I have a list of potential blog posts in a notebook on my bedside table. I forewent them all today to instead blog about what it is like to write with kids.
Complete transparency, I live within the polar vortex and no one could leave the house today. It's three pm and my three-year-old is next to me, kicking her five-year-old brother, and my husband is on the other side. My one-year-old twins are sleeping, but should be waking up in the next fifteen minutes. And now I have a three-year-old foot in my face. So how on earth do I write romance when constantly surrounded by little feet? Honestly, I don't know. It's strange; sometimes if I'm in that portion of writing a book when the words are just flying out of me, I can sit in the basement while my children are going CRAZY around me and the soundtrack to Tangled is playing, and I can pound out 1k in an hour. It just happens. On the other hand, sometimes I will be in the exact same situation, and I can't write a sentence in an hour. The fact of the matter is I am a stay at home mom to four children under five and a half. I don't have a nanny or cleaner or even occasional babysitter and my husband is usually gone from 7:30 am until 6:30 pm. Some days are going to be better than others when it comes to writing. But, I've learned a few things about how I write. I need deadlines, hard, strict, deadlines. I need to wake up in the morning and say, I will write 2,000 words today. The reason I need to do that is because there is always something to be done. At this exact moment, I could do eight loads of laundry and not run out of things to wash. I could also wash our kitchen floor, which was probably last washed (not swept) in December. But, you know, someone's going to spill a glass of milk in the next two days, and I'll wash that portion of the floor, and really, isn't that enough? I mean, I cleaned the bathroom yesterday; I'm basically Susie Homemaker. So I guess the only advice I can give to someone trying to write surrounded by little people is that your writing has to be a priority. No, my writing doesn't take priority over my kids, and a lot of days, I get behind because someone has a fever, or an ear infection, or a bad day at school. But I'll be damned if I get behind because I'm picking up a bin of toys that will be knocked over the next day. So there's my advice: let your house go, and your writing will thank you. Hey, maybe one day I'll make enough money writing to pay someone to clean my house once a month. A girl can dream. In writing news, I'm tearing through Lydia and Everett and really liking how their characters shifted ever so slightly in the rewrite. I think I made Lydia more relatable and somehow made Everett more likable (how is that possible?). Waiting for You is back from the editor with a ton of notes, but I'm not touching it until I'm done with Only You. I don't want to mess up my flow by diving back into Lincoln and Charlotte's relationship. I have some new beta readers and am enjoying both reading their works and looking forward to hearing their critiques. And with tomorrow marking the first day of February, I'm getting closer to release dates! And Then It Was You will be out on March 15, 2019. I'm leaning towards an early April release for Dance for You. I'll be getting the cover art for that around the same time And Then It Was You comes out, so it will be a big week! The rest of this winter/ spring is set to be crazy on the writing front. I'm hoping to get 3 books finished/ written in the next four months, which will be tight. Once spring hits, I'll be releasing books once a month from March-August (if all goes to planned), which is BANANAS. But it's so exciting. I hope you don't live in the area the polar vortex is hitting like me, but if you do, I wish you a night of tea, hot chocolate, sweets, and cozy blankets. Maybe a nice romance novel and a warm body (human or animal) to curl up with. Goodbye January, Hello February! Love always, Lucy
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Lucy HudsonMy thoughts on the writing and indie publishing process, as well as life occasionally Archives
April 2020
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