Tuesday, February 5, 2013

#WWoW: I Need A Vacation!





Well, I've finally gone and done it. I don't know whether I'm coming or going nor which "me" is in control at any given time. Besides my "evil day job" as veterinarian Dr. Tammy and her weekly Furbaby Friday feature here, there is poet and erotic romance author Tammy Dennings Maggy (aka The Vixen), erotic romance author Lia Michaels and mainstream fiction and sweet romance author Stephanie Ryan. Between all of us there are four adults only blogs, two all age group blogs, one review site/blog, three..oh wait, four twitter accounts, four Google + accounts with four additional fan pages each, one personal Facebook account, five Facebook Fan pages, three Triberr accounts, one Linkedin, one Pinterest, Goodreads, multiple Facebook groups, yahoo groups, Amazon author pages, and Siren Bookstrand author and book pages.



Did I mention "one" real-life, sleep deprived, barely breathing human to take care of it all AND still find time to work on the various WIPs for three pen names?

I'm not complaining about having the three pen names. I think it's necessary for what genres I wish to write in, but even with setting up all the time-saving techniques I've learned from other authors, I'm still running on empty and wearing myself down. Having had to go through some medical issues over the last few months for myself and my husband, I've found all three of us further and further behind in what "we" wanted to have done at this time.

So what is an exhausted author and veterinarian to do?  Go on VACATION!!!

Okay, let's not get too excited. My hubby came up with the brilliant idea that I have two of my alter egos go on "vacation" for a couple of weeks. During that time, they would be away from their blogs, and all social media. Basically I put them on a sabbatical while one of us gets caught up. Then at the end of the two weeks, I would get to take a break while one of them takes over. This way I could concentrate on one or two projects at a time and have something to publish within the next month.

Did I say it was a brilliant idea? When the hubster suggested it over lunch the other day I just stared at him.   There it was right there in front of me, plain as day. Send two of "me" on vacation! 



I know what many of you are thinking right now. Why bother to have multiple pen names in the first place? Didn't I make all this extra work for myself by creating these alter egos?  I already answered the first question earlier. To me it's extremely important that I keep my non-erotica/erotic romance pen names separate from the two who write the adults only stuff. The extra work comes into play because I learned last year that I wanted to have my pen name known BEFORE a book was released. It took such a long time to build up Tammy Dennings Maggy and  I wanted to give the same attention to Lia and Stephanie.  It's hard enough trying to find your fan base as a new author. If I'm known, and my names are recognized, then more sales will hopefully follow.

Hell, Lia Michaels has built up a huge following already and she has yet to officially publish a single novel. She runs a hell of a fun blog though! The House of Taboo is in demand for guest spots for the Saturday Spotlight Interview feature. Oh and don't get me started on how fast my project with three other fabulous authors has literally exploded overnight.  Four Seduced Muses is run by myself, Maya DeLeina, Nicole Morgan and May Water. All of us write the HAWT erotic romances and have weekly features that discuss anything and everything. Besides ourselves, we've opened the remaining three days of the week to guests. We've been up and running for less than four months now and we are completely booked through April...maybe May by the time this post goes live!

I'm damn proud of all of these accomplishments, but they have come at a price. It's time to circle the wagons and regroup here. I can do it all, but I have to redefine my limits. I also have to remember my "me" time and take time away from writing, blogging, tweeting, networking, reviewing, editing, and publishing. I want to be around to enjoy the success of all three of my pen names and be able to celebrate with friends, family and of course my wonderfully supportive husband, Liam.  Who knows where I would be by the end of next week if he didn't make one simple suggestion.   Here we go!



Make sure you stop in and check out what the other participating authors are talking about this week!


WWoW: Writer's Words of Wisdom is a Smart & Savvy Group of Authors who write a weekly feature for their blog -Writer's Words of Wisdom- each Wednesday. The goal is to impart what we've learned about writing, editing, getting published, book promotion, and more along the way.

And of course we do find humor in all of it along the way...especially when we laugh at ourselves! Come on and join us on our Facebook Page, or if you would like to do a guest spot with me for one of these Wednesdays, just let me now!

3 comments:

  1. I really don't know how you do it all. The thought of multiple pen names makes my head spin. I have a YA on the horizon so I'm seriously considering it though. Perhaps someday our alter-egos could vacation together!?

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  2. Great post! I'm glad to hear you're going on vacation, because I was tired just reading the post. You must be exhausted!

    I also have a pen name (1) but I run three blogs plus a saintly life as a middle school teacher. LOL! I can never keep up.

    You rock!

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  3. You both are so sweet! I can keep up on most days but the last few months just had too much piled on. I still can't believe I didn't think of the vacation thing earlier. You should have seen my face when hubby suggested it while we were eating at Chili's. At first he thought I was going to tell him he was crazy, but when I finally recovered from nearly choking on my fajita, I told him he was absolutely BRILLIANT and a life-saver.

    Well, he is in the Coast Guard so the life-saver part is a given! LOL

    These two weeks I'll be getting the rest of the prize packages mailed out from the contests I participated in, finish the poetry book and get The Surrender of Julia out to some betas, and get myself registered for RomCon. I think then it's my turn for the vacation and let Lia take over with her various project. Stephanie is just getting started and doesn't have a blog following yet, so she will be back part time while working on her projects.

    Oh and then there's my Etsy store. I have a few orders for my framed poetry, prayer shawls, and ear flap hats. Whew!

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