What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

I can actually answer this one now. I started reading Lean In  by Sheryl Sandberg last week. This is the first adult book I've read since becoming a mother (2 and a half months ago) and exactly what I need to be reading right now. I'm so glad it's the book my book club selected, and that I got my act together and actually started reading it.

Lean In is written by the CEO of Facebook, who also happens to be a woman, and is all about women in the work force. It talks a lot about setting priorities and finding a balance between home and work life that is more compatible to the type of balance dads have been achieving for decades.

It is possible to be a good person and have a job, but a lot of women pull back from their careers to focus on their families before they even have careers to pull back from, or families in need of their time/attention. Most men, on the other hand, make their careers a priority, thinking work is the way they can best provide for their families. It's a very interesting book that I'm looking forward to discussing with my friends at my next book club meeting.

It's also exactly what I need to read right now, because balance is something I haven't quite figured out in my new life yet. As I mentioned before, I've been a mom for 2.5 months now, but my kids are in kindergarten and second grade. I'm adopting.

I love my kids! I love being a mom. And I'm figuring it out. Both kids are doing well in school and adjusting to life with their new family. My husband and I are adjusting to them too. I feel like I've got things pretty well figured out now as far as how to be a mom. I'm far from a pro, but I'm getting things done, on the mom front.

My problem is that I'm not doing anything else. This is the first book I've read to myself in 3 months. And I'm an author. I'm an author who hasn't written anything in two months either. I've barely done any promo stuff for my next book that is coming out in a month. My entire life is in chaos and I have no idea what I'm doing--at all. But my kids are great, relatively speaking. I just need to figure out how to put myself, and my career, back into my life.

I know I'll figure it out. I'm starting by reading. And like I said, Lean In is a very good book for anyone to read and a great book for me to read right now.

What I'm Writing

Nothing yet. I'm starting with reading, I'll get back to writing soon. I wrote about 20k words of a rough draft to what I thought was going to be my third book in the Kennedy High Series last spring, while I was waiting for comments from beta readers on The Evolution of Emily . I expect that I will eventually get back to it and finish that book. I like the idea, and the characters. I also like the Kennedy High world I'm creating and would love to make it into a longer series.

But I have an idea for another totally different project that I want to play with. Once I figure out my schedule enough to find a place for actual writing, I'm going to let myself write this SNI for a while. I don't know if I'll stick with it long enough to turn it into an actual book, but I'm hoping the draw of the SNI will be enough to pull my back into a writing routine. Because if I want to tell my kids there mom is an author, I need to start writing again.

What Works for Me

Clearly, nothing at the moment. I've decided one of my biggest problems is that I don't have a place to write anymore. I used to have a home office. But that room is now my son's bedroom. We moved our desk and desktop computer into the corner of the living room, so we could easily monitor what the kids are doing anytime they get on the computer.

Back when I had an office, I never actually wrote at the desk. I had a large armchair in the corner of the room and always wrote on my laptop sitting in the chair. I find comfy chairs much more conducive to musing. That chair is also now in my living room. I brought my laptop into the living room and sat in my chair to work a few times this summer, but quickly discovered it's impossible to get anything done in front of my kids. So I moved my laptop into my bedroom.

I am currently sitting on my bed writing this blog post. But writing is my job. I can't write an entire novel in bed. Not only is it impractical, it's also not even remotely ergonomic. Today, I talked to my husband about rearranging our bedroom furniture. I think if we move around the location of the dressers we can fit a new desk in here. Or maybe I'll just get a new comfy chair to keep in here and go back to writing that way. I need to figure something out though.

What Else I've Been Up To

Last weekend my sister-in-law got married. The wedding was in Tahoe and totally beautiful. It was also our first official family vacation. The kids did really well, both traveling and during the wedding. Traveling as a parent is a lot more stressful than traveling alone though, so I'm glad to be home.

One bright note about the trip. In addition to bringing a book, and actually reading half of it; while on the trip, I also listened to six audio-books. The drive from Portland to Tahoe takes about 12 hours, which we did in 1.5 days each way. I checked out 6 MG audio-books from the library before we went and my kids LOVED them.

My son got car sick on the way down so we didn't let him play with anything in the car. All he was allowed to do was look out the window and listen to the story. Amazingly, C.S. Lewis was all the little guy needed. Did I mention he's 5. Both kids begged to hear more stories every time got into the car. I may have to check out a few more audio-books from the library and play them when we are driving around town running errands.

I still need to figure out how to fit writing back into my schedule. But from the new mom side of things, my life is pretty darn fabulous right now.



So what's up with you?