First up today – don’t forget our Valentine’s Day Giveaway – a copy of our forthcoming story “Fortune’s Slings and Cupid’s Arrows”! You can enter multiple times, so keep putting your name in there! The contest ends February 12th at midnight, and we’ll announce and inform the winner on February 13th!

To enter the give-away, please GO HERE!

Or HERE: a Rafflecopter giveaway

On a different note, I thought I’d talk a little bit about writing and “real life”. Both McKay and I have day jobs — although I’m certainly hopeful that could change one day if we are successful enough! I’m a systems engineer, which means I build, develop, and maintain hardware and software for “big iron” computer systems. I also have two children, although my youngest is now a sophomore in college. While McKay and I had been writing together for a very long time, a lot of things came together about the time my son graduated high school, and it coincided with when we decided to “go pro”.

I think the hardest part with trying to fit in professional writing (as opposed to fanfiction) with real life is that there is far more urgency with the professional work. Most of the time we are working under a deadline we want to make for a particular call for submissions, which can be a little problematic if something comes up at work and I get stuck having to deal with it (or McKay has the same thing happen). Of course family still intervenes, “empty nest” or not. My daughter’s wedding this past December of course cut into writing time rather significantly (not that I begrudge it!) but it can be kind of stressful. I know that the writing comprises a self-assumed responsibility, but both McKay and I feel that we want to keep momentum up, to keep writing and getting our work out there. We have stories to tell, and characters clamoring for attention, and it’s HARD to go for a time without writing. I imagine it’s the way some people feel about exercise — they get cranky and don’t feel right if they don’t get their “fix”, and it’s the same way for us. Writing is an outlet, and we enjoy it. When it’s no longer fun, it’ll be time to stop.

Anyway, I would be interested in knowing how other people view their writing in relation to the rest of their lives. 😀