My Golden Heart Sisters Are Blogging!

I've been oh-so-shamefully silent on my own blog -- suffice it to say that I have been completely drowning in work for the day job (that thing that is supposedly giving me the money necessary to support myself, even if I don't have time to actually enjoy my earnings), and that I've prioritize my novel-writing over my blog-writing. I'll get back to this soon... ...but in the meantime, my fellow 2009 Golden Heart finalists and winners have started a group blog! We call ourselves the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood; if you want to know why, you'll just have to visit the blog :) Check it out: http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/rss/index.php/. I'll be posting there occasionally, and will link to my posts when it's my turn! And if you're an aspiring Golden Heart entrant yourself, definitely check out the Sisterhood's blog -- we're giving away critiques of partial manuscripts this month.

Now, back to the day job; more later!

In Which Reality Stages a Slow Comeback

While I can't say that I'm still on cloud nine after the Golden Heart announcement, I can safely say that I'm on cloud seven-point-five. I would still be on cloud nine if I didn't have a day job; while my day job is fun and rewarding, it is also demanding, and the demands of the job didn't end just because I went off and did romance-writer stuff for a week. However, I'm incredibly lucky that my coworkers and bosses (all the way up to my VPs) know about my writing, support it, ask about it, etc. without wanting to fire me for it. Many writers keep their aspirations hidden from their coworkers for fear of retribution, but my workplace is incredibly tolerant of this type of pursuit. That means that I could wear my Golden Heart necklace to work and get a hug from my director instead of a pink slip -- and that means I can keep eating while I write, which is quite fortunate.

A writer only needs a few tools -- a computer, a dictionary/thesaurus, a printer, and a red pen for edits. But, she can greatly improve her likelihood of success if she has a supportive network of family and friends -- and the chances that she will fail increase tremendously if she's hearing poisonous whispers that destroy her faith in her dreams. I have the supportive network of family and friends, and that's really all I need. Of course, it would be nice to expand that "support" to include someone to pay all my bills and make my bed while I write, but I won't get too greedy :)

If you're a writer, or even if you're just pursuing a non-standard career, I would love to hear your thoughts -- how vital is others' support to your work? How do you deal with the inevitable insensitive remarks that make you want to pull your hair out?

Bloom Where You're Planted

While my day job provides many benefits (such as a paycheck) and many frustrations (such as the sixty-plus-hour weekly commitment that pulls me away from my writing), what keeps me going back is my fabulous set of coworkers. I'm very lucky in that I actually enjoy seeing many of the people I work with; there are always the occasional people whom I avoid when I see them walking down the hall, but they are far outnumbered by the people whom I would gladly sacrifice ten minutes of precious worktime to catch up with.

I had a meeting today with one of my direct reports, and the meeting reminded me just how lucky I am to work with these people, and even more importantly how much I just need to figure out how to balance the job and the writing and not get frustrated when either one is not going exactly right. The person I met with was an officer in Iraq and served two tours before leaving the Army and going into the private sector. As we were talking, he mentioned something that his grandmother told him before he left for Iraq -- that it was important to "bloom where you're planted." Isn't that excellent advice? Regardless of whatever situation you end up in, you can still strive to bloom in it.

This is far sappier than I usually get, so I apologize for the uncharacteristic lapse. I will be back to my regularly scheduled snark tomorrow!

In Which This Author Receives a Shock

Sincere apologies for my silence over the past few days. It's been something of a whirlwind (as all of my weeks are -- for some reason, I haven't had a single week in months that was devoid of chaos), and the blog was deprioritized as a result. I found out last Wednesday that one of the final-round judges for the Golden Heart wanted to see my full manuscript!

The good news is that this indicates that the editor has some level of interest in acquiring my book. The bad news is that I was in the middle of doing some revisions, and I only had forty-eight hours to submit my full manuscript to the RWA office. Needless to say, this was cause for alarm; while none of my edits were dramatic, I wasn't as far along as I would have liked. Luckily, I work at one of the few places in corporate America in which my boss and all of my directors are supportive of both my writing career (and yes, they know I'm writing romance) and my "real" career, and so I was able to take Thursday afternoon off to polish up my draft. Now it's back to the grind to get caught up at work, but a request from an editor made my week :)

Work is the Devil

Actually, work is not the devil; I'm very fortunate to have a job in these "troubled times," as newscasters like to remind us hourly. But, my day job is rather demanding, and it's all the more difficult to stay focused when all I want to do is write. I persevered today, staying in the office for ten hours and then working at home for two hours beyond that, but I'm hopeful that I can get caught up enough that I will not need to do anything for the day job this weekend.

In other news, I read this interesting stat on Publishers Lunch, from USA Today: Stephenie Meyer accounted for sixteen percent of total sales for the books they were tracking on their bestseller list. Sixteen percent! That makes my Golden Heart nomination look like a Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes invitation. I shall never get to sixteen percent market share unless I focus on the book -- so this weekend is going to be spent in hermitville. I have a birthday party to attend tomorrow night (at a country/western bar with line dancing, which should be interesting), but beyond that, I'm going to hole up with Malcolm, Amelia, and the dozen felt-tipped pens that I bought tonight and figure out what, if anything, I want to change before submitting to agents again. It's not the most fun weekend in the world, but if it gets me a step closer to Stephenie Meyer territory, it's worth it.

Newly-minted RWA PRO Member!

I received a confirmation email from the Romance Writers of America staff that I've been approved for PRO membership. While I'm not yet eligible for PAN (the Published Author Network), I can join PRO because I have a completed manuscript and proof that I've submitted to an agent. Of course, that proof was that I was politely rejected, since I sent in my application before I heard back from the agents who requested partials last week. But, it feels good to make tangible progress towards a goal, even if PRO membership is not a guarantee that I will get published anytime in the next decade.

Meanwhile, I'm trying hard to keep my creative juices flowing in my subconscious while I'm slogging away at my real job. I switched offices this week, and since I have an office to myself, I took the opportunity to decorate in ways that remind me of my ultimate writing goals while contributing to the 'fun/unique' culture expected by my current employer. While I may sometimes wish that I could skip out on my day job, I must admit that it's pretty sweet to work someplace where I'm actually *encouraged* to put up things like a vintage Bon Jovi poster, several postcards of romance novel covers, and a fiber optic bonsai tree. At least I can get a few moments of visual escape in my office when I'm up to my eyeballs in Excel spreadsheets or management meetings.

What do you do to keep yourself sane at work? I use stress balls, interesting decorating principles, and the occasional Nerf blowdart -- but what do you use?