Hello all! It’s me, Jade Lee, and I’m about to reveal a deeply held secret. Yes, truly. In fact, I’ve re-written this blog a few times wondering if I should confess this, but since I haven’t really got a better idea, you get my confession.
I am a driven individual. No really. Yeah, most people see me as happy and fun at parties. Well, I am, but I also write hard. I’ve been doing 3-4 books a year for a while now, plus promotion, conferences, and my real life. Sure, I love my career, but that’s hard work.
Summer for me has always meant the pounding, difficult, write-hard ramp up to RWA’s (Romance Writer’s of America) national conference. It’s always at the end of July (though they’ve made 2 weeks earlier this year), and it’s the entire focus of my schedule beginning in April. Why? Because that’s where I meet face to face with editors, publicists, and fellow writers. If I finish my current book by nationals, will I have space in my writing schedule for an anthology if a few of us get one together at the bar one night? Have I scheduled the appropriate meetings with editors so that I could pitch an anthology, linked series, or just another book? Have I gotten a proposal together so I have something to pitch? Have I lost enough weight to fit into my conference clothes?
My “summer” doesn’t start until I’ve come back from conference, slept for a week, and then taken stock of what happened so that I can plan the rest of my writing year until the next big conference. And by that time, we’re in mid-August and looking at the back-to-school ramp for my kids. So…for decades now, I really haven’t had a summer.
Except for this summer. My last book went in June 3. I have another due in September that I care a great deal about and I am working hard on! (That’s in case my editor reads this blog.) But beyond that, I’ve been spending June at a family reunion, a conference, and visiting with my college-aged daughter. She’s home for two weeks between semesters. My youngest child is now 18 and in her last months at home before she, too, goes off to college.
So, whereas before, I would spend my summers pounding the keyboard and stressing out, one simple, “Hey mom, you want a pedicure?” will derail me for an entire day. My last moments with my children are here. Of course I want a pedicure! It’s time spent with my kids. But it doesn’t stop with a pedicure. There’s shopping, meals, coffee breaks, DVDs, and just talking about their big plans for life. And it’s never-ending. As long as they’re here, I want to grab whatever seconds I can with them.
Except I have a deadline. Except conference is coming up. Except I’m supposed to be dieting. Except nothing. My kids are here and they easily slide me back into a lazy, hang-out-and-shop mode. Am I okay with that? Well, assuming I get my book done on time, I can take one conference easy, right? (And yes! I will get it done! I swear!) But for today, my youngest is asking about lunch. Maybe at that cute new café that has great salads and cheesecake. People just sit there and talk for hours…
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7 Responses to “THE LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER”
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Jade, I’ve told this story before, but in case you missed it, a couple of years ago, my son had a class at UT (Texas) with two other romance writer kids. What are the chances? Anyway, they got together and compared notes and talked about Conference, with a capital “C”. “Your mom’s home ALL the time. She never goes anywhere. Then, in the summer, there’s the mysterious Conference. And you hear about it for weeks.” Apparently, we’re not the only ones who prepare in advance.
Then afterward, while recovering, we go back-to-school shopping and are so brain-fried that we can be talked into things. When he told me about it, he said, “It was so weird to find others who knew EXACTLY what I was talking about.”
And, yes, do enjoy this time with your daughters.
First, Jade, it’s great to know I’m not alone in thinking well ahead of time about conferences and what I’ll have ready to talk about, finish, pitch and wear! I swear the only shopping I ever do is with conferences in mind.
I hear you with the pedicure question: the other day dd2 was here and I said as how I never shop when they’re not visiting. and they can talk me into buying really easily. “Well, Mom, it’s not as if we have to talk HARD.” LOL I think it’s the bonding I love most of being with my girls. And it’s a good excuse for a facial.
Heather…how strange it would be for my kids to talk to others with Moms who write. Maybe mine would stop thinking about how “strange” I am, if they knew that other Moms are like me. Kind of fuzzy headed sometimes.
have a wonderful national conference!
Bonnie
Hi Jade,
I’m trying to imagine what you’re talking about. Having kids I WANT to spend time with. Sometimes picturing mine going off to college is the only thing that gets me through the week. Yes, you guessed it: I have…TEENS! Aaack!
They’re beligerant, know-it-all, snide, insensitive, self-involved, expensive goblins that suck the life right out of me 99% of the time. So, you’re saying that once they get a little older they turn human again? Could this be possible?
I suppose I DO see glimpeses of humanity every once in a while…
yes, yes! enjoy the times with your daughters – you will never get that time back – never – can you tell I have an empty nest?
Jillian, honest, the aliens return them intact. Really.
Bonnie
What a fantastic summer! It will be tough to go back to a deadline-driven July after this year, I’ll bet. I used to have my year land like the one you describe (I loooove summers off), but two years ago it somehow got turned around and I end up with more time off in winter and less in summer. This year, when the contract calls came, I told myself I would *for sure* give myself later deadlines to get my year back on track. But it was hard to resist the lure of the checks that arrive with meeting deadlines
. Must keep my kids outfitted in twenty-million pairs of sneakers each. It’s expensive, you know.
Enjoy the kid-time!
I write hard too, and I think we deserve those little breaks. I hope you get a lot of them!