Sunday Morning Musings

Good morning. For this week's edition of Sunday Morning Musings I thought I would open a discussion about time or perhaps the lack thereof. Since I tend to lean towards the creepy and I wanted a photo for this post that would represent something to do with time, I thought that I would choose the hour of great significance for more than one occupant of the large colonial at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long Island. I believe you know the place.

All of us fill our days or perhaps I should say, have them filled for us, so how do we manage everything that is important to us? Now, we could talk of our families, work, housework, etc., but for the sake of this question, I am only asking about writing and reading.

For me, once you subtract eleven hours of work, housework and shuttling kids around, that only leaves so much time for writing, reading, blogging and updating websites.

Daily: I check my personal e-mail several times per day. Typically, I hear from my publisher, Gaynor, The Wonderful, every couple of weeks. Also, this instantly allows me to know whether anything of importance has occurred on Facebook or Vamplit Writers, etc., etc. I then head over to Facebook and check both my profile, as well as my Official Authors Page. Lastly, I usually check this blog to see whether there might be any new activity or followers.

Weekly: I have been posting a new blog once a week, so far. Typically I do this sometime Saturday or early Sunday morning. Once a week I usually set about across the Blogosphere, looking to get my name out there a little more, to look for blogs that might be mutual beneficial or simply just interest to me.

Monthly: It's sad for me to admit, but I haven't been doing much in terms of writing as of late. I have Dance on Fire's sequel in the can, as it were, so I have been focusing all of my time on doing the whole publicity thing for book one. I have two small points of research that I need to do for the book two, but they are extremely minor, so I am not stressing over them. I actually wrote the scenes, I simply need to revisit the actual locations to make sure that my details were accurate. The other sad fact is how I haven't been reading as often as I would like. Until I take the e-reader plunge, I must sit at the pc which is in my living room and attempt to read, listening to classical music in headphones in hopes of drowning out the kid and television noise. I am currently reading Andrew M. Boylan's, Concilium Sanguinarius. It is very good, but since I don't have a lot of time for reading, it is taking me forever. I am attempting to become more efficient with my time now that I have grown accustomed to how things play out. I have a couple of hardbacks on my bookshelf that I have yet to read: Pat Conroy's, South of Broad and Patricia Cornwell's, The Scarpetta Factor.

So, now I ask you, how do you do it? Perhaps it is mostly because I have only been doing this since February. Does it get any easier? Will there always be a struggle within me to find the time necessary for all of these pursuits? It seems to me that some people must never sleep (Wendy Howard, Gaynor Stenson and Nicole Hadaway come to mind). So, for anyone interested in leaving a comment, I would be curious to see how you juggle things like Blogging, reading and writing. Perhaps you simply would like to share what your days and weeks look like. That would be okay, too. I would love to hear it.

As for me, I'm out of time.

We'll talk soon...