Friday, February 3, 2017

Juggling When You Don’t Juggle Well…

I get asked all the time, “How do you do it all?” I am a full-time librarian, committee chair for the Texas Library Association, owner of several small businesses (the Boot Camp and Sleeping Panther Press), volunteer, and writer. Um…I don’t do any of it well. My brain is scattered. I am thinking of so many different things at one time that I can’t remember where I was on a project if I’m interrupted. I never really have any downtime because I am constantly thinking about what I could be doing instead, along with getting up and working on something around my house, if I happen to be home. It is so overwhelming.

One of my promises that I made to myself at the beginning of this year was that I would slow down. I would streamline so much of what I do so that I will have more time to actually relax. It helps that I have the wonderful opportunity to move my writing sessions and critique groups to TheLast Word Bookstore. I am no longer saddled down with an office or expensive rent to keep up with. That will also free me up to work on possible online classes. I think this is the exact opposite of what most people do- online classes to in person workshops. I think that is the direction I’m moving towards.

Yesterday I officially resigned from my Texas Library Association committee chairwomanship with the President-Elect. My term will end following the 2017 Conference. This is a great relief for me. I am still going to push for my district to participate, but I no longer want the months’ long dedication and worry this position was creating right in the middle of everything else I have coming due, including submissions for Panther City Review 2017.

Speaking of which, JotForm is my new favorite website that I will be using for Panther City Review 2017. It is integrated with Dropbox and Stripe (my 3rd party credit card processor), so if it works the way it says it will, this is the game changer that I’ve been looking for over the last few months. I’m actually excited about opening up submissions in a few days. That’s so much better than the dread I was feeling last week. It’s all ready to go!


This is an exciting time in my life. I do feel like I’m getting it together, even if I’ve had to cut certain activities out of my life. I hope that everything really works the way that I hope. I need to be able to have time to write. That’s really what all of this is supposed to do, right? My creative energy needs to continue to flow in that direction.