My sister from another mister, SK Falls, nominated me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award. She is the author of ONE LAST SONG (previously the award-winning SECRET FOR A SONG,) the dystopian Glimpsing Stars series, and the Fevered Souls paranormal romance series. Her work is wonderful. If you haven’t read ONE LAST SONG yet, go get it now!
I am to write a top seven list about anything I want, and I chose the top seven things I love about being a writer. At the end I’ll nominate some other bloggers to do their own top seven lists. Here goes!
Top 7 Things I Love About Being a Writer
7. My MacBook Air. Seriously, how can one love a piece of technology so much? It (and its cousins) have seen me through the writing of five novels and two novellas, countless blog posts, reports for work, an infinite number of emails, author talk creations, and goofing off on social media. It does it all without crashing and with no judgment about the amount of time I spend procrastinating. Taking a page out of YA author Maggie Stiefvater’s book, and my own daughter’s, I’ve named my laptop Hermione. (Maggie’s is Mr. Darcy, and my daughter’s is Dr. Watson.) I love you, Hermione. Please never die.
6. Pajamas/Sweaty Work-out Clothes/Birthday Suit. I can work in any of these if I so choose. It MIGHT be the thing I love most about writing for a living. But I’ll leave it at number six.
5. SONOS. Continuing the technology theme, my loving husband enthusiastically (read: I henpecked him into it) bought me a SONOS music system for our house for my birthday last year. You have no idea how awesome it is to have an infinite variety of music to pipe into my office while I write. Epic film soundtracks and videogame soundtracks are my music of choice while drafting and revising. (By the way, I get my love of technology from my dad. He always has at least fifteen gadgety things hanging from his belt and/or in his bag. Love you, Dad [and you, too, Mom.])
4. My Dry Erase Board. See pic below with notes from writing THE FIRE SISTERS (it does exist, truly!) It is magnetic and made of glass. It is fabulous. Now I’m using it to keep track of my weekly and daily writing goals. I love having it to refer to when I’m tempted to check my email for the fourteenth time in an hour, or when I’m thinking about just popping in on Facebook or Twitter for a sec. “NO!” my dry erase board yells out from the wall next to my desk. “You have stuff to do! Get to it!”
3. Getting to Be Creative. I never thought of myself as a creative. I still don’t, really. But as an author I get to use my imagination and creativity every day. It’s SO MUCH FUN. Having books to show for it is a nice bonus.
2. Being my Own Boss. In both my writing and psychology careers I get to be my own boss. I love that, y’all. I’m not sure I could work for someone else now. They may not appreciate my sweaty workout clothes smell or why I need a SONOS system to be purchased and speakers hardwired into the ceiling of my cubicle.
1. My Readers. Yes, you. I love writing books. It’s too time consuming and laborious a pursuit if you don’t. But I get the most excited by hearing from readers, reading your reviews (I read every one, even the ones that make me wince,) and knowing that you are out there as I spend the months/years it takes to produce a novel. You allow me to be a writer and an author. Thank you so much for spending your precious time with my books.
I’m nominating seven YA authors to blog their own top seven lists. Check out these hard-working authors and their books.