Please welcome author Jody Hedlund, and keep reading for info on how to enter her book giveaway! Read my Review of Unending Devotion, I HIGHLY recommend it!
Secret #12: My secret for writing around my kids.
By Jody Hedlund, @JodyHedlund
Most days I have to write with my five kids running around me. They're busy with all of their normal kid-activities: practicing piano, jumping on the trampoline, doing homework, and playing with friends.
I plop down at the kitchen table where I can keep my eye on everyone and everything.
But with all the noise, activity, and general chaos, you might be wondering how in the world I can possibly concentrate and get anything done?
My secret?
I put in my headphones and turn on Pandora (or Grooveshark). And I drown out the noise.
When I have inspirational music playing, for some reason it helps transport me into my story world. I'm able to focus on the words and my characters and write. I usually develop a new "station" for each book with music that makes me think of the story I'm developing.
Even with my headphones and music, I can still see all that's going on around me with that motherly-instinct that knows where her peeps are and what they're up to.
But the music helps me from getting distracted by the loudness of the world passing by me. And having earphones in is a signal to my kids that I'm busy. I've realized they're less apt to stop and talk to me or interrupt me when I'm wearing my headphones.
The other secret is that I've learned to keep the story flowing in spite of interruptions. For example, if I have to get up and get snacks for my younger children, when I sit back down, I don't have to spend a lot of time trying to get my train of thought back. I can usually just jump right back in where I left off.
I couldn't always write that way. But after continual practice day after day, I've worked my creative muscles to a new level of strength that wasn't possible when I was first writing.
My daily writing situation is far from ideal. But it just shows that we don't need the perfect conditions to do the things we love. We just have to love what we do enough, and we'll find a way to make it work.
What about you? Are you doing what you love right now, no matter how crazy your life is around you? Or have you been waiting for the perfect conditions?
Leave a comment (along with your email address) to enter the drawing.
Extra entries for those who also comment on the review post, and for those who tweet or facebook this post!
Valid only with US or Canadian addresses. Giveaway ends 9/27/2012.
Extra entries for those who also comment on the review post, and for those who tweet or facebook this post!
Valid only with US or Canadian addresses. Giveaway ends 9/27/2012.
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| Unending Devotion (September 1, 2012 Bethany House) |
Publisher's Weekly calls Unending Devotion "A meaty tale of life amid the debauchery of the lumber camps of 1880s Michigan . . . exciting and unpredictable to the very end."
Purchase Unending Devotion
on Amazon!
on Amazon!
High-Stakes Drama Meets High-Tension Romance
In 1883 Michigan, Lily Young is on a mission to save her lost sister, or die trying. Heedless of the danger, her searches of logging camps lead her to Harrison and into the sights of Connell McCormick, a man doing his best to add to the hard-earned fortunes of his lumber baron father.
Posing during the day as a photographer's assistant, Lily can't understand why any God-fearing citizen would allow evil to persist and why men like Connell McCormick turn a blind eye to the crime rampant in the town. But Connell is boss-man of three of his father's lumber camps in the area, and like most of the other men, he's interested in clearing the pine and earning a profit. He figures as long as he's living an upright life, that's what matters.
Lily challenges everything he thought he knew, and together they work not only to save her sister but to put an end to the corruption that's dominated Harrison for so long.
Posing during the day as a photographer's assistant, Lily can't understand why any God-fearing citizen would allow evil to persist and why men like Connell McCormick turn a blind eye to the crime rampant in the town. But Connell is boss-man of three of his father's lumber camps in the area, and like most of the other men, he's interested in clearing the pine and earning a profit. He figures as long as he's living an upright life, that's what matters.
Lily challenges everything he thought he knew, and together they work not only to save her sister but to put an end to the corruption that's dominated Harrison for so long.
For more secrets about Jody and additional chances to win her newest release, visit her Events Page to see where she'll be next in her "Fun Secrets About Author Jody Hedlund" blog tour.
Jody would love to connect with you! Find her in one of these places:
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