Here is a fact: If you are a writer, most of your friends/family will not read your stuff. They will if you ask them to (they are good like that) but they won’t if you don’t. I have written a lot (not just this blog) and I’d venture to say that the only non-writer person who I am friends and/or related to who has read most of it (not all) is Brett. And that’s because I make him.

Now writer friends will read you and they will applaud you and encourage you but most people who are not writers will not read what you write.

Here’s a true story about a relative who shall remain nameless. Said relative met another writer and wanted to see what this writer has written so they did a google on that writer’s name. Then they did a google on mine. They reported back to me, “Wow, you’ve written a lot! Even more than [other writer]!”

See, said relative who shall remain nameless was thinking of this new person as a writer since they met said writer in the capacity of Writer but since they met me in the capacity of Relative it never occurred to them that I am also a writer. And in fact am more accomplished than the other writer and (I say, pretending to look modestly down) I’m more talented. Despite the googling, they still seem to persist in seeing my writing as an adorable hobby of mine that I do when I’m not busy scrubbing floors. (This even though they’ve visited my home and know I do not scrub floors.)

I am usually not all that concerned about people who I love and who love me who don’t read me stuff because if I was concerned it’d drive me crazy so I have decided to not be crazy about it but it is kind of lonely. Because my writing is very important to me and I rarely get to talk about it with people who are otherwise very interested in other parts of my life. Again, this makes perfect sense. They are interested in my kids or my for-pay work or in my cooking or in my marriage or in my other friendships because they can relate to these things but if you are not a writer, it’s hard to make much sense of writing. Too, some people hate writing or have bad feelings about writing or are casual writers and so they understand writing in a particular way that makes them think they are understand writing for ME and for other serious writers but this is not true. Impossible to disabuse people of this notion though. That’s just how it is. But it’s a piece missing in a lot of my relationships because here’s this thing that kinda runs my life (because really I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to have more time with my family and more time to write and everything else is detail) but it’s like it happens in a vacuum.

Of course I haven’t written much in the last year because I’ve been busy trying to Make Money. This is depressing. Not just because trying to Make Money can be dreary work but also because I’ve discovered that the friends and family who won’t read the stuff I write for the sake of writing are inordinately interested in how I’m doing at all that money making. Which matters to me (sure) but doesn’t matter to me as much as writing for the sake of writing.

I’m disgruntled lately. I blame it on the wait to hear from grad school.

Ahh well.

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1. Agent news
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I’m not but Noah is. He’s been reading in there all afternoon. Madison dug up the daffodills to make soup and then apologized when I told her those weren’t onions, they were daffodills. But the point is that it’s nice outside and we are out enjoying it. I met with a potential client this morning (I’ve got room for new projects right now just FYI but not today because today I’m ignoring you all) and I’m taking the afternoon off even though I could find lots to do. But I’m tired of checking for an email from grad school and I’m tired of breathing my house’s stale air and so we are outside today and that is the end of that.

See y’all on the flipside!

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this woman's work, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments so far | Come on by and comment!

I have to do a catch-all post right now because I’m still getting over my cold (although I am MUCH better, thanks!) and my to-do list doesn’t take sick days! Here it goes:

1. Pennie and Tommy went out for the first time post-Roscoe and who got the babysitting honors? Why we did, of course! Roscoe missed his mama and papa an awful lot but he was adorable for us and loves apple sauce and took a long nap and enjoyed wandering the house with Brett and all was good. Then Pennie & Tommy came back with Very Loud Horns from The Crew game for the kids and now I am saving up for a drum kit for Mr. Roscoe. Paybacks, my friends, are a bitch. Heh.
2. I am hearing that I may get notice on whether or not I got into grad school this week. At least rumor mill has it that word is coming in. (Brett found this site where people post their admissions info and there was one note re., the program I want posted yesterday.) I am on pins and needles, hoping for the best but preparing for bad news, too. Mostly I’m trying to remind myself that my big goal is to build a career as a counselor and as much as I want a specific academic experience I need to remember that past that I want credentials that I can get someplace else even if it’s not my druthers.
3. Also? Cadbury eggs are on sale and if I don’t get in, I’m buying a pack.
4. Waiting to hear about grad school reminds me about waiting to find out what the pregnancy test was going to say. (This is probably exacerbated by my stint at the fertility web site because this is not a metaphor that would likely come to mind otherwise.) You know, life-changing possibilities. No way of really knowing. Nothing to do but wait. Magical thinking, oh so tempting but not really useful. And getting through terrible waiting in the past makes it easier to get through terrible waiting in the present. I know how to do this. And I know that I’ll survive, thanks, post-Cadbury gluttony and grief.

And now, my latest Palm Pre discussion below the cut per my BlogHer agreement! (See? Catch all post!)

(...)
Read the rest of Catch all (250 words)

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When I got the word that MomCentral was organizing a blog tour around the PhotoWorks Studio baby-themed book I signed right up. Not for ME — for Pennie!

(...)
Read the rest of PhotoWorks Blog Tour (540 words)

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I’m typing slowly because I’m still sick but I don’t think I’m contagious anymore because the sore throat is pretty much gone and the fever is definitely gone but I’ve got some serious (and sorta fun) vertigo happening, which is way better than the earache that woke me up in the middle of the night last night. Basically I feel stoned but cheerfully stoned. As I was just last week discussing with Tracy, I don’t like being altered (drugs/alcohol) but a little vertigo is amusing. And annoying but as long as it’s just today, I’m going with amusing.

But I have to type slowly because of the typos. The typos I may type were I to type quickly. Because of the vertigo.

It’s sunny out. The children let me nap. One of Madison’s birthday presents arrived in the mail and so that is all good. Also my to-do list is mercifully short, which is fortunate because of the s-l-o-w typing. Speaking of all that (again) I better hop to that list because the one thing on it is probably going to take a very very very long time.

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this woman's work, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments so far | Come on by and comment!