Do You Write for Passion or Money?

Sorry I haven't been around much ... busy working on the other blogs and getting published in 75 places and making money for things like kid activities and new glasses and a root canal and 2 crowns! Life sneaks up on you financially and before you know it you are writing for money and not necessarily for the love of writing, ya know?

Then there's that little thing I do called homeschooling 3 kids while wrangling 2 more all day long, sometimes with a traveling husband.

Wouldn't it be nice to have just like 1 more hour in the day when you could work on whatever writing project you wanted to? Memoir, novel, essay, humor, script, poem?

If you haven't been over to Get Published in Parenting and Family Magazines yet and you are a writer mama, you hafta go! The ebook price has been cut in half, so it's only 10 bucks, and you get hundreds of markets. Plus I'm adding new ones to the blog all the time for NADA, NOTHIN', FREE!

Articles That Speak To You. No, I'm Not Crazy.

It’s funny how articles often start as one idea or theme and then they tell you which way they want to go instead. I started a piece about Lessons Grandparents Teach and had things like patience, downtime is good, older can be cool, etc.

It wasn’t flowing and wasn’t making sense, but other ideas were coming, so I just typed them up to see if there was a common theme I could run with. I ended up with a piece about things grandparents can do with or for their grandkids … like go on a nature walk turning over rocks and looking for bugs, teach a skill, bake something.

After I found what it wanted to be, it flowed and was easy to write.

As a bonus, it turned out to be an homage to my kids’ 6 grandparents, as well, and I felt proud of it.

Let your writing speak to you!

What's Your Writing Routine?

"It's not that I don't love to see your sweet face, pumpkin, but it's 6:45 and Mommy got up early to write. You need to go back to sleep so Mommy doesn't sit around watching Maisy all morning with you!"

I've started to try to follow that writing advice that I absolutely HATE. The advice about getting up early to write. I love the quiet of the house, and I do get some writing done, but I also find that I have written in chaos so much over the years that the quiet sometimes bugs me. Still ... it is uninterrupted (usually) writing time, and I can at least COMPLETE A THOUGHT! Coffee helps.

I'm wondering about your writing routine. Do you write early in the morning, while you're at your day job, after work, during the day while you have 10 kids milling around you, at 2 a.m.?

Endorsement Requests and an Update on My Writing

I know, I know, I'm a bad mother writer. I'm spending all my time writing and submitting and working on my other blogs. I'll try to update you more often on what I'm working on so we can talk about it.

Today I sent out my first endorsement request for my ebook about getting published in parenting and family magazines. I hope to send out a bunch more in the weeks to come. I'm hoping endorsements and good comments from professional writers will help sell my ebooks since I really think it's a helpful resource.

I also submitted 2 stories to 2 different Chicken Soup for the Soul upcoming books (see http://getpublishedparentingmags.com for a link to the opportunities).

This week I'll be working on shaping some queries for nationals. I have 35 regional articles under my belt and 60 publishing credits, so I think I need to move on to some other stuff now. I'll have to mass-submit queries to the nationals and hope to get a bite!

I also hope to get some things on writing in some writing magazines and online sites.

Oh, and there are those other ebooks that are telling me they want to be written.

So many ideas, so little Internet access and so little time!

What are YOU working on?

Online Writing Groups

Does anyone belong to a great online writing group? I have to say I get tired of signing up for these and then most of the talk revolves around the most mundane crap, like what someone should share in their Tweets, or what's going on with their kids. I'm like, "Come on! Let's talk about WRITING!"

So if you belong to a decent writing group, whether through Facebook or LinkedIn or wherever, please let me know. I'd love to get a group together for just writers of regional parenting magazines so we can discuss pay info and who steals your work ... juicy stuff!

Google Alert Your Name!

Come on over to www.GetPublishedParentingMags.com to see what I have to say about Google Alerting your name. It's a great way to find money!

Writing With a Big Family

Come on over to this post to find out how I manage writing and raising a big family. Hopefully this will make your life seem like cake and you will get off my blog and start writing the next Great American Novel or Writer's Digest feature article!