Barbara V Evers

An author I'm connected with on Facebook posted the following yesterday: ...our driveway is solid ice and cannot be cleared. This is not bad news for someone who loves being a shut-in AND has edits due back in two weeks. A lot of authors post similar messages during snow storms.  I used to be like them.  Snow is here. I don't have to go out, therefore, I can write all day long in peace and quiet.  Whenever I need a break, I only need glance out my window at the beauty of the snow. Yay! That's what snowstorms, or ice storms as we're more prone to get in the south, meant to me. But not now... Snow means excited kids, bundling up in layers, drinking hot chocolate, playing board games, and watching movies.  Gone are the days when I could write in peace and quiet on bad weather days.  In fact, I'm lucky if I manage a few moments each day as long as the schools are out due to snow. So, I'm redefining my favorite times to get some heavy duty writing

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com/stockers9 2015 is in the books. I experienced successes and rejections with my writing. That's to be expected. What I didn't expect... In late August, my husband and I accepted custody of two of our grandchildren, ages four and eight. It slowed us down...a LOT. My routine did a complete 180. I had to step back and re-evaluate how I might achieve my goals, and I re-evaluated my priorities. My writing resume for 2015 looked great up to that point:   I taught workshops at two writing conferences and enjoyed combining my training career with my writing career. A writer I met during a conference the year before hired me to edit his book, Locked In , which was published late in the summer and has done well. A short story I wrote at the last minute to enter a contest gave me a lot of mileage on the contest circuit including winning 3 rd place in the HubCity\Emrys writing contest, making it to the semi-finalist level in the Fau