THE JUGGLING ACT

My guest is paranormal romance author, Sara Taney Humphreys. She's a debut author of the new Amoveo Legend Series of shapeshifters. What I found interesting is she published the first book, Unleashed, herself and it became a "word of mouth sensation for booksellers in a major national bookstore chain".

Sara has lead quite an eventful life. If you're a Soap fan you may have seen her face on one of your favorites, or you might have caught her in one of her A&E productions. She's been a teacher for her own after school theatre for kids and went on to be a national speaker for Monster's Making It Count. These days she's a wife, mother, and the Director of High School and Community Relations.

As you can imagine, she's a busy lady and she shares how she juggles the balls of glass and the balls that bounce.

Like many authors, I have a job and a family. Writing is a solitary activity but like most writers, I do not live a solitary life and there are times when juggling all of it becomes more than I can handle.  I write whenever and wherever I can find the time. I write because I love to create and I’ve realized over the years, that I must have a creative outlet and without one I get….antsy.

However, sometimes the writing simply has to take a backseat because of all the juggling that takes place. No matter how much I love to write, my children will always be at the top of my priority list. I’m sure that goes without saying for all of us.

I had the pleasure of hearing Mary Higgins Clark speak at a charity event and she said something that really stuck with me… “I have lots of balls in the air that I’m juggling. Some are made of glass and some are made of rubber. I try to only drop the ones that bounce.”

That really struck a chord with me. My children and family are the balls made of glass and they can’t afford to get dropped because they could indeed shatter. However, there are also balls made of glass at my job or within writing—meeting deadlines for example—that could also shatter if dropped.

So how can we do it all and keep everything in- tact?

The answer is quite simple. We can’t.

Sometimes we drop the ball and hopefully it’s a bouncy one. So which ones bounce? In my house it’s laundry and housework. First of all, let me say how much I loathe doing both. Laundry sucks. It’s always there. You do it and five minutes later there’s another basket full. I have four sons and a husband who generate ridiculous amounts of laundry. Good God. I can only imagine how much there would be if I had daughters.

Housework is equally crappy. You clean something and turn around to find a new mess five seconds later. My children do not take the sole blame in this—our dogs contribute significantly to the mess. Dog hair is the bane of my existence. It’s on everything. Ugh.

Sometimes, I have to turn a blind eye to the laundry, dog hair and dishes in order to write so I can meet my deadlines and not shatter that hard-earned glass ball of publication.  Those housework type things can be ignored because sadly…they are they waiting for me when my writing goal is accomplished.

The other day, I was beavering away on a manuscript right after I got home from work. I had finally found a way around a problem I was having with my heroine and was deep into the scene when my son Jack came over to me with a Yahtzee game in his hands. He looked at me with those big brown eyes and asked, “Would you play with me?”

How could I say no? I have to be honest. In that moment, I wanted to tell him…No..or…I’ll play with you later.  It’s tough to get into that rhythm of a scene and walk away from it but I did. The truth was that Layla and William’s scene would be there waiting for me when we were done with Yahtzee. So I saved my work, closed the laptop and rolled the dice with my son.

When the stress of juggling all of it starts to grate on me, I remember how frustrated I was when I didn’t have an agent or a publisher…and then I remind myself how lucky I am to have all of these things in my life.  I’ll take the stress of juggling it all over not having it all. I’m a lucky woman, mother, wife, and author.

• So how about you? What are you juggling? 
• Which balls are made of rubber and which ones are made of glass?

Dream on and keep juggling!

UNLEASHED

BY SARA HUMPHREYS – IN STORES OCTOBER 2011

What if you suddenly discovered your own powers were beyond anything you’d ever imagined…

Samantha Logan’s childhood home had always been a haven, but everything changed while she was away. She has a gorgeous new neighbor, Malcolm, who introduces her to the amazing world of the dream-walking, shapeshifting Amoveo clans…but what leaves her reeling with disbelief is when he tells her she’s one of them…And shock turns to terror as Samantha falls prey to the deadly enemy determined to destroy the Amoveo, and the only chance she has to come into her true powers is to trust in Malcolm to show her the way…

Get swept away into Sara Humphreys’s glorious world and breathtaking love story…Excerpt

Unleashed Book Trailer http://youtu.be/cvo-Z9AGE3o

Sara Humphreys has been attracted to the fantasies of science fiction, paranormal, and romance since her adolescence when she had a mad crush on Captain Kirk. An actress and teacher, Sara lives in New York with her husband, who is very considerate of her double life, and four amazing boys. 

For more information, please visit:

Sara's Website 

Sara's Blog

Sara on Facebook and Twitter