Gone Fishing!

The local beach in Chiclana, Spain

Not literally, of course! No, instead I'm heading off at a ridiculously early hour tomorrow morning to catch a flight with my two girls over to my parents house in Spain. While there, I'm planning on lazing around by the pool, eating lots of tapas and drinking lots of Sangria, while my parents take care of my kids (I'm kidding, Mum, honest!).

Last year, I took my laptop and only opened it once, so this year I'm leaving it at home. Instead, I'm taking my lovely kindle, which is currently crammed full of TBR books, and a brand new notepad. I'm planning on working out some details of a new series idea that has recently inspired me, and maybe even a short story or two!

As for the projects I'm leaving here, well I know everyone is waiting to hear news about the next Serenity book! The  good news is that the first draft is almost done. I've literally just got the final few chapters to write. However, I don't plan on going back to the book until my next novel, Underlife, has been published. I want to be able to focus purely on the Serenity book and I've needed to spend the last month rounding off some open projects. I'm still on for an October release of Dominion though - so don't panic!

So I won't be around for a while, but I will still be checking in (yes, they do have the Internet in Spain!). Hope you all have a great couple of week - I know I will! :-)

My Writing Life.

I've read a number of blog and facebook posts from other authors this week complaining about the struggle of maintaining a balance between their writing lives and their regular lives. I have to be honest, I'm normally someone who writes obsessively. I will literally snatch every moment I can in order to get a few words down. Sometimes I managed to get a thousand words written in one sitting, sometimes it will only be a hundred. However, those words quickly add up.

This past week I've had Easter to content with, along with my two daughters' birthdays and I've had family come to stay. With so many outside distractions, I've struggled to maintain my usual daily word count. Because I'm lucky enough to be able to write full time, I think I take for granted the guaranteed time I have to write. This week, with the kids off school, birthdays and families to attend to, I've probably only managed half of what I'd normally achieve.

It is frustrating and I sometimes find I become resentful. I'm a driven person and I like to be able to get a set goal achieved each day in order to feel as though I'm moving forward. But I do need to remind myself that time spent with my family and NOT writing, isn't time wasted. It's time well spent. Next to my family, my work is without a doubt the most important thing in my life, yet I never have to remind myself to work. What I do have to remind myself to do is spend quality time with my family and focus on that time. All too often, even when I'm out somewhere with my kids, I'll be daydreaming or scribbling things down in a notepad.

So, for me, while many are struggling to find time to write, I need to make sure I spend time with my family and that I'm mentally present in that time. While my writing will always been hugely important to me, my family always needs to come first.

A Balancing Act...

*WARNING* The following is basically me having a bitch!

I know I'm not the only writer out there who is trying to juggle a young family with career aspirations, but boy, sometimes it is hard. With the Easter holidays comes no pre-school and so I currently have my four- and one-year old at home with me all day. We also now live out in a village and do not have a car, so daytime activities are pretty much limited to going for a walk.

The problem is that I still need to work. There are deadlines that need to be met and I have to bring in a certain amount of money each month to keep the day job from the door.

Yes, of course I would much rather be at home writing than out doing some job I hate, but it would be nice if some provisions were made to be able to do the work that needs to be done. Currently, I'm up at six a.m., entertain kids until six that evening, get housework done/cook meals/wipe bums, finally get kids down for eight-ish, manage to do a couple of hours of editing, and then I go back to bed.

All I can say is, thank God for cakes/crisps and Nick Jnr! (Bad Mommy!).

Anyone else out there struggling with kids over the holidays? And please, no earth mother/home schoolers may respond (only kidding, I seriously don't know how you guys do it!).

20 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me...

I saw someone on twitter doing this and it looked like fun, so here goes!

1.) I have four tattoos and plan to have more (sorry mum!).

2.) I’m an advanced Padi scuba diver.

3.) I’ve hiked a glacier in New Zealand.

4.) I have a phobia of Daddy-long-legs (Crane-flies).

5.) I could eat Asian food every day of the week.

6.) I once ran a small catering company.

7.) I make pretty damn good cakes. 

8.) Though I act hard, at heart I’m a total romantic.

9.) I would love to have another child one day (shhh, don’t tell my husband!).

10.) I miss my cats

11.) I love the gym but hate regular exercise.

12.) I love going to concerts, but haven't been able to go since having the kids. Boo.

13.) Bugs love me. If something in my vicinity bites, it will get me!

14.) I have a degree in Zoology and a diploma in Pharmaceuticals.

15.) I once wanted to be a forensic pathologist (until I realised I had to become a doctor first! Dealing with live patients...gross!)

16.) I love crappy drama television; Greys Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, House. Brilliant!

17.) I probably drink waaaaay too much, but put it under the ‘artistic type’ file.

18.) My husband is also my best friend.

19.) I dream of having houses all over the world, but not big expensive ones. Just shacks by the beach in places like Bali, Thailand, and India.

20.) I used to have five piercings (not including my ears!).

So there you have it. Got anything interesting people probably wouldn't know about you? Please share!

Curse of the ‘mummy-tummy’!

It’s now been five months since my youngest was born and I am still plagued by my bulging belly which still looks as though I am at least six months gone.

I swear nothing is as bad as fighting a post-baby body (yeah, okay, I know – world famine, flooding, rare and untreatable illnesses – but just humour me for a moment.)  I hate dieting – just hate it.  I get so much pleasure from food.  I love everything about it – shopping for food, cooking food, and of course eating it!  Then comes the alcohol consumption.  I know there is no way I will be slim and gorgeous if I keep drinking beer and consuming a couple of good sized glasses of wine in the evening.

So I am trying to diet, but bugger-all is happening.  Every time I step on the much hated scales I just want to open the fridge and eat everything inside it.  It sucks.  I know I am going to have to start running (which I also hate), but as I don’t have either the time or the money for a gym membership, it is my only option.

Of course I love my daughter more than anything and I would never swap one of my children for my pre-baby body, but it would still be nice to have the pert body of an eighteen year-old Swedish girl (not that I ever had that to start with!).  My husband drives me insane by complaining that he has put on a few pounds, and I have to do everything in my power to stop myself from grabbing him and screaming in his face like a maniac, ‘You think you’ve got problems!  Try growing another person and then get back to me!’

In the future, when I can afford it, I will be calling in the surgeons (probably will even have them on speed-dial), but until that time comes I am either going to have to suck it up (literally) and stick with the diet, or else accept I am going to be a good stone over-weight, eat and drink what I like, and embrace the baby-belly.

So today I am sending much love out there to all the other women battle body issues (and I am sure there are many).  We will probably never be happy with our bodies and will spend the rest of our lives fighting them! 

New Member of the Family!!

Big news today -- On Sunday, fellow Wicked blogger Marissa Farrar gave birth to her second child, a daughter, Amelie "Jack Bauer" May. Yay!

Apparently eating curry and fresh pineapple can induce labor a week before the baby's actual due date (just FYI to all expectant mothers out there!), and the baby's name is officially Amelie May, but I know how much Marissa loves Jack Bauer and I'm sure she sneaked it in there somewhere!

Everyone is doing fabulously well and we wish them all a huge congratulations on their darling bundle of joy!