The following is a guest post I wrote in November 2015 for The Write Stuff, blog of author Meradeth Houston. 


 

I’m an author. And I love my job. I love books. I love reading them, holding them, how they smell, how they look lined up on my bookshelves all nice and pretty. The worlds they transport me to, the characters I meet… everything.

 

I’m a wife and a mother. I love my family. I love how they love me. I love hugging them, kissing on them, talking to them… everything. There is nothing—NOTHING—I love more than my family.

 

Being a good wife and mother is hard work.

 

Being an author is hard work, too.

Guest Post Item 1

 

I’m very, very blessed to have my family. They love and support my writing. They try to understand the deadlines I work with, and that sometimes writing will encroach on family time, no matter how hard I try to keep it from doing so. They are patient when I need to ask questions: does this sound okay? Should I kill this person or the other? Should I use this ending? What do you think I should…? You get the idea. They dutifully answer all my questions, giving me input when I ask.

 

I’m so thankful I have a family who supports my writing. I couldn’t do what I love without them.

 

When I was in the early stages of writing the Milayna Series I wasn’t sure which direction to take the third book. I’d almost given up and decided to make it a duology rather than a trilogy. Enter: my husband, Larry. He listened to my babbling, making all the right comments he should’ve. When the conversation ended, I left to run errands. When I returned home, Larry handed me a steno notebook. Inside he had jotted two pages, front and back, of notes. Ideas he had for the book.

 

The Four Brothers—Jord, Himmel, Brann, and Yann—were brought to life by my husband, Larry.

 

“I think you should do something like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” he told me. Then, he showed me his notes. The names he’d found and what each meant. And that’s all I needed. With his notes and general ideas, the plot started to piece itself together in my brain. And The Innocent was born. Thanks to my husband. Although he’d say it was all me, but he’d be wrong. The idea started with him.”

 

But my husband hasn’t been the only family member I’ve been blessed to work with. My son, Evan, has given me pages of ideas, beginning with my first book Concilium. He is a great source for all things monster or weapon related. But more than that, he’s given me two ideas for future books.

 

The Jewel and The Chalice… watch for it. My son and I are working on the outline for this action-packed, angel and demon, good versus evil, paranormal book.

 

While he doesn’t quite understand that it isn’t as simple as sitting down and pounding out a book—I have to let the ideas and plot grown organically. It isn’t until they’ve taken root in my mind that I can write the book—Evan knows that his ideas are in the queue, so to speak. We have a notebook that we write ideas in, I keep a folder of pictures he’s drawn me of weapons and monsters. And one day, hopefully soon, we’ll work on the books together.

 

Working on projects with my family gives me the rare opportunity to combine my two biggest loves: my family and my writing. And I’m fully aware that I am very fortunate to have a family like mine. Many authors don’t.

 

I don’t think I’ll ever look at the Milayna Series and not remember how instrumental my husband was in my finishing the trilogy like I’d planned. He gave me a gift, probably not even realizing how much it meant to me.

 

And he does laundry. (Sorry ladies, he’s mine.)


Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Michelle
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