FRUSTRATIONS THAT GET IN THE WAY OF WRITING

Since I'm the one in charge of this blog for the San Joaquin Sisters in Crime chapter, I thought I'd use it for one of the stops on my blog tour for my latest book, Not as it Seems. It will serve in two ways, besides a blog stop, it may introduce others to our chapter's blog.

The frustrations I’m going to write about aren’t the normal ones of everyday life.  I’m a wife, mother and grandmother so have all the duties, fun and joy that go along with these titles. Though I’d like to be, I’m not the kind of writer who gets up in the morning, starts writing, takes a break for lunch andcontinues to write through the afternoon. That’s impossible for me.

For one thing, I do the laundry, grocery shopping, most of the cooking, take care of the bills, and have lots of visitors. I also have some other regular duties: doing newsletters for two different organization, teaching Sunday School, writing posts for my own blog and three others that I’m on, and attending various meetings. Once in a while I get a paying job which, for obvious reasons, I take care of immediately.

The frustrations I’m discussing here are sometimes related to fun things that took me away from my desk.

If I’m even gone one day, chores pile up. When I’m gone for several days, all sorts of things need my attention—the kind of things that I need to have my home computer in order to take care of them. No writing can be done while I’m doing that kind of work.

My biggest frustration lately has been the need to change my email address. This came about because I received messages from people letting me know I’d sent inappropriate messages to them. Yes, it looked like they came from my email—but were signed my different names. At the advice of my provider I changed my password. That didn’t help. I still got more complaints.

Next step, change my email address. I’ve done it, but it didn’t take me long to realize I also needed to change it on groups I’m on, my two publishers, and places like Amazon and other places that I received notifications from.  I’ve done as many as I can think of, but I’m sure there are more that haven’t as yet crossed my mind.

No doubt I’ll miss something because of this. But tell me, what joy can people get from doing sending out stupid emails under someone else's address? And I also wondered why those who received these dumb emails just didn’t delete them.

I suspect this kind of thing happens to everyone, but it seems that my time for writing constantly gets infringed upon in one way or another. Right now because of my new book, Not as it Seems, I’m also working on the promotion—like this blog tour. I do enjoy it, but again, it’s taking time away from the book I’m writing.

For those who are interested, Not as it Seems  is the latest in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series.

--Marilyn Meredith

Not as It Seems Blurb:

Tempe and Hutch travel to Morro Bay for son Blair’s wedding, but when the maid-of-honor disappears, Tempe tries to find her. The search is complicated by ghosts and Native spirits.

Character Naming Contest:

Once again, I’ll name a character after the person who leaves a comment on the most blogs.

Tomorrow I’ll be stopping by Wild About Fiction http://wildaboutfiction.blogspot.com and I wrote about keeping a series fresh.

Bonnie Hearn Hill and me at a S.J. SinC Meeting

Marilyn's Bio:

Marilyn Meredith now lives in the foothills of the Southern Sierra, about 1000 feet lower than Tempe’s Bear Creek, but much resembles the fictional town and surroundings. She has nearly 40 books published, mostly mysteries. Besides writing, she loves to give presentations to writers’ groups. She’s on the board of the Public Safety Writers Association, and a member of Mystery Writers of America and three chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Central Coast chapter.