Day 48 - Scheduling Interviews - Monday Musings

So I have a confession to make. I haven't done an interview for tomorrow. To be honest, I have yet to schedule an interview for tomorrow's blog. To be completely truthful, I haven't even thought about it all week. *breathe*


It's true, I forgot. Somehow though I am going to pull through. I know lots of great authors and bloggers, and I know I'll get a great interview. I have some extra time to do it tomorrow too. So who will be interviewed? It's a surprise... even to me!

This is definitely the biggest thing I am trying to work on. I don't mean just the interview scheduling. I mean working ahead in general. We'll see how it goes as I take steps to get ahead on all the blog days I can!

***Cindy Hogan Blog Bash Winners: I am running behind. The winner will be announced tomorrow!

Day 41 - Learning to be More - Monday Musings

To add to the complications of life, I began night classes today. It's Monday and Wednesday, 5-7 PM. Then add in about 3-4 hours of homework and an hour of travel. Now, if you aren't aware of why I am still in school, I assure you it is not because I am finishing up my doctoral thesis. I am still working on my Bachelor's degree. Eight years and I am almost done. 

The reality is that I have always been a worker. I tried the full-time student thing while my wife worked, which made sense up until she had our son. Bills were to high, we were going to lose her insurance, etc. Plus I am one of the many sad people who have the habit of treating fake "free" money like it's really free, and so wasn't always being judicious in its use. I also blame that last part on the foibles of youth. So here I am, going part time, including some evening classes, hoping to finish up in April or June of 2012. 

The hardest part for me is that my desire to remain is minimal. I have a full time enjoyable career with people I love working with. My degree, Ancient Near Eastern Studies with a Hebrew focus, is very cool (how amny of you can read the Old Testament in Hebrew, eh?) and yet it has absolutely no relevance to the business world (though I have some book ideas...). I have a wife and a kid, I own a home, and taking even a single class is draining on my already limited schedule. And that was before I dedicated myself to writing. 

So the temptation arises to drop something to free up my schedule. But what would I drop? I can't drop work. I would certainly never in eternity decide to stop being a husband and father to the world's greatest family. Do I drop school? The thought has certainly occurred to me multiple times, and it definitely creates tension at work when I can't take calls with clients while in class. But I am less than ten credits away, only a maximum of eleven months from finishing. After eight years, I am definitely not stopping now, even if it has zero meaning other than to say "I finished the race, I have fought the good fight." Writing? Never.

So it leaves me with only one option left: find ways to become more than I am. It means better time management. It means making the most of my time with my family. It means really being a rockstar at work so that when problems arise over the interference of school, I am too invaluable to be forced into making a deathly either/or choice. And it means possibly even later nights. 

The good news? I can keep telling myself "Just one more year, one more year". It's much better than before at "just three more years" or anything of that ilk. And then I am done. Unless of course I decide to get an MBA, which I might. Or a Law degree, which I would never do, but is amusing to think about. Maybe a literary degree? Hmm... probably not. I'll already have a degree with little market value!

So we press on. All of us. Each day. We keep moving forward, knowing that if we stop for a breather on the escalator of life, we will move backwards and down without even trying. And we learn to be more. 

Monday Musings - Like Ariel, I want more - Day 34

*** Day 3 of the Contest is Today! Remember, each time you comment, you get an entry. Invite someone to follow and you get two entries. Contest ends Midnight on Friday! ***

Today I was driving with some co-workers through one of my favorite areas of Utah County, being the western rural area of Lehi. There's some great land that has been farmed for generations there, classic style homes, and space for everything I want in life: farm animals, crops, a wood shop, a pond, and generally a quiet home not too far from and not to near the major urban centers. Like Ariel in the Little Mermaid, I have various pretty things and even visits to the country, but I want more. I want to be there, to live that life, even at the cost of much of the conveniences of living in the city or suburbia.

More than anything, I want that rural life, enough to comfortably raise my family, teach the value of hard work to my kids, and still be able to find time to write in a beautiful setting. I know the country life isn't for everyone, but for my wife and I, it's our favorite dream. I might add it wouldn't make us in the least bit sad if it were in the southern US where there are quite a few less months of cold...

Becoming a successful, published author is thus both a means to the end and the end. I am in no way delusional enough to believe the chances are high that I can subsist off of writing, at least not until many books in print later. Certainly my blog and my constant efforts at improvement in marketing myself and improving my writing style, combined with a rigorous schedule help increase my probability of both publishing and financial success over time, but really, the reality is that I view my writing as three things:

1) Therapeutic. Since I started writing, I enjoy life so much more, even though I have less time. I find I am less stressed, I have joy in constant learning, and I simply love to craft a good story and see it progress.

2) When I become published, initial proceeds would go towards paying off whatever debts we may still have at that time. Even if it's only $500 of income in a year, it's that much less debt or that much more in savings.

3) When we have the land we want, writing income, even minor, assists in having multiple sources of income (assuming I  haven't hit the writing jackpot and have that dreamy early retirement wherein I can write all day or lay in the grass and it won't make a difference in paying the bills). Thus, I can live my dream of land and writing with far less pressure on either.

Ultimately then, I view my writing as relaxation now and in the future, even if it never makes me independently wealthy. As long as I can write and a few people love my stories, and doing so helps me to have a bit more time to write further, then I've found the perfect balance.

So for my readers, I pose a few questions: Why do you write? Where do you see writing in your future ideal life? And what is your ideal life?

Day 27 - Matt's Monday Musings - Slow Going

This last week has been busy to say the least. I finished planting my garden, discovered my tenants are moving out of my basement a few months earlier than I has wrongly assumed (their lease was up, I just thought they would stay to the end of the summer) and so I've had to work harder at my actual job to try and generate more funds to cover the loss of income. I mowed out yard, hauled out an old clothesline pole from the 1940's that had a couple hundred pounds of cement on it (when pulled it out of the ground with my truck, it bent the super-thick steel 70 degrees before I was able to move it...). I've had a terrible sinus and throat infection for the past few weeks that has made extended speaking difficult. My dad is still in the hospital with leukemia and I spent a considerable amount of time researching other doctors and facilities versus his current location. Thankfully, we found an outstanding option there with Huntsman, who just accepted him into their program, and we'll be transferring him next week. While visiting my dad this evening, my wife called and said my infant son had fallen off the couch and put his two front teeth through the middle of his tongue, and there was a lot of blood.

So I know that was a disjointed paragraph, but it got the information out. I am exhausted. Days like this make me want to just say "Tonight, don't worry about writing or blogging." In the future perhaps I will schedule a weekly break. But not now. Not while I am solidifying habits.

Habits then is the key to success as a writer. I could take a break, and be completely justified. Yet I realize that with my personality, I could then more easily justify breaks for lesser things. Before I knew what was happening, I would be taking more break days than writing days. I am working now on improving that aspect of me. Even though the going has definitely become tough, I keep on going. This way I know that when I really cannot blog or write one or multiple days, I will have the mental fortitude, perhaps even the craving, to get back on the horse as soon as possible.

As a consequence of my busy week, I have written very little, but I have written daily. Not a day has gone by where a few sentences weren't written. And I have a goal: 10% of my novel written by day 30. It's ambitious. I'll need to do some sprint writing. I may not make it, but by golly, I am going to shoot for the stars.