The Happy Housewife

Publicity for my book !

2012-10-10T14:52:00.001-07:00

Article about my book, "Scorpio Moon", published in "Maidenhead Advertiser" - September 2012.

This is my first taste of publicity and it feels wierd ! I have been doing my own marketing/publicity using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, for a year now. It did'nt really seem to help with sales. Hopefully this will help...

Besides publicity for my book and what seems like a potentially new career in freelance journalism (a friend has been helping me raise my profile as a writer and she helped me with this article), I am still a very tired and busy stay-at-home mother to my two little bouncing bunnies. They are growing so fast, time is just flying and I am still crashing on the couch at the end of the day, around 7:30pm, every day ! I find myself waiting a lot. For things like, replies to my e-mails (my main form of socialising and communicating with the outside adult world), response and feedback about my writing or art work, winning some money to buy a house, a large house. Oh the list goes on and on... That's all for now, will catch up again soon. This tired juggler needs some rest.

"Scorpio moon" the novel

2012-02-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

Imagine you could change the course of history...

Imagine you could change someones heart...

Imagine you could move through space and time instantly...

Scorpio Moon is a contemporary romance thriller revolving around love, magic and time travel. The story is set on the east coast of South Africa in the subtropical city of Durban, during a time of great change.

The story is woven around the metaphysical journeys that the main male character, Luke Ross, experiences as a result of dark magic.

Luke has an overwhelming desire for adventure and danger. His innate power is fearlessness. The woman in his life, Maxine, goes to dangerous lengths in order to resolve her feelings of isolation and obsession. Her power is to evoke change through magic.

Maxine does not realize the full magnitude of a spell she performs. It corrupts their lives and twists their emotions to the brink of madness and Maxine is propelled into deeper isolation.

The spell is the complication that initiates the dark journeys which Luke experiences. His journey's span the countries of Germany during WWII, future Langley in the USA as well as present day Durban, South Africa. Luke's experiences in these countries are all interconnected by historical events.

Max and Luke are separated by time and space but united by their shared, desperate love, even when it is on the brink of collapse. Their story is one of real love overcoming seemingly insurmountable difficulties and gaining strength because of it."

Illustrated books

2012-01-11T14:18:00.001-08:00

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're laughing so loud that other people are staring ! I've got x2 childrens illustrated books (both of which I wrote/illustrated 10 years ago - before kids!) for sale on Amazon Kindle.

Here are the links:
"Topaz the cat" - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006SOL09C
"Busy bee goes on holiday" - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006VZ0AZS

And if you're looking for a metaphyscial romance thriller e-book/novel set in Durban then try my "Scorpio Moon" ! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005L3RPE0

My book is for sale !

2012-01-06T15:27:00.001-08:00

My book Scorpio Moon, a metaphysical romantic thriller, is for sale as an e-book on Amazon Kindle for $2.99. Have you bought your copy yet?

A to-do list from the past...

2011-11-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

It was Monday, 12th November 2007 (and I was 20 weeks pregnant with my first baby - and everything on this list was ticked off, in my diary):-

Organise storage for baby nursery
Make jug of de-caf green tea
Pack away dry dishes
Disinfect and clean nursery furniture and rest of house
Clear out my old magazines (recycling)
Iron x2 work shirts for hubby
Make lunch for hubby (coming home from work for lunch)
Pack away dry washing
Frame painting I did for Harry & Margaret (our elderly neighbours/friends)
Vaccum clean entire house
Clean bedroom mirror
Stoke fire place fire's in kitchen (wood burning stove) and lounge.
Sweep away leaves outside (it's Autumn and we have a thick sea of gold and orange leaves, outside).
Work on manuscript (what is now my 1st novel - "Scorpio Moon" http: //www.amazon.com/dp/B005L3RPE0 )
Wrap painting gift for Harry & Margaret
Start baby album (scan pic's)
Check e-mails, do pregnancy research (20 weeks) on internet, check Facebook profile.
Final baby shopping list (last few things to get)
Catch up with diary
Cook dinner and clean up !

How on earth did I complete all these tasks when I was already quiet heavily pregnant and where did I get all the time ? Time is such a luxury now. I type this frantically as I anticipate the turning of time (it's now already 21:21 pm and I had both baby girl and toddler boy tucked up in bed at 7:13pm), I desperately need sleep and hope to be in bed before 22:30pm.

All those things on my to-do-list from the past (November 2007), that I would accomplish in one day, seem unsurmountable now. I am mother to a wonderful, wild and boisterous 3.5 year old boy and a loud, curious, energetic and gorgeous 10 month old baby girl. My whole day is consumed with forfilling their every need and maintaining seemingly rigid routines whilst squeezing housework and a few errands in-between. But it is all so worth it and I would not change it for anything in the world. My life seems so much more complete, meaningful and worthwhile now. My childless years of adulthood seem so self-indulgent and well, selfish, I suppose. You can truelly understand what Im talking about, when you take the big leap into parenthood - it is seriously life changing to say the least. In a good way, for sure.

So let me end this post with a quotable quote, one of my all time favourites:-

"The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a life-time." - Anon.

Till next time !

The luxury of nostalgia

2011-11-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

It is astonishing how much your life changes after you've had a baby. I compare what I do now in an average week to what I use to do 4 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child and it's astounding. It's easy for me to compare as I vigilantly kept diaries for 13 years (but stopped when my frist child became a toddler). My diary would be filled with dates for birthday's of friends - mostly single and childless, dates for going out or having parties at home and all of the seemingly selfish, self-absorbed hobbies, excursions, pampering and exercise routines that childless people have the luxury of enjoying. Now, all that sort of thing seems too self-indulgent, too time consuming and well, it's just not me anymore. I thought I would share some extracts from my childless, self-indulgent past - just for fun. Nostalgia - that is an emotion or feeling that seems to be one of my little luxuries in life these days. Luckily I got to live it up, work and play hard, before settling down to have a family. I have no regrets, I've had my fun and now, like many of you out there - I am proud and content to be a stay-at-home mother.

Sunday 18th March 2007:

To do list for the day:

Sow seeds (in greenhouse)
Painting
Dust house and vacuum clean
Scrapbooking
Jog to farm and back (take i-pod !)
Read novel
Movies

Now, I ask you - how did I fit so much in one day (all on the to do list plus cooking, eating, cleaning and spending time with husband ) ? These days I would only be able to do one or two of those things in between caring for my baby and also my boisterous toddler, the housework and doing the odd errand. That's if Im lucky and there hasn't been any curve balls thrown into the daily routine. It helps if you've had the chance to enjoy a varied, busy life before starting a family. And it also helps if you've learnt how to be adaptable and empathetic with people and lifestyles from other cultures and countries.

Here are some of the websites I enjoyed in my childless days, taken ffrom the 2007 diary:

www.43things.com
www.dooce.com
www.princessmelissa.com/weblog/
www.loobylu.com

Some quotes taken from a scrapbook I kept in my mid twenties/childless years:

"The people I'm furious with are the women's liberationists. They keep getting up on soap boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. It's true but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket." - Anita Loos, 1893

"We women suffragists have a great mission - the greatest mission the world has ever known. It is to free half the human race, and through that reason to save the rest. " - Emmeline Pankhurst (1857 - 1928)

"All women have a sacred obligation to each other. Irrespective of class or conditions of work." - Vida Goldstein

"I dont mind being in a man's world so long as I can be a woman in it." - Marilyn Monroe

"...each woman is far from average in the daily heroic's of her life, even though she may never receive a moment's recognition in history." - Introduction to "Women & work".

"What is better than gold? Jasper. What is better than jasper? Wisdom. What is better than wisdom? Women. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing." - Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400)

Hope you are all enjoying the anticipation of the festive season and all the fun, madness and mayhem that it entails. What a year 2011 has been, but that topic is for another time... Bye for now !

When things go wrong in the house

2011-09-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

It was one of those days that you just seem to crawl through. I kept my calm and managed okay, considering my little boy has a cold and my baby girl is at that "I want to see everything and do everything" stage (a bit dangerous and you need eyes on the back of your head!) but in hindsight, it was actually a pretty daunting day. The toilet packed up, the oven was broken and I had no energy, well, just barely enough to do the basics - which is still allot on an average day. There was allot of hair pulling (my own). But we got through it, Im relieved and both babies are sound asleep in their beds. My little boy is on the mend and I managed to still write this. Thanks to my darling husband who seems to be a true jack of all trades. He fixed the oven and unblocked the toilet. I dont think there is anything he can't do, besides dancing. But that is all for now, till next time.

The value of a stay-at-home mum & uni-tasking

2011-09-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

There are many instances when I feel like I a hamster running on a wheel non-stop, I suppose most stay-at-home mums feel like that. Dont get me wrong, Im very grateful and appreciative of the role I have - there are plenty of mother's who dont have this luxury and are forced back into the work place, missing out on the first precious years of the baby's development. Did you know, on average, stay-at-home mums spend 71 hours a week doing housework - the many thankless jobs such as cooking, cleaning, washing, tidying up, baby/child care (feeding, clothes changing, nappy changing, teaching, playing, protecting, entertaining etc.) - all this is valued at £577 per week or a total of £ 30,032 a year. Which brings me to my next interesting fact, discovered on a life insurance advert - 30% of parents would have to work part time or stop work totally in order to look after their children, if their partner (ie. stay-at-home mum) was no longer around. Is it me or are we generally just very under-valued, under-appreciated and sometimes just plain down-trodden upon ? Our job is one of the hardest in the world, the most rewarding and forfilling, but it is really, really HARD WORK ! I have worked in an office, had a few career changes, many different bosses - over the past 12 years. I've worked in border-line hard labour jobs and also very dull, monotonous desk jobs. All of those jobs and careers pale into insignificance in terms of reward and tiredness, when compared to what I do now. I've always prided myself and the rest of female kind in our ability to multi-task. But I've come to the realisation that multi-tasking is really not that fruitful or productive most of the time. It's a panicked attempt at doing many things quickly and ultimately quite badly. That is because we are not super-human and are not really wired to complete complex and also simple tasks simultaneously, without causing an accident or just doing those many different tasks, badly. There is a new term, it's called "UNI-TASKING". Basically it means, doing one thing very well or completely instead of doing ten things badly or incompletely. Food for thought I say. To conclude, the only way to get by these days, whether you are a housewife, a corporate high-flyer, a teacher or a rocket scientist, is to focus on the task at hand, keep your cool and live in the countryside. Yes, you heard me, live in the sticks. Latest research proves that the mind is at its healthiest and most content when the body is living in the countryside away from urban hussle and bussle. Balmy, country breezes flood the human brain with mood elevating serotonin. I believe this firmly, I lived in an urban environment and found it extremely stressful and agitating. Now I live in the countryside and it's the best thing we ever did. We have been living here in the countryside for over seven years now. It took me over seven years to write my recently published novel, "Scorpio Moon", now I have to try and get it sold. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005L3RPE0
Okay, that's all from me for now, I am pretty knackered and still need to do some shopping (online). Till next time !

My book

2011-09-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hi there again
For those of you who have the luxury of reading in your busy lives - I have just had my fictional book e-published online through Amazon Kindle and it can be bought in hard copy through Createspace e-store.My book has been a work-in-progress (in between emigrating countries, moving house, career changes and having/raising x2 babies, since 2002) and now Im finally unleashing it to the world and to you all, if you are interested ! You can pay to have it downloaded to your PC or any Kindle device (iPad/iPhone/Android). If you like what you read, let me know and spread the word - I have to do my own marketing and enlist the help of friends too. Cheerio

Here is the Synopsis for my book:-

Scorpio Moon revolves around love, magic and time travel. The story is set on the east coast of South Africa in the subtropical city of Durban, during a time of great change. The story is woven around the metaphysical journeys that the main male character, Luke Ross, experiences as a result of dark magic. Luke has an overwhelming desire for adventure and danger. His innate power is fearlessness. The woman in his life, Maxine, goes to dangerous lengths in order to resolve her feelings of isolation and obsession. Her power is to evoke change through magic. Maxine does not realize the full magnitude of a spell she performs. It corrupts their lives and twists their emotions to the brink of madness and Maxine is propelled into deeper isolation. The spell is the complication that initiates the dark journeys which Luke experiences. His journey's span the countries of Germany during WWII, future Langley in the USA as well as present day Durban, South Africa. Luke's experiences in these countries are all interconnected by historical events. Max and Luke are separated by time and space but united by their shared, desperate love, even when it is on the brink of collapse. Their story is one of real love overcoming seemingly insurmountable difficulties and gaining strength because of it.

It's available to order at:-

https://www.createspace.com/3628454

and also on Amazon Kindle e-books:-

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005L3RPE0

Happy AND lucky...

2011-08-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

It's a miracle Im even writing this. My whole day is filled with all the joy, fun and mayhem that makes up the life of an average stay-at-home mum and housewife. I have a boisterous and happy three year old boy as well as a very loud, chatty and sensitive seven month old baby girl. I am on the go non-stop. By the time I have them both tucked up in bed its usually almost 8pm. And that's when I look forward to my little luxuries in life. Like a soothing but quick soak in our 100 year Victorian bath tub followed by letting myself collapse on the couch in front of the TV.

Im very lucky and grateful. In one year I found two four leaf clovers whilst taking my kids for walks on the farm where we live. Cows love to eat clovers, I wonder how many four leaf clovers any given cow would eat in its life time. Food for thought. Besides the four leaf clovers, I feel lucky because I get to stay at home and be full time mum and housewife. Believe me, its not all a bed of roses. There are times when I feel isolated and never have time for myself. There are times when I feel no one cares what hard work it is looking after two kids and a household with no family or support around besides my caring and kind husband. Since we brought our baby boy home from hospital over three years ago, we have done everything on our own with no help and no day off at all. My husband and I have been on one date together since we had kids. That was over a year ago.

No one warns you about how you will be judged and criticised about every choice you make as a mother and parent, when you become one. Anyway, back to the positives. There are two things that help when you become a housewife and mother. The first thing is being super organized. The second thing is having the ability to multi-task endlessly, to the point of being ambidextrous. Yes, I mean ambidextrous as in using both hands to perform different tasks, preferably at the same time. If you can use both sides of your brain simultaneously, thats even better. Luckily must women seem to be naturally wired for using both sides of their brains. It also helps if you can sustain constant interruptions in your daily routine.

Having a creative outlet is what keeps me motivated. I draw and write when I can. Look at my art if you're curious, here is my art blog site: http://www.costa-wagner.blogspot.com I have written a thinking woman's love triangle story - it was a work in progress spanning almost ten years, started when I was newly engaged to my husband. The book is available on Amazon Kindle and also Createspace:- https://www.createspace.com/3628454
http://www.amazon.com/3628454
It's called "Scorpio Moon". The story can be described as a mixture of themes - a touch of "Twighlight", a sprinkling of "Charmed" and a dash of "The Da Vinci Code" all woven around a very subtle love triangle.

My darling baby girl is beckoning me for her late night feed, so that is it from me, for now.