My Life Is A Three Ring Circus

In the First Ring:  Fiction. In the Middle:  Non Fiction. In the Third Ring: Doctoral Program. And I'm juggling the full time job, the per diem job,  one husband  three kids, a dog, a cat, and a garden.

Publicity tours, readings, signings-it's great to be famous.  Seriously, I love meeting readers and other writers. World Con rocked. So did the "Ghosts and the Afterlife" Panel in Portsmouth, N. H.  with Renee Mallet, Chelsea Cameron, hostess Terri Bruce, and Me.

Got to visit Salem gearing up for Halloween and Samhain.  (all right pay back was finishing and submitting my Philosophy paper with free in room Internet  at 1 am in the Courtyard by Marriott, Andover but you only live once).

So far, I'm keeping up. Staying up, too. Average bedtime is midnight with the outliers being 10 pm and 2 am. Wake up is 5:30 am, except for one Sunday in the last three weeks that I slept until 8.

Lost five pounds. That's good. Lot of aches and pains--all stres related. Not so good. Trying to schedule in some yoga and dance classes to limber up and lighten up the mood.

What am I reading? Ha! About 150 pages of peer reviewed research and academic articles a week, plus writing at least one major paper a week.  Sometimes two. In APA format. In third person, passive voice. In a scholarly voice. (The last one is the hardest)

New electronic medical records at work+ Lots of training sessions=Decreased productivity=Angry bosses+Cranky, tired midwife who doesn't get lunch or go to the bathroom all day.

How am I doing it? Not sure. But since I got a lot of writing done over the summer, most of my creative writing has been editing. And when I get the chance to write fiction, like the short story I polished yesterday called "Dance With the Devil," it's a relief rather than a burden.

There are three new releases out or coming out, and one in the pipeline. Here's the line up:

Kudos and Thanks to Rayne Hall for putting together yet another great anthology. My story "Mishmash Magick" is an excerpt of Boulevard of Bad Spells and Broken Dreams adapted to a short story format (as is "The Dhampir's Kiss" in Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires).  All Ten Tales books are PG13 and in most electronic formats.

Buy it here

Very suitable for all audiences, these gentle anthologies contain stories about life. This Path features two of my favorite excerpts of Someday I'm Going to Write a Book, including "The Dance Class" and "Endless Possibilities."
It was published a few years ago but just re-released as an ebook

A Quilt of Holidays contains "Artichokes," a tribute to my grandmother and family memories.

I have signed copies. Contact me for details.









And finally, on October 9, "A Catholic School Gir's Primer" will
be published in Not Your Mother's Book: On Being a Woman
Warning, this book, and my true life account about "becoming a
woman" is not for the easily offended.
But it's all true, edgy, and funny--if you have a sense of humor.

Stay tuned for details. There is a huge publicity tour in the works for this, one of the first in PS Publishing's Not Your Mother's Book Series.

And I'll catch you, and catch you up when I can!

A New Endeavor

Today was back to school day. For me! I logged on early this morning, worked out the technical glitches, and started my on line doctoral program at Walden University.

I have this coffee cup sitting in my closet, chipped, broken, stained.

It shows a harried woman in a business suit, holding a briefcase, baby hanging onto her ankles and toys scattered all around her.

The sentiment:

I am working woman

I hold down a job

I am nuts

Only now I have three jobs plus a husband, three kids,  a dog, a cat, a garden and a car sporting three bumper stickes: Peace, Not a Republican, and I'm in the 99%.

The black one with flashy red letters proclaiming "This IS My Brilliant Career"disappeared from the office I shared with about fifteen other people. Either someone stole it or broke it--but it doesn't matter. Fact is, I stepped off the fast track in 1990, when I was pregnant with my first child, knowing I could never do it all. And that a career is never as important as family. A lesson learned the hard way when my first marriage ended in divorce.


It's all in my two memoirs Someday I'm Going to Write a Book: Diary of An Urban Missionary and Karma, Kickbacks and Kids.

So, my am I going to spend the next 15-18 months researching and reading the most boring, dense, and academic material one can imagine then re-synthesizing it into my own theoretical framework for clinical research?  Because I know that my fledgling theory of management of psychosocial risk can help clinicians like me take care of the toughest, most vulnerable patients--and help them get off a path that leads either nowhere or to self destruction. And unless I prove it, no one will pay any attention to it.


So in about two years, I will be Dr. Carole Ann, and still be doing what I love: taking care of patients., focusing on creative writing, and reading for pleasure instead of work.  It goes by in the blink of an eye, especially when you're back on the fast track.

In the meantime, fiction sales are humming along. More about that on my other blog. I just got back from Chi-Con, the World Science Fiction Convention where I met up with many of my like minded writer friends

And non fiction ain't doin' too bad either.

Two of my favorite essays, "The Dance Class" and "Endless Possibilities" are in This Path, just reissued as an e book. And a tribute to my grandmother is coming out in A Quilt of Holidays in the next couple of weeks. Sometime this fall, an excerpt of Someday, "A Catholic Schoolgirl's Primer" is due out in Not Your Mother's Book: On Being a Woman. Not for the shy or easily offended, but I've never been one to sugar coat things.

Time to sign off now and get to that 150 pages of reading and two papers due by next Friday. I still owe my editor two short stories. It will all get done. It always does.