Christmas and writing

Once upon a time, I tried to maintain a writing schedule during December. In fact, I pretty much drove myself crazy trying to keep up the page production and do all the other Christmas things that wives and moms do which pretty much means I did it all.

I still do it all, but I've changed my expectations of what "it" means and in what time frame "it" gets done. I gave myself permission to not be perfect. Yes, I write less from Thanksgiving to New Year's, but I enjoy life more.

This reminds me of some cocktail napkins I bought a few years ago. They were emblazoned with this motto: If at first you don't succeed, lower your expectations.

I couldn't succeed at being Super Mom - mild-mannered suburban wife and mom by day, successful author by night. No one can. So don't make the mistake of looking at some successful woman author and marveling at how she does it all. She doesn't. You're just seeing the public face, not the frazzled behind the scenes struggle to find a clean pair of socks for her son while trying to remember whether she "told" the reader why her hero hates his father, while her daughter is telling her she volunteered old Super Mom to bake two dozen cupcakes for the class Christmas party.

No woman who is married and has kids and succeeds at writing should be called Super Mom.

Super Juggler is much more accurate.