Delegating...

When my kids were young I took care of them, homeschooled them, and kept a clean house ... then came life. When they got older (and busier) and I started getting book contracts I couldn't keep up with it all. I started with delegating some of the chores. Even though they didn't do them as I did at least they would get done! Later, I hired a teen girl to clean my house. After that I've hired people for other things--paperwork/assistant stuff, accounting, and sometimes even cooking! (Yes, I've paid friends to make meals for me!) I think as moms we try to do it all ... and we miss out time with our kids and our family. When I'm thinking about whether or not to delegate I consider what I can do and what someone else can do. I need to write the books I'm contracted to write. I need to be the wife and the mom. So if I'm able to hire people to help with the other stuff then I have more time for only what I can do.

What are some areas you delegate in your own life?

Advice for Novelists (Part 47)

C.J. Darlington, co-founder of TitleTrakk, is running a great series on her blog: She started a series of blog posts in which industry professionals (editors, agents, publicists, authors, etc.) share their responses to this question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Linda Leigh Hargrove's response:Don’t let our past failures determine our future failures. In other words, if we know your manuscript was rejected because your dialogue is weak. Work on dialogue. Don’t let that be why it gets rejected the next time.

We all fail. Even the so called gifted ones. The key is to learn from our failures, to let them guide us toward success. Even a small success is still a success.

--Linda Leigh Hargrove, author of The Making of Isaac Hunt and the upcoming Loving Cee Cee Johnson. Visit her online at her website!

Book Promotion...

...even your family can help!

Check out this video that Robin Jones Gunn's son made to promote "mom's" teen books!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICAIit3Bwg

Dare to Dream—Part 4

Part one, two, three!

How Dreamers Have Changed Our World:
The following people have shown us that social status, race, and lack of time are not excuses for ignoring our dreams.

Dare to Dream—Part 4

Josephine Cochrane – The Socialite Who Traded High Tea for a Hammer: “If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.”

With that determined proclamation, Josephine Cochrane, wife of an Illinois politician in the 1880s, set out to invent a major kitchen appliance—though not because Mrs. Cochrane was fed up with the humdrum chore of dirty dishes . . . she was fed up with dishwashing servants breaking her expensive china. Every party ended with more shattered dishes, which took months to replace by mail. A machine seemed like the ideal solution.

In a woodshed adjoining her home, Josephine Cochrane measured her dinnerware, then fashioned individual wire compartments for plates, saucers, and cups. The compartments fastened around the circumference of a wheel that rested in a large copper boiler. As a motor turned the wheel, hot soapy water squirted up from the bottom of the boiler and rained down on the dinnerware. The design was crude by effective, and it so impressed her circle of friends that they dubbed the invention the “Cochrane Dishwasher,” and placed orders for machines for their kitchens. They too viewed the device as a solution to the vexing problem of irresponsible help.
Word spread. Soon Josphine Cochrane was receiving orders from Illinois hotels and restaurants, where the volume of dishwashing—and breakage—was a continual and costly problem. Realizing she had hit a timely invention, Mrs. Cochrane patented her design in December 1886; her washer went on to win the highest award at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair for, as the citation read, “the best mechanical construction, durability, and adaptation to its line of work.”
(Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, 1987, pg. 103)

Benjamin Banneker – The Boy Who Wasn’t Allowed in Most Schools Saved the Nations Capitol.

Benjamin Banneker was a freeborn African-American born in 1731. Brilliant with numbers and learning, Benjamin was sent to a Quaker school to study—one of the few schools Blacks could attend. At 24, Benjamin built a clock constructed of wood that not only told time, but also chimed on the hour. It is believed to be the first one made in the United States.

Following the Revolutionary War, Benjamin was appointed as one of the men to serve as a surveyor and mathematician to plan the nation’s capitol. Following a dispute with government officials, the chief architect ran off with the plans for the new city’s layout. Benjamin’s brilliant mind saved the day. He had memorized the complete set of plans and was able to duplicate them--and the new city of Washington, DC, was built.

Benjamin’s last dream was realized when his first almanac was published in 1792. It was the first scientific book to be published by a Black man, and it is said, one of Benjamin’s biggest fans was Thomas Jefferson.

Harriet Beecher Stowe – The Mother Who Made the Time to Follow Her Heart

For Harriet Beecher Stowe, having a writing career was not easy. In January 1836 she married Calvin E. Stowe, a professor, and supplemented their meager income by writing stories and sketches through periodicals. Through most of her married years, Harriet combined the roles of wife and mother to seven children, with that of a writer. She managed a complex family life, juggling household duties and community relationships. Harriet was also known to throw herself into periods of total creative reverie during which her "disorderliness" was sometimes the despair of her husband.

Harriet’s baby son, Charles, died in 1849 and despite the heartaches and challenges of life—or perhaps because she knew deep pain first hand—Harriet wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was published in book form in 1852.

Years later, Harriet was greeted by Abraham Lincoln with the words, “So you’re the little woman who made the book that made this Great War.” The president’s words were hardly an exaggeration. Uncle Tom’s cabin did much to rally popular support for Lincoln’s cause. With sales of 300,000 in the first year, the book’s influence was equaled by few other novels in history.

“Each of us listens to a different drummer or, more precisely, a different drumbeat, because each of us is designed to pursue a unique calling. God had specific things in mind for you and only you, and He will put His dreams in your heart to move you toward those specific things.”
(Bill & Kathy Peel, Discover Your Destiny, pg. 114)

Dare to Dream—Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

GRANTING OURSELVES FREEDOM – How Can the Impossible Become Possible?

Dare to Dream—Part 3

Once we have given ourselves permission to dream the next step is granting ourselves freedom to follow through in fulfilling those desires. This acronym can help you:

Find time to spend with God. Ask Him to show you how to make the most of your potential.

Research the area you want to pursue. For example if you desire to develop your talent in art, discover what’s available at your local community college, or call art supply shops for information about classes.

Expect to make adjustments to your schedule. Focusing on God’s calling for your life will not be easy. Make a list of your daily responsibilities and decide which are important and which ones are simply time consumers. Also, decide which duties follow the path God has called you to. Sometimes even good things are not the right things. You may teach Sunday School and run the food ministry, but perhaps that leaves you unable to follow a deeper desire which is to work with the elderly.

Enjoy the process of striving toward your dream. Oswald Chambers says, “We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. . . . What we call the process, God calls the end." [i] Delight in each step you take toward your dream. Just as your to-do list is never complete, you will never “arrive.”

Develop relationships with others who share the same talents and goals. Be available for encouragement and prayer.

Openly communicate your dreams to your family, and ask them to do the same. Brainstorm ways to help each other reach toward God’s best.

Make daily appointments with God to insure you are on the right track. Many of us have the tendency to take our dreams and run toward a direction God never intended. Spend time in Bible study and prayer to make sure you are fulfilling God’s purposes. It is in His presence that your dreams combine with His to find that “. . . he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) NIV. After all, completing God’s plan should be our greatest goal and the best reason to dare to dream.

[i] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July

How to balance writing and cleaning!

I work from home, which means I SEE what needs to be done all hours of day and night. When I clean I see the writing stuff I need to do. When I write I see the house stuff. Yet when it comes to writing, life, kids I have to make priorities:

1. Food. I shop big at Costco and have enough extra stuff around to throw together a nice meal at 5:45 p.m.

2. Order. My kids have had chores since they were preschoolers. At 19, 16, and 14 they still have daily chores AND know how to sprint through the house in a cleaning frenzy when I call home in desperation. "Company's coming!"

3. Peace. In my heart, not always in my schedule. When I have peace and go with the flow the family follows. They'd rather have a happy mom than a perfect house.

4. Understanding. For myself mostly. If God has called me to write books and articles and be an attentive mom and wife then I CAN'T keep a perfect house too. It's impossible.

5. Help. I do have a housecleaner once a week for three hours who does the deep cleaning. Huge help!

Tips:
I do something called "The 27." I'll time myself and spend 27 minutes answering email, cleaning my desk, cleaning the house, putting away laundry, packaging books to send out ... you name it. 30 minutes sounds like it's a big chunk of time but for some reason 27 minutes seems doable! And I'm always amazed how much I can get done in that time.

Also, I only have one small corner in my kitchen where stuff accumulates, and I clean that off every other day. And I don't let kids drop stuff as they go. They must put it away. So if you show up at my house it looks (mostly) uncluttered ... just don't look at the dog hair on the floors or the dust on ... everything!

Sweet September Contest WINNER!

I plugged the numbers into random.org...and here is what I got!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

61

Timestamp: 2008-10-01 17:04:31 UTC

So that means blueviolet is our winner!

blueviolet said...
My sister is my touchstone, my best friend, my confidante. She is the person who will drop everything and be at my side whenever I need her She accepts me completely for who I am and is totally nonjudgmental. I can tell her absolutely everything and know it stays with her alone. She has a fun, bubbly personality and she is like sunshine to me. I adore her.doot65{at}comcast[dot]net
Elizabeth
12:42 PM

CONGRATS Elizabeth, send my assistant Amy (amy@triciagoyer.com) your mailing address and your pumpkin yumminess will be on the way!