Love what you do

We’ve all heard or read these words, probably many times. “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Which I believe is absolutely true and, in a perfect world, we’d all spend our lives in the careers we’ve chosen, doing what we love to do. Spoiler alert: It’s not a perfect world. Sometimes, “life” has other plans for us.

My mother was an intelligent and creative woman who, I’m convinced, could’ve become anything she wanted to be. She was the fifth child of ten and grew up during the depression. At age fifteen, she was forced to quit school to take care of her younger siblings. She’d just started high school and was so excited about it. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Eventually, it was time for her to find a job and that’s where she met my father. They were married and, while she raised four children, she was a stay-at-home mom. Sadly, my parents divorced when they were in their mid-forties and my mother needed to find a job. With a limited education, through no fault of her own, the jobs she found were low-paying and, sometimes, back-breaking. But I never heard her complain. Not about the jobs and not about her lot in life.

Instead, Mom enjoyed everything she did and she gave it her "all." When I asked her how that was possible, that surely she couldn’t like everything, she replied, “Of course I can. It’s easy. I make up my mind that I’m going to enjoy whatever it is I have to do and I do.” She wasn’t kidding. It really worked for her.

I don’t claim to like everything I have to do – a couple of household chores come to mind - but, whenever I start to complain, mostly to myself, about doing something I’d rather not do, I remember my mother’s words. “I make up my mind that I’m going to enjoy. . . "

From the time I was ten years old, my dream was to become a published writer but, like most people, I needed to earn a living. I was fortunate to have worked at jobs I enjoyed. (It’s interesting that some of my experiences at those jobs and some of the people I met have been “fictionalized” and they appear in my books.)

Anyway, through the years, I never stopped pursuing my dream. I took every writing class I could find, read voraciously and wrote whenever possible. Fifty-two years later, my first Malone mystery was published and now, with eight published novels - I'm working on the ninth -  I’m finally doing what I love to do.

May News

It’s been a busy couple of months but things have finally settled down a bit – at least when it comes to promoting my newest release, Marnie Malone. I don’t have any events or interviews scheduled for this month but of course, like everyone, there are always things that come up in my personal life that take me away from my desk. 

As I write this, I'm struggling to care for my eighty-seven year old mother. Mom just got home from a two-day stay in the hospital and she's having a hard time. I'm doing everything I can to help her. So, for right now, my writing is on hold. But, even when I’m not actually writing, my work-in-progress is constantly on my mind and I jot down ideas I have for the book.

I’m looking forward to getting back into my writing routine. I’m a morning writer. That’s when my mind is the clearest and I’m the most creative. I love when I can get up in the morning, have coffee and breakfast and then sit down at my computer. When I’m able to, I like to write every day. It helps me to stay in the story - to keep the momentum going. But sometimes that’s not possible. Sometimes, other responsibilities have to take precedence and I need to put my writing temporarily on hold. That happens to all of us; that’s reality.

But it can be true in fiction too. In my WIP (work in progress), a standalone romantic suspense novel,  the main character, Kate, is a single mother who longs to be a published novelist. In her words, “I want something on my tombstone besides Mother, daughter and sales clerk.” But, for years, Kate has put writing the novel she’s been plotting on hold as she deals with all of the other responsibilities in her life.

Sometimes, our lives and the people we love have to be our #1 priority. Maybe, like Kate, we’re raising a young child and working full-time or we could be caring for an elderly parent. Perhaps we have some health issues that are holding us back. No matter what the reason, we need to be careful that we don’t let anything stop us from pursuing our dreams.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

and

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!