best writing ideas wake you up at 3am every night, you stand no chance. Since I started writing, I’ve been building up a serious sleep deficit.)

When I was writing my newest book, Tales for Delicious Girls, I felt like I didn’t have time for anything and especially for myself. When I was working, I wanted to write, when I was writing, I wanted to spend time with my family and friends, and my beagle was getting seriously obese because long walks were something he couldn’t even dream of.

Soon I realized that I couldn’t carry on like that much longer and I needed a strict daily schedule so that I could squeeze in writing, my work and some fun too. It was not that difficult in the end and I think I managed quite well, so let me share a few tips for busy writers which I hope make your days a little bit less crazy.

1. Get your priorities straight. You’re not a superhero, you can’t do everything and you shouldn’t even try to unless you want to go insane. When you’re writing a book, it should definitely be one of your top priorities, so put it on the list. Your job is another priority because unless your name is Dan Brown, you probably need some extra income (at least until your book becomes a bestseller). Friends and family should be on the list too – for an absolutely selfish reason: You need someone who supports you when you get desperate or develop a writer’s block. Hobbies? Be realistic about them and keep just one. I suggest it’s a physical activity because the lack of it is a common issue with writers.

2. Be creative about your schedule. If you work nine to five, it’s pretty clear how much time you spend at work. If you’re a freelancer like me, your schedule is probably more unpredictable but try to be reasonable about your projects. Remember to organize your work around your writing, not vice versa. Decide to dedicate a certain amount of time to writing every day, without exception. For example, I usually write in the morning, work in the afternoon and do book marketing in the evening. When things get really busy, I get up one hour earlier in the morning to write.

3. One day for yourself, one day for your family and friends. In order to stay sane, you need time for yourself. For me it’s usually Saturday when I try not to work and not to write, unless it’s absolutely necessary (and I mean absolutely necessary), and I do things that have nothing to do with work, writing and other people. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as it makes you happy. Go on a day trip out of town, go on a hike, get your hair done, be a couch potato, it’s up to you! Just switch off your brain and do something for yourself. When you feel relaxed and happy, you can dedicate the next day to your family and friends, which is what I do on Sundays. Have lunch at your parents’, meet friends in the afternoon, make time for all the people you love.

Putting your free time, hobbies and friends on the schedule might sound a bit weird at first, but it’s the best way to juggle writing and work and still have some fun. Ian Fleming said in 1962: “Being a comparatively successful author is a good life.” Which is very true if you know how to organize this good life of yours.

Barbora Knobova
Author
http://www.barboraknobova.com

What makes a published Author?

It’s an interesting concept, because if you read the blurb! Everyone has at least one book inside them.

If someone had asked me, five or ten years ago, “Would you/could you write a book? My immediate response would have been, no and yet with hindsight, the answer reflected the fact that no topic sprang to mind!

From my early years up to the present day, I have been an avid read of different genres, simply because life itself intrigues me, that and people.

The idea of my book came about purely by chance. My husband and I became fed up with the weather in England and decided to try out Spain, something we continue to do, for during the past three or more years we have travelled and stayed in various parts of this diverse country.

From my early years of being an asthmatic and eczema sufferer I have always tried to look for alternative and natural products, instead of taking pills from the doctor. After having two beautiful daughters the same thought would be in my mind, if there was a natural product for an ailment then I would use it!

Whilst we were staying in a beautiful mountain valley surrounded by orange groves, the thought of what I wanted sprang to mind. Writing a book on how to look good and feel great for ladies over 50. The title jumped out of my head……..Looking Good Feeling Great Ladies 50 and over and it stuck because it epitomised what I though women could aspire to with a little effort. Luckily being a hoarder, I had kept lots of pieces of research about different things from years ago and with the internet it became an ideal time to continue researching different ideas.

After about a year, the book started to take shape and within 18 months it was finished. I had no idea who to approach and decided help was needed. A book entitled Writer’s and Artists, which became my bible, pages thin with use, turning backwards and forwards, making sure I had ticked every conceivable publisher in my genre. It was a hard slog and it would have been easy to give up, but I carried on, found an agent who was prepared to market the book. My manuscript was sent to a critique for review. The completed review surpassed my greatest expectations. Next was the editing process, which was laborious, but necessary. After all, who wants to read a book with mistakes in it?

Every step of the way, people were very helpful asking different questions, what type of book cover would I like? What type of print? Did I want a watermark on each page? And on it went, until I received an email to say it was ready and a published copy was on its way to me. Walking down to the post office to collect the package, was most strange, I remember sitting on a bench outside to open the package and looking at a book, which I had written. How proud I felt at what I had accomplished by my own efforts. It was truly a surreal moment, one that I will not forget.

All I can say to unpublished authors, “Never, never, give up, on what is, ultimately your dream.”

My name is Nina Bagnall, my husband’s name is Gary and my two daughters are Anna and Katie. Most of my working life has been spent in the commercial sector.

It was time for me to walk away from that world and step into another.

Although I have many hobbies my greatest passions are cooking healthy meals and always looking for natural remedies not just for aliments but also for the whole body.

Being Asthmatic it has been necessary everyday of my life to take care of myself. If you look after your body on the inside then it follows that it will show on the outside.

Take a closer look at my book, it has been written for you! A mature woman of 50 and over, there has never been a better time to change your lifestyle than right this minute!

The book combines all my thoughts and research, which I had saved over the years.

It therefore followed a natural progression to put pen to paper in order for me to share with you, all my suggestions and options of natural remedies, healthy foods to eat and also to introduce everyone to daily exercise and relaxation.

Only three things required to enable everyone to Look Good and Feel Great..
1) Patience. 2) A zest for life. 3) Will Power.

http://www.eloquentbooks.com/LookingGoodFeelingGreatLadies50AndOver.html

So you’ve written or are writing a book, one of the first things that a publisher, promoter or even a web page will ask is “what genre” is it.

The definition of genre is…

“Biological classification ranking between family and species, consisting of structurally or phylogenetically related species or an isolated species exhibiting unusual differentiation (monotypic genus).”

In other words what is your target age group?

With some ages this is easy, picture books, books for the very young, but once you get to over 10, what is the target audience then.

Kids, teens, youth, whatever you want to call them are different these days to when you were that age. You see children as young as eight and nine having “boy/girl friends”.

It is hard for a person to judge the age of those who the book might be best targeted at. After all one person Enid Blyton could be another’s Lady Chatterley.

It also depends on the country you are from or where the book is being read. For instance in the UK the two most popular newspapers in the UK have always a topless model on page three, in fact the term “page three girl” has been in common English language since the days of Samantha Fox. Can you imagine what would happen if an American paper had a topless model on one of their pages?

Also the language you use.

Anybody who has anything to do with schools will tell you, that bad language is emanating from younger and younger children.

When it came to my book “Across the Pond” I started writing it aiming at 11/12year olds, however as the romance developed the characters became a little older finished up at fifteen.

So what should I pigeon hole it as?

Well take a look at Amazon and the most popular tags. “Young Adult Fiction” is the one that sticks out above teen or teen romance.

Though I state that the book is “Young Adult Fiction” the great reviews and comments I have received are from 10 to 80 years old. So I have stated it is for the “young and young at heart” to try and get the various ages covered. Perhaps that should be listed as a new genre?

Even different people have different ideas when they read the book

One reviewer wrote,

“This book was written in a clean fashion so that even Christian parents should be able to feel safe with allowing their girls to read the story. It is one that I can feel comfortable recommending to any of my friends or their teens of any age.”

While another who really liked the book put.

“My only complaint about Across the Pond is the use of inappropriate language. By no means is the book filled with four-letter words; however, the few that are sprinkled in are unnecessary and, in my opinion, inappropriate. For that reason alone, I think the book is more suited to older teens and up”.

For the life of me and I re-read the book last week while at JFK airport, I can’t think of what the “inappropriate language” might be.

So what do you do with your book?

Firstly if you are unsure as to what age group the class your book as, share it with a few people.

*If you know a school teacher try them.
*If you have contact with a person who you think might be the age group your book is aimed at, let them read a draft copy and see what they say.
*Be flexible and listen to what people say.

Above all, what does it really matter what age group, as long as people enjoy the book that is all that really matters.

Storyheart
Author of “Across the Pond”
http://across-t-pond.com

About Barry Eva

Born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Barry Eva, also known as “Storyheart”, left his beloved England in 2000, moving to the USA to be with the woman he’d met and fallen in love with on the Internet.

Better known for his short romance stories on the net and in his book Stories from the Heart, Barry is popular for narrating his stories on local TV or as a guest on other media stations,where his wit, oratory, and old-fashioned English charm make him a popular interviewee.

At present, Barry is living in Connecticut, with his wife and two children.

You can visit Storyheart’s website at http://www.across-t-pond.com.

I am a fool, a heartbroken lover, a goddess of inner beauty and outer glow. I am balanced, I am tipsy. I am and then I am not.

On paper and in my mind’s eye, I am this and much more.

I am inside the plot. It thickens and thins out. It pulsates, it throbs. It weakens, it strengthens.

My fingers have a life of their own as they type. I am amazed at what appears on the screen in front of me. I am giddy with the power that words give me.

I seek refuge in the magic of the written word. I type with two fingers because I never learned to type. For the initial twenty-three years of my life in Karachi, computers and typewriters had no presence. I can still type with a certain speed, my gaze fixed not on the screen but on the keyboard. In the early part of my writing career, I went through draft after draft written in long hand. When inspiration hit, I hid in a corner and wrote furiously. I was fourteen then.

I think it was never a goal of mine but the hope of many around me that I embrace writing. Growing up, my parents performed the role of gentle guides, nudging us in the direction we were inclined toward and then stepping back and watched us grow.

I wasn’t judged when amongst siblings with successful career paths such as doctors, MBAs, and valedictorian nurses, I proclaimed my decision of being a designer. With that, writing became a cherished hobby. I began writing for local magazines as a freelancer in 1993.

When I moved to US in 1995, I thought I was leaving that part of my life behind. How wrong I was. Beyond the Cayenne Wall began as a healing journey that took on a life of its own in 2005. When it was published, the collection received widespread publicity, great reviews, awards, and international recognition.

Soon after, I began working on Saffron Dreams, a novel about a 9/11 Muslim widow, which was published by Modern History Press in February 2009. Writing that novel helped me look at own belief system and examine its role in my life. In many ways, it made me more comfortable with my identity as a Muslim-American author and designer in a post 9/11 world.

You can find a wealth of information on my website at www.shailaabdullah.com including a reading guide, excerpt, reviews, and buying information.

FREE GIFT

Thank you and thanks to the readers of InkyBlots. For those with comments and questions, I can be reached at shailaabdullah@gmail.com. If you mention InkyBlots, you will receive a free e-book called A Taste of Saffron, containing recipes of dishes mentioned in Saffron Dreams. Readers who sign up for updates on my website will get a free excerpt of my 2005 book, Beyond the Cayenne Wall.