SARA HUMPHREYS: Pros & Cons of Working From Home

Working from home is actual work and has its own set of challenges. Up until four months ago, I held down a full-time job outside the home. I’d been juggling the day job, a growing writing career, four sons, a marriage and the house stuff for the past several years. After many soul-searching (and bank account scrutinizing) conversations, my husband and I came to the conclusion that I would become fully self-employed and work from home.

Whooo hoooo! No more being at the mercy of someone else’s timetable. No more late night events or weekend command performances.

No more steady paycheck. Wait. That one isn't as fun.

There are sacrifices being made in order to pursue this self-employed career path but it’s worth it.  The only problem is that when people hear that you work from home, you can tell that some of them don’t think it’s actually work.

Not true.

I work every day and while I’m not at the mercy of someone else’s day to day schedule, I am still on deadlines. I still have responsibilities to meet. One benefit of working from home is that I don’t have a “boss” looking over my shoulder. That’s nice. The challenge is that I have to kick my own ass and be more disciplined than I’ve ever had to be before.

The temptation to fiddle around on the net, or read a great book or watch a great movie on television is always lurking around the corner. Don’t get me wrong there are days when I will do one of those things but that only means more work the next day.

One of the other challenges working from home is that when my kids get a day off, then I have to take the day off of work. I have discovered that I get a whole lot of nothing done when they’re home from school but that’s way it should be. One of the major reasons we pulled the trigger on this life change was so that I could be fully available for my boys. So if they have the day off then that day turns into a non-work day for me and that means double the work the next day.

You’ll get no complaints from me about this gig.  The advantages far outweigh the challenges.  Here are my favorites.

·         I make my own schedule.

·         I don’t have to get gussied up for work and can stay in my gym clothes all day if I want to.

·         I do something I’m passionate about and work hard at it every day.

·         I’m more accessible for my children and what they need.

·         I’m happy.

·         I’m a lucky woman.

• How about you? What are the pros and cons of your job?

BUY: AMAZON, B&E, INDIEBOUND

UNTAMED 
BY SARA HUMPHREYS – IN STORES NOVEMBER 2012

An ancient race of shapeshifters has lived secretly among humans for thousands of years...they are...the Amoveo

HER WORST NIGHTMARE IS COMING TRUE...

Layla Nickelsen has spent years hiding from her Amoveo mate and guarding a devastating secret. But Layla's worst fear is realized when the man who haunts her dreams shows up in person ...

HE HAS FINALLY FOUND HER...

William Fleury is as stoic as they come, until he finds Layla and his feelings overwhelm him. She won't let him get close, but then an unknown enemy erupts in violence and threatens everything Layla holds dear... EXCERPT

UNTAMED TRAILER

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 public speaker, Sara lives in Bronxville, NY, with her husband, who is very considerate of her double life, and four amazing boys. 

For more information about her books and to join her street team, please visit www.sarahumphreys.com or follow her on Twitter, @AuthorSara. 

SARAH HUMPHREYS—A LEAP OF FAITH

What do you do when your schedule is full to bursting and the juggling act is next to impossible? My guest, para-romance author Sara Humphreys faced just such a situation. But, I'll let her tell you about it.

For the past few years I’ve been juggling my family (I’m married and we have four boys), a full-time job, side gigs from time-to-time with Taney Speaker Training (my company) and a writing career.  It’s been exhausting but exhilarating as well. However, the grind of doing it all was taking a toll on me and I realized that something had to give.

So what are the options?

1. Give up the family. Not in this lifetime. Not in any scenario. Family is everything. 

            Ok…clearly not giving up the family. What else?

2. Give up writing. Not happening. First of all, I’m contracted for two series and I’ve got    more books to deliver. Secondly, I love writing. I adore creating new characters and weaving a unique world for the readers to get lost in. 

            Ok…not giving up the writing. What else?

3. Resign from my full-time job and build Taney Speaker Training into the company I know it can be. Hmmmm. This one had possibilities. Let’s look at the pros and cons.
Pros:  Work for myself doing something I love. Work out of my home office, which will give me both the time and flexibility to accommodate my family and write.             Cons: No steady paycheck.

          Yikes. That’s a big-ass con.

My husband and I sat down for a major heart-to-heart and discussed the options.  Our boys are in middle school and high school and they’re going to need me around now more than ever. Time is flying by and I don’t want to miss out on this special time in their lives but I still need to make a living.  No matter how many times we went over it…we kept coming back to the same thing.

Option #3.

The interesting thing is that once we decided that #3 was the obvious choice…doors began to open for my company, Taney Speaker Training.  Within about two weeks, I had four or five potential gigs come my way and proposals starting to go out. Funny how that happens, isn’t it? The universe seemed to be sending signals that I’m making the right choice.

I’ll be honest and admit that I’m terrified.  I’m aware of the risks. I vacillate between being excited about what the future holds and wanting to vomit for not knowing what exactly that might be.

I worry that my books won’t sell or that my company won’t get proposals but on the other hand…I can envision success and feel as though it’s within my reach.

At the end of the day, this is an enormous leap of faith. I’m going to practice what I preach and follow my passion.  If I don’t try…then I’ll never know.

Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and leap.

• How about you? Have you ever made a giant leap of faith?

BUY: AMAZON, B&N,
INDIGO ca

UNTOUCHED BY SARA HUMPHREYS – IN STORES APRIL 2012 

She should be seen, but never touched… 

Kerry Smithson's modeling career ensures that she will be admired from afar, which is essential since mere human touch sparks blinding pain and terrifying visions. 

Every good model needs a heavenly bodyguard… 

Dante Coltari is hired to protect Kerry from those who know who she is—or more importantly what she is—and want her dead because of it. Nothing could have prepared him for the challenge of keeping her safe. But, strangely, his lightest touch brings her exquisite pleasure rather than pain, and Dante and Kerry have an otherwordly connection that might just pull them through. EXCERPT

Red-hot love scenes punctuate a well-plotted suspense story that will keep readers turning pages as fast as they can.

—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

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 public speaker, Sara lives with her husband--who is very considerate of her double life--and four amazing boys, in Bronxville, New York. For more information, please visit http://sarahumphreys.com, Website. http://www.facebook.com/Amoveo Like her on Facebook 

https://twitter.com/#!/authorsara. Follow her on Twitter.

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