The lowest of the low

According to the Times magazine yesterday, twenty years ago I made a career mistake and became one of the lowest of the low -- aka a mother who decided to look after her children herself, particularly as I had a good degree.
*cough cough* I must say that I never twigged my status.
I knew there were rumblings about careers etc but I was always determined to look after my children first. Luckily my husband agreed with me. His mother for economic reasons had to work when he was little and he hated it. It worked for me and my situation.
Thanks to my mother's example, I also knew that women who returned to work after their children were nearly grown were able in some cases to leapfrog women who had stayed in work while they had children. The trouble with the Mommy track is that no one has ever been able to reconcile the needs of ill children to the demands of work. My mother benefited from a now discontinued program which was aimed at women who were returning after a career break. I wish those types of programmes had flourished. Personally I know I can focus on my career much easier now than if I had tried to write when my children were little. I always salute women who can...
The other aspect that the whole work or not debate often forgets is that many women have always had to work or were involved in their husband's business. Family run business normally means the whole family is involved somehow. Also people forget the whole government campaign in the late 40s to have women go from fighting Germans to germs in the house.
Anyway, the one thing I feel strongly about is that no one should put people down. People make choices about what is best for them. Each situation has unique challenges.
And I still consider myself a wife and mother first, an author second. Although when a deadline looms, perhaps my family would disagree...

Career novelist type thoughts.

Over the past week, I have been very busy -- attempting to get my revisions done and make this story the best it can be.

I am also very glad that I worked hard on perfecting my craft and technique of story telling and am published with a commercial publisher as it takes many hard working and dedicated people to produce and distribute a book. The people in the back room are often ignored or overlooked but the jobs they do are vital to the success of commercial fiction.

And make no mistake commercial fiction is highly successful but it is also highly competitive. Success is never guaranteed and you are only as good as your latest book. I know that. It is why I work very hard on all of my stories and am still working to perfect my craft. My success will come because of the quality of my writing.

It is my strongly held belief that aspiring authors should learn as much about the business as possible before sending their work out. Being a career novelist is about far more than just writing a single story. The key word here is -- career. It is what I am attempting to do -- forge a career.
It takes dedication, desire, determination, discipline and a lot of perseverance.