June 2009

Dear Readers,

I have some nerve, I know. I don’t write. I don't call. And then I suddenly show up on your doorstep as if nothing happened. Well, maybe not your doorstep. Maybe my own website. But anyway, a million apologies for not checking in. Like, um, for a whole year.

It's been a very challenging twelve months. I've been working on two books at once and I'm happy to say that I've finished one of them -- a new young adult novel. More on that in the coming weeks, as it's still in the editing process, and I hate talking about unfinished work, but I will say it was the hardest book I've written, both in terms of subject matter and structure.

I'm also working away on The Wild Rose. It's due into the publisher June 2010 and I'm on track to hit that deadline, so it should be published in late 2010 or early 2011.

Writing two books and trying to be part of my own family have left me with very little time for anything else -- as those of you who've emailed me over the last few months know!

Your emails are very important to me. Unfortunately, I often get a bit behind. I'm taking a bit of a breather from writing right now to catch up with your wonderful emails. Right now, I'm…uh… just finishing up the ones I got in February. Give me another week or so and I'll be all caught up. I swear. It's always my intention to answer promptly, but then again, it's also always my intention that my family eats balanced meals, that the laundry gets done before the pile reaches the ceiling, and that the dog gets walked before he hoses down the kitchen floor. Doesn't always happen.

I'm telling you…if anyone of you out there wants to write the biggest-selling book of all time, just follow these four easy steps:

1. Figure out the whole work/family balance thing.
2. Write it down.
3. Find a publisher.
4. Rocket to the top of every bestseller list in the world.

Every woman I talk to asks herself the same question -- how can I do it all? And every woman I know beats herself up when she can't answer it.

Oddly enough, no man I know does these things. But that's a topic for a whole 'nother newsletter.

And I'm not talking about the perfection thing. Most women I know aren't trying to be Martha. They’re just (just!) trying to work, cook dinner, be there for their families, help with the homework, and find enough clean clothes in which to do it all over again the next day.

Any advice? Send it if you've got it, and I'll include it in my next newsletter. Which will be posted before June 2010.

At least, that's my intention.