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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Parenting + Writing = Insanity

My name is F.L. Bicknell. I write primarily paranormal romance and I’m represented by an awesome literary agent. I have two pseudonyms, Molly Diamond (http://www.mollydiamond.com/) who writes mostly erotica and erotic fantasy romance, and Azura Ice http://ablueice.wordpress.com) who writes erotic sci-fi romance.

I’ve probably been asked a hundred times how I juggle a big family, a large vegetable garden every year, and crank out the word count that
I do. It’s not easy, but somehow I manage. A typical day around my house is enough to make the Pope cuss, but we still get through it.

As I wrote the first draft of TheDarkness of Sable, I had a small camper I used for an office. Within a month, I finished the novel at about 87K. The “fun” started, however, when it became too cold to heat the camper and I returned to my corner office in the house.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I’d ask through gritted teeth.

“Sitting at the computer.”

“I may be sitting at the computer, but I’m working on my novel and researching some things,” I’d say, trying to remain calm.

“Researching what?”

I'd close my eyes to get a grip on my frustration. “I’m researching faeries, mythology and vampires.”

“Why?”

This is about the time that I would come unglued, the kid would fly out of the room like his or her shoes were on fire, and I’d slam the door and lock it.

Knock. Knock. Knock. “Mom?”

Oh, yeah. They’re tenacious to say the least.

The Most Intimate Wish is another recent release that was written in the camper office. I typed it all the way through one evening. About 15K later, it was complete and it was time to go indoors to do a bit of research to round out the plot and the paranormal elements.

“Hey, Mom!”

BANG! I would slam the door and pray for peace and quiet but
seldom got it.

Feathers of Silver was written when the kids were still small and would sit under my desk where they would play for hours with their toys. Sometimes I miss those days. I love my kids, but it’s the older ones now who interrupt me the most and one is going on 21 years old!

Finally, we moved into a new house and I began writing Ruby, the White King and Marilyn Monroe. My camper is gone, so I moved from the carport to the front porch to my kitchen recliner to my upstairs office, and then back to the carport… And the kids would follow me.

Writing during summer vacation is a true challenge but I managed to finish the book before I lost my mind.

I imagine all writers who are moms deal with the problem of needing solitude to write, and I figure everyone has her own way of handling it, but I need one thing: patience. And here I thought as one grew older patience became a virtue, lol.

But all in all, The Darkness of Sable is in print, Feathers of Silver is rewritten and re-released in e-book and print, and The Most Intimate Wish is a novella in e-book format. Each manuscript has gone through
the drive-Mom-crazy-while-she-writes syndrome so maybe that’s what gives them their spice! LOL!

Please visit me at my websites http://www.faithbicknell.com/, http://www.mollydiamond.com/ and http://ablueice.wordpress.com/ to
check out my most recent, super-spicy releases.

I’m also on facebook www.facebook.com/faithbicknellbrown
and my fan page www.facebook.com/F.L.Bicknell
and twitter www.twitter.com/faith_zinnia

9 comments:

Janie Emaus said...

It's all about patience. My daughter used to fall asleep to the sound of my keyboard and to this day I think that sound makes her sleepy.

D L Jackson said...

Lol. I go out and sit in my car. Know the feeling.

Marci Baun said...

With Lily home all the time, you can imagine how much I manage to get done. Some days are better than others. Yesterday, I did pretty good, but I did read with her for 45 minutes and played card games with her for an hour plus.

What I love is when I am on the phone. She will come out of wherever she is she say, "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom..." I can be in the middle of a business call. She knows to leave me alone, but does she? Of course not. (sigh)

Marci

Valerie Mann said...

When I've had a couple of deadlines, I've gone to a bed & breakfast about 45 minutes from my house. My husband barters computer networking services for stays at the B&B and then gives the stays to me when I'm overwhelmed. It's awesome but the elderly owners think I'm their daughter and won't leave me alone. LOL!!

Kate Richards said...

Maybe your books are best created under pressure...like diamonds!

Janice Seagraves said...

I write at night when my family is asleep. I got into that habit when my daughter was little and still find my best writing is at the small hours of the morning.

Janice~

Destiny Blaine said...

Hi Faith,

Thank you for joining us and sharing your mom-writer stories. I can certainly relate! :) Looking forward to your next visit, lady!

Destiny Blaine

Destiny Blaine said...

Welcome Janie, DL, Anthology Authors, Valerie, Kate, and Janice. :) So glad you stopped by.

Thank you for posting. Come back and visit us again.

Destiny :)

Faith Bicknell said...

Hello everyone! I had to do a lot of errands yesterday, so I'm just now getting around to checking comments.

Destiny, thank you for having me on your blog as a guest. I'll be back in April with another post!

I think we all can relate to how it is trying to write with kids around. It doesn't matter if you're a mom, grandmother, aunt, guardian, etc., kids only want your attention when it's something you MUST work on or finish, lol. And if they're anything like mine, they'll really show their true colors when you're so sick you can barely stand it. Mine would always choose those times to be on their worst or most nagging behaviors.

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