Time to Make the Donuts

Finding time to write can be hard, especially when no one's paying you to do it. And when you have two little kids. And, and, and, and. It's hard; everybody who writes knows this, and I suspect a lot of other people do too. 

During the school year, my part-time teaching gig gives me two and a half days at home each week (without kids) to focus on writing.  

I don't actually use all that time to be a writer (there are always chores to do, errands to run, and I started picking up work as a substitute teacher - because people will pay me to do that) but it was enough to write a book in about a year and a half. My first book: a science-fiction epic for my kids, grounded in realism and the magic of stories, with an unexpected Winnie-the-Pooh motif running throughout.

sidenote: I think I just found my pitch!

So now it's summer - and for teachers with kids, that means it's SUMMER VACATION. 

In the Swift family, we go all out. I'm writing this on a deck overlooking the Kennebec River, about a half mile upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. We're here with family for most of the summer, and most mornings we take the canoe into the river at low tide so the kids can play on the fleeting sand bar beaches.

Most afternoons, like right now, my wife takes the kids to nearby Reid State Park, with a great beach and a shallow lagoon - perfect for wading and splashing, as long as the mosquitos aren't too bad. 

And I'm here hunched over my laptop, because it's time to make the donuts. 

I'm working on my author website, this blog (hello!), query letters and summaries, and trying to figure out who the perfect editors and agents and publishers are to help me bring this story to life. 

I get that all of this is important, but to me, it's not that much fun. And although I think the guy in the old commercial actually ended up loving his job making the donuts, what's always stuck with me is the way he woke up, muttering that it was time to get to work. 

All right, then. Time to get to work.