Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

By Christina Katz

1. Put ten bucks in your pocket on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Go garage sale hoppin’! (Give the kids a buck each.)
2. Visit a state park in your area that you’ve never been to before (just type “[Name-of-your-state] State Parks” into GOOGLE). Stop at the grocery store deli for sandwiches and drinks to bring along.
3. Read. Profusely. In the shade. In a lawn chair or on a blanket. In a hammock, if you have one! Teach your kids how to do it. Maybe they’ll fall asleep.
4. Visit Etsy. Spend hours surfing the handmade things you can buy for cheap. So much fun to search by color!
5. If your home office is a mess or the laundry is piled up. Ignore it. You can deal with it later. Go play.
6. Stockpile how-to writing books that suit what you need most in your career at this juncture. If you want to write for newspapers, don’t miss Sue Lick’s just released Freelancing for Newspapers. Blogroll her blog on the subject too. Maybe read them in August when it’s too dang hot to do anything else!
7. Go out by yourself, find some water, and float. On an inner tube. On a lounger. Don’t forget the sunglasses, sunscreen, and maybe even People magazine.
8. Go to Paris. I mean pretend to go at the theater while you catch a matinee of Ratatouille on a sweltering, white-hot day with kids in tow.
9. No time for scrapbooking? Collect your digital photos and make a book that tells the story of the first half of your year. iPhoto 6 has amazing ones that start as cheap as $3.99 each!
10. If you need something fun to watch on DVD, after the kids are in bed, try The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio. This is definitely an inspirational choice for writer mamas.
11. How about a date night movie? You’ll both laugh (and possibly cry) if you can get a sitter and slip out to catch Knocked Up before it leaves theaters. I’m still quoting Paul Rudd and it’s been over a month since we saw it.

Happy summer, mamas!

Copyright Note: You are welcome to reprint this post in your blog or zine as long as the title links back to this blog entry and a complete title and byline are included at the top. Thanks!

I must have not taken my vitamins…because I can’t find anywhere in this blog where I announced the details of the Writer Mamas (and Papas) “When writing and parenting collide” contest.

Did I announce it in my zine, but not in my blog??? Did I not announce it at all but just think that I did? I know not.

Seriously, am I on drugs or have I just been crazy-busy?

Never mind, I think I know the answer to that…and it’s not drugs.

And for those of you who were so wonderful as to participate (and I’ll have more to say to you later), I’m so sorry if I dropped the ball! That is what I call a big DOINK.

Here’s the scoop…

The winner of the Writer’s Digest Magazine contest, When Writing and Parenting Collide, will be announced in the October 2007 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.

FYI, those magazines come out waaaay before the cover date. I bet it will be on stands by mid-September, if not sooner. At least, that’s when I would watch for it.

Or, if you like, you can subscribe and be among the first to get it. And I’m not just saying that because I’m sure WD would love for me to say it (they would).

I’m saying it because it’s true.

So there it is. The scoop. Oh no, wait. There’s more.

Okay, so the winning essay will be published in Writer’s Digest, and the second and third place winners will be published right here in my blog.

I will post them on October 1st.

Exciting! I can’t wait. (And sorry again if I kept you hanging!)

Well, there seems to have been a little mix-up at KBOO. My interview with Paul O’Brien must have gotten mixed up with the interview slated for the following week.

I believe I addressed this in my Mother’s Day Wish on imperfection.

However, yesterday I did spot a Writer Mama mention in NW Women’s Journal.

I will check with KBOO and send out a reminder for next week. But I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

Ah, the imperfection of life!

Off for some Mother’s Day fun…hope your day is perfectly imperfect!

Pathways airs from 8:30-9:00 a.m. tomorrow, Mother’s Day.

In Oregon, you may listen the old-fashioned way (on the radio) at:

Portland: 90.7 fm
Corvallis: 100.7 fm
Columbia Gorge: 91.9 fm

Or, anywhere in the world, you can listen the new-fangled way by checking out your options here:

http://www.kboo.fm/listen

I don’t say it in the interview, so I’ll say it here: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Children are like little extensions of our souls, aren’t they?

I was thinking that this morning while driving home from the dog park.

That’s how I feel about my beautiful daughter Samantha. She is such a gift. And she has taught me so much about making the most of not just today but every single moment.

And to think that some day we will have loved her so much that she will be able to stand solidly on her own two feet in the world…just thrills me so much. In fact, she’s not doing such a bad job today.

I feel really proud of her. And I am not a perfect mother by any means. Thank goodness perfection is not a requirement of motherhood.

There was a time in my life when I felt like I was waiting for my “real life” to begin.

It was a period of waiting. Followed by waiting. And more waiting.

Around the age of 28, I woke up. And started to realize who I am. I think it was the beginning of the realization that I am allowed to just be who I truly am.

The awareness that who I am is enough.

If I could give one gift to my daughter and all girls, women, mothers, and grandmothers, it would be the awareness that whoever you are is enough.

Right at this moment, without therapy or plastic surgery or a makeover or whatever seems like it might help.

I may have inadvertently stumbled upon the key to contentment, because if I am enough than it doesn’t matter that my home is untidy. It doesn’t matter that I am tired and a bit hormonal right at the moment. It doesn’t matter that the world is a really imperfect place or that my husband is busy with his play or that all the members of our extended family lives thousands of miles away. It doesn’t even matter that I can’t keep up with all my girl friends.

In short, it doesn’t matter that I am living a big, fat, messy life. The fact that I accept it and can accept myself without the need for striving today means I feel blessed and rich and right with the world.

Today’s imperfection is more perfect than any of my wildest fantasies.

This Mother’s Day I hope you discover the freedom of imperfection. And I hope relishing it makes you giddy with joy.

Amen.

It’s Sarah Ban Breathnach’s birthday and she’s giving away this awesome poster:

Ten Authentic Truths to Live By

I love it. So I’m sharing it will all of you.

You can download it here.

One of my favorite lines is:

“The more risks you take, the luckier you become.”

That is so very true. At least, I have found it to be true.

Check it out! And let Mother’s Day week begin!

If you would like to sign up to receive it in your inbox, simply click here and you will be directed to a page where you can subscribe.

This will also serve as the location in the blog for your comments on the first issue.

I look forward to reading your comments!

Writer tours may sound glamorous, but the reality is that they are a whole bunch of work, often for limited or no return-on-investment, at least in the short run. However, there are many good reasons to do a book tour, namely to get out and connect with other writers and readers, to spread the word about your book, and share your expertise.

I don’t know about you, but I find that I feel most at ease in social situations that involve gatherings of writers. Whether they are seasoned or aspiring writers, I just feel most comfortable hanging out with my fellow writers.

I usually prefer to go either alone or with other writer friends. In fact, I made a pact for 2007 with two writer friends, Jon and Susan, that we would drive together to Willamette Writers meetings each month, so we can avoid the temptation to ditch at the last minute. Having a carpool works really well for us (and I don’t have to drive from the suburbs to the city, which I truly appreciate.).

I find hand-selling signed books to be particularly gratifying because people will often share why they are buying the book or for whom they are purchasing it as well as why they thought to purchase it for this particular person.

I tell readers-to-be of Writer Mama to let me know how they like the book or to please pass on to the person receiving the gift not to hesitate to get in touch with me. After all, one of the unique aspects of being an author today is how much more accessible we can be thanks to the Internet.

Another perk of book tours that I’ve discovered that I didn’t see coming is that it gets me out of the house, away from my office, the laundry, the puppies, my daughter, and my husband.

At first, I thought this would be awful. Why would I want to get away from the ones I love? Wouldn’t I be lonely on the road? Wouldn’t I be homesick?

But I’m getting used to it.

And my experience, at least thus far, is quite the opposite. Let’s just say that I got to be quite a homebody during the fourteen months I was working on Writer Mama. And I’ve got the extra “body” to show for it.

But all this getting out to book events is doing me (and my waistline) a lot of good. It’s spring after-all. And the sunshine has been beckoning me outside anyway. How about you. Would it do you and your writing career some good to get away?

If you’ve ever felt like the swan in the ugly duckling story, you might want to try getting together with and hanging out with other writers through writing associations, local literary events, and writer’s conferences to boost your morale. I always feel refreshed by any of the above.

I have a really special treat tonight. Guess where I get to stay after my presentation to the Coast Branch of Willamette Writers? The Sylvia Beach Hotel, a hotel on the Oregon Coast devoted to writers.

Yahoo! I can’t wait. I might not even mind the drive.

Here’s a recent write-up about the hotel that Oregonian Columnist Margie Boulé did on March 18th, Beachcombing through 20 years of a hotel’s journals.

Enjoy! And hey, if you’re out this way some time, maybe stop by and check it out. Oregon is a great state for writers. No doubt about that.

For a limited time only, and just in time for Mother’s Day, I will be offering signed copies of Writer Mama by U.S. media mail. So, if you are or know a mama, who would like to launch or relaunch a writing career (if you are a writer mama, request this as your Mother’s Day gift—it’s cheaper than brunch!).

Here’s how to order:

Send a check or money order for $16.99.

Or pay using Paypal (U.S residents, price goes up to $17.99 to account for Paypal’s cut).

Canadians click here. (If you live in Canada, the price goes up a bit more to cover shipping to $18.99.).

(U.S. Currency only, includes media mail shipping and bubble envelope packaging) to:

Christina Katz

PO Box 1354

Wilsonville, Oregon 97070

Because I am a busy writer mama myself, I will be holding a weekly “signing” each Friday afternoon right here in my office and then trekking over to the Post Office to ship those babies out. In other words, please do not contact me and ask if I can drop everything to overnight ship your mom/daughter/grandma a book. How would I get my own writing done, if I did that. Right?

Maybe when we get to May, I’ll offer faster shipping, but why pay extra? Order your copy or copies now! Order early so that your mama / friend / daughter / grandmother / sister / cousin will receive her package by Mother’s Day.

Order even earlier if you would like time to wrap your gift before the big day. ‘Cuz you don’t want me doing any wrappin’, trust me. I prefer a nice gift bag I can stuff with tissue paper. But you can’t ship those media mail.

This offer will also be helpful for anyone who has been looking for Writer Mama on the bookstore shelves, but can’t find it for whatever reason. (This should not be happening any more, btw, so go ahead and ask your local bookstore to order Writer Mama if you don’t see it. And please, let me know if you are having trouble finding Writer Mama in bookstores and I will alert my publisher.

Happy almost Mother’s Day, writer mamas. I hope you will celebrate with me by purchasing a signed copy of Writer Mama.

Today, I woke up in Bellingham, our old hometown, in a hotel room of my very own, across the green from Village Books.

How delightful!

Bellingham is the place where my husband earned his theater masters and his teaching certificate before we moved to Wilsonville, and is especially close to my heart because it’s where our daughter Samantha was born.

I got an education on the way here on the Amtrak train from the nineteen-year-olds in my seating area. I learned: A young man’s perspective on being a U.S. soldier in Afganastan, that I have a good-shaped nose for piercing, that one should not get too large of a hole put in their body when getting pierced, what it feels like to get it pierced, what it (sometimes) sounds like to get pierced, how to pretend to have Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome to get released from the army, how spiders spin webs, kill their prey, suck their guts out and mate.

I could have learned about car engines, but I chose to read some of Barbara Kingsolver’s Small Wonder instead. I learned how to walk on a speeding train, how to use one of those toilet-seat covers for the first time ever in my life, how to pirate DVDs (should I ever wish to do such a thing, which I don’t), how to remember some of my Eurorail adventures from my college days, one young woman’s understanding and personal experience of the Holy Ghost, and how to trust that no one would walk off with my luggage.

For some reason, this last one, was perhaps the most challenging for me. But the rest was easy and thoroughly enjoyable.

Surely, there were a myriad of publishable ideas in these flurries of conversation. But more than anything, as a mom who typically inhabits the same orbit day after day after day, I enjoyed the freshness of breaking routine. The vast difference in thoughts and ideas between nineteen-year-olds and my five-year-old. And the fact that, though my train ride was nothing like what I’d imagined, it was refreshing and educational, just the same.

I also remembered that when I became a mom, my mind more than ever grasped tightly the idea of personal safety and how to keep my family safe. And that as a singleton traveling out into the world, one is much more likely to venture outside the zone, ask absurd questions, and simply let go and take it all in.

Maybe we moms could all use a little more adventures in our lives. Adventures without our kids, as well as all of those we take with them. It was a good reminder, even if the adventure was as tame as the train from Portland to Bellingham.

Oh, and by the way, I’ll be at Village Books tonight at 5:00 p.m. Can’t wait to see some old friends.