I know that some of you are teachers like myself, but I'm sure this blog will relate to many authors who hold alternate professions (paying jobs).

Simply put, every September when my new crop of students arrive, my writing life comes to a screeching halt.  Over the course of the school year it only improves slightly and is always in bursts rather than any steady kind of output.  More and more it seems that the summertime is the only chance I get to truly write. 

While the hours are certainly a major part of it (planning classes/ emailing parents/ & in my case as an English teacher GRADING!), this is something I've come to understand.  However there is another element to this that I wonder about... the element of draining my creative juices.

As a teacher, I'm constantly in the "On" position, which is my terminology for appearing to be the model citizen in front of the lovely children.  I turn the switch on the instant I step out of my car and can't turn it off even for one second (they follow me down the hallways, they talk to me in line at lunch, they even ask me questions as I'm opening the door to the bathroom) until I'm back in the parking lot at the end of the day.  For teachers who live in the town in which they work, it's even worse because they frequently run into parents and students (both current and former) at the supermarket, the movie theater, a restaurant, etc.  So for a mimimum of 8 hours a day, I'm "On" which means I'm essentially putting on a performance.  That takes energy, and it also takes a lot of creativity. 

I realized this past summer (my first in 10 years of teaching when I didn't need a summer job to cover my bills and therefore the first time in my life when I could dedicate whole days to writing) that 8 hours or more of creative output can really produce a whole heck of a lot of stuff.  But for 10 years I've been oozing the majority of my creative juices on the youth of America.  By no means is this a bad thing, and I'm proud of what I do, but as a result of this, I find that even if I do have the physical time to write, I often feel so creatively drained that nothing comes out.  Sometimes I sit with my fingers on the keyboard for ten minutes, cursing myself at having the opportunity but not the ability.

Ultimately I still get writing done because I'm a writer at heart and I can't turn off that creative faucet completely.  Something always comes to mind, I get inspired, and I find the time whether that means not sleeping (sometimes literally) or pushing back my grading another few days at the expense of the kids I care for so deeply. 

But there's no doubt that it sucks being a teacher while trying to be an author, and I have true envy for anyone who gets to spend most of their days writing whatever their heart desires. 

Just wondering if anyone else out there goes through this and if you have any methods for combatting it.

I officially sold my first story thanks to Writer's Market.  Yay me. 

It's a short story called "Rubber Ball" about a kid who uses his imagination to turn a simple red rubber ball into a planet full of life and intrigue.  Turns out the planet is Earth and the "kid" is an alien from another world. 

It's being published in "Spaceports & Spidersilk" in their Fall issue. 

I know that getting a whopping $2.00 from S&S is almost comical, but it is the first time (other than my recently published collection, Night Storms) that somebody has actually been willing to pay for my work. 

Feels good.

Yes, that's right.  After many (many) years of tinkering and having life get in the way, I finally have a book to sell.

I self-published through AuthorHouse.com (they were called FirstBooks when I contracted with them, just to let you know how long this has taken). 

Overall I'd say the experience has been a good one.  Author House was easy to communicate with, and they honored a very old contract .  I estimate I need to sell 375 copies to break even on my investment. 

So, what's my book about?  It's a collection of 10 short stories called Night Storms.  Check it out here. 

Even better, I should be submitting my novel to Author House by the end of the year, and then I'll have 2 books to sell and I can get back to writing all the new stuff I've had brewing in my head.  Both of these have been hanging over my head for far too long.  This has been a great writing summer!

Thanks in advance for any support/purchases.  If anyone understands the excitement I'm feeling, it's you people. 

Would love feedback on my new website... www.fritzfiction.com

A few years ago I had a website about my writing, but as I was paying $18 a month to have it hosted, I abandoned it last summer.  Since then I've been wanting to make my own freebie version, and last week I finally did so.  Took me 4 days, all told.  The only cost was the $20 domain ownership, and technically that's only a perk.  The site works without it, but expecting people to type "sites.google.com/site/fritzfiction" is obnoxious.  I thought it was worth the 20 bucks to just tell people "go to fritzfiction dot com". 

Let me know what you think, including if you see any typos, etc.

So it's as simple as this... I've been writing seriously for 17 years- which is half of my life- and it continues to elude me as to how to write on a consistent basis.  I'll go on a splurge for a few weeks or maybe even a month or two, but then I'll get... bored?... frustrated?... scared?  Whatever the reason, my periods of pause have always been greater than my periods of production, and that is a ratio which is slowly killing me.  I don't need to be a multi-millionaire to feel sucessful at this, but I'm greatly disappointed in myself for knowing that I have a talent which I continue to let slide.  The only reason I haven't toally given up is that I truly CAN'T QUIT!  The need to write always comes back.  Additionally, I feel guilty every day that I don't write.

Any suggestions from anyone would be awesome.