By
Anna del Mar
In my alternative reality I’m trim, fit and
athletic, with lovely curls that tumble down my back and a knack to handle
tall, super sexy heels in all kinds of terrain. In that oh-so-pleasant reality,
I’ve got Nora Robert’s prolific drive, Beyoncé’s cool dance moves and Angelina
Jolie’s charitable soul, that is, in addition to her PR acumen. Oh, yeah. I run
marathons too. Yep, that’s me all right, in my alternative reality.
In real life, things might be a tad
different. I’m not trim. Or fit. Or athletic. I barely have time in the morning
to brush my hair, let alone put on heels. Instead, I’m a debut romance author,
a sleep-deprived, writing addict who is developing two new novels, editing two
manuscripts and joggling four releases this year, including The Asset, the first novel of my Wounded Warrior series, the story of a
woman desperate to escape her dangerous past and the Navy SEAL who would lay
down his life to save her.
You won’t hear me complain. You see, I love
writing. Yes, it’s hard work and yes, it requires lots of time, perseverance
and dedication. My life is far from glamorous, and yet I feel like the luckiest
girl on the planet. This year, I get to launch two separate series with Carina
Press, including the Wounded Warrior series, a collection of fun, hot, smart romances about strong heroines struggling
to find their place in the world and the brave, sexy, kickass military heroes
who challenge their limits to protect the women they love.
And yet despite my
love affair with writing and the joy of doing what I love, I find myself
struggling some days, caught in a crazy whirlwind of activity, hardly able to
catch my breath and wondering: Where did all the hours of the day go?
As a writer, one
of the main daily challenges that I face is maintaining the balance between
work and home life. The boundaries blur when you live where you work, when
there isn’t a commute or a physical disconnect between the workplace and the
living space. Sure, the absence of a commute is a huge occupational advantage,
but it doesn’t help keep a healthy separation between work and home life when
your commute is thirty seconds flat.
Time management is
another daily challenge in a writer’s life. Deadlines are a standard part of my
week. The business part of writing takes a huge chunk out of the day. Book
launches require an inordinate amount of work and generate a whole slew of
promos that are necessary to get the word out, but also have the potential to
obliterate my writing time.
The same can be
said for heeding the job’s demands but ignoring the body’s needs. Writing is a
sedentary occupation. We all know what happens when the body doesn’t move. When
time is of the essence, it’s easy to dismiss things like exercise, good
nutrition and rest. It’s also easy to trick ourselves into the illusion that
we’ll take care of all of that later.
Ultimately, we
writers can’t ignore reality for the sake of fiction. Awareness is vital. We
have to catch ourselves when we lose our work and home balance, when we
mismanage our time and when we neglect ourselves and our bodies. Let’s face it:
A healthy writer is a productive writer. My alternative reality, where I’m a
fusion of Nora, Beyoncé and Angeline, might be a tad unrealistic and, by the
way, running marathons is out, but with a little effort and lots of awareness,
I can keep doing what I love best: Writing.
***
Anna del Mar writes hot, smart romances that soothe the soul,
challenge the mind, and satisfy the heart. Her stories focus on strong
heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave,
sexy, kickass, military heroes who defy the limits of their broken
bodies to protect the women they love. She is the author of The Asset (Carina Press), the first novel of her Wounded Warrior series and three other novels scheduled for release during 2016.A Georgetown University graduate, Anna enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, and the sea. Writing is her addiction, her drug of choice, and what she wants to do all the time. The extraordinary men and women she met during her years as a Navy wife inspire the fabulous heroes and heroines at the center of her stories. When she stays put—which doesn’t happen very often—she lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.
2 comments:
Anna, it's such an honor to welcome you here to MB4 as our new fourth member of the team! Congrats on your amazing new release, and thank you for sharing your writer's life with us!
I second that!!
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