FIRST!!!!! Happy Veterans Day to all of our current and former military! A special shout out to my uncles Jack and Larry who both fought in WWII... My sister Ronnie, USAF Captain Veronica Herne who was an army nurse in Vietnam. Brother Terry Herne, this man's army. Brother Sean Herne, USMC: Semper Fi, Sean. Brother-in-law Sgt. Dan Blodgett, U.S. Army... And to all who served: Thank you!
And now we return you to our regularly schedule program:
The holidays have long been a slow-down tradition in publishing. From Thanksgiving until post-New Year's Day, the time lag from publishing houses to authors s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s out and if you were waiting on a contract or edits or acceptance/rejection, you were likely to wait until, well...
Let's just say you're likely to wait.
There are multiple ways to handle this time lag.
You can wring your hands...
Watch the clock move slowly toward the new year...
Take up knitting or backgammon....
Study French.
Or roll with it. And if you can't name any French-speaking authors, my guess is that most of us roll with it.
But does that mean time off?
Not necessarily. And probably not if you want to be a career author instead of an occasional writer. That's a self-awareness choice. But either way, I go into the holidays with a few solid tips to keep my holidays lovely, peaceful, Christ-centered and filled with the fun things I like to do with my family.
I NEVER HAVE DECEMBER DEADLINES. When you have to pick deadlines sometimes two years in advance, I learned years ago to avoid the holidays for deadlines. From mid-November to around January 8th, I don't schedule a deadline because why mess up the beauty of the holiday season with a deadline that doesn't need to be there? Isn't that the beauty of being self-employed? I want my Christmas season to be prayerful and filled with lovely church services, time with grandkids, making gingerbread houses, cookies, planning parties (well, maybe not this year, dagnabbit!) and
I aim to work ahead of the curve. Farm season makes that a challenge because the farm has grown exponentially the past two years, but it can be done. Sometimes it's simply a matter of sitting yourself down and writing something... I have learned to never put off writing. It comes first every morning and that keeps me on schedule. Ahead of schedule, actually. And then I have no need to panic. Ever. (Confession: panicky people tend to annoy me, so when folks start goin' on their deadline fussin' online or wherever, I just kinda wanna smack 'em because they've got a job that hundreds of other people would give anything to have and they mess with it. Stop fussing. Turn off the whining. And work. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Ruthy program.)
The holidays are special. They're beautiful. But they also mess with normal schedules (not Covid related) and I try to remind myself that when I worked at school... when I ran my daycare... when I sold wedding gowns... when I waited tables... no one gave me six weeks off. NO ONE.
So that's how I treat my writing. It's not something I shelve when I get busy. Contracts dry up real quick when that happens.... It's something I treasure, twelve months of the year.
So tell me, how do you juggle holidays and work?
I've got two copies of "Finding Her Christmas Family"
and I actually have time in November to go to the post office, so you'll actually get them! Leave a comment below and I'll tuck your name into the cranberry orange relish dish! And right now I'm listening to coyotes calling behind my house.
I love living in the country!!!!!
Multipublished, award-winning and bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne has published over sixty books and is living her dream every single stinkin' day. :) Email her at loganherne@gmail.com or friend her on Facebook (with all the other crazies, darlings) or stop by her website and check things out.
