Monday, October 13, 2014

If Your Mother Is A Writer....

Pepper here, and I've been holding on to this post until after ACFW because I wanted to make sure my kids didn't have a few more things to add to it. A couple of months ago, Allecat Angie Dicken’s husband, Cody, wrote a post about being married to an Alleycat (aka writer). It was such a fun post with a great perspective, that I mentioned it to my kids.

Well they had plenty to say about being the child of a writer. I thought I could start off your week with a few chuckles, because I bet there are more kids out there who would agree with my kids' perspectives.

They gave me 8 tips – but I’m SURE we can find plenty more! J
Here we go.

If your mother is a writer….

8. She will spurt out random information about her current (or any past) story because she assumes we are all in the same world her brain is.

7. She may ask you odd questions which make you wonder what on earth your mother is up to. (such as “if I wanted to create a weapon that could do this, what would I need?”

6. If she is talking to someone you can’t see, it’s ok. Simply walk away and pay no attention to the invisible person.

5. She may spontaneously dress up in odd costumes – and encourage you to help her create more costumes. (The upside to this is that you always have cool things to wear for Halloween or Fall Festivals)

4. Don’t expect her to edit your novel any time soon….because she’s invariably working on hers (this from my eldest, of course)

3. You never know where the bedtime stories are going to go.

2. She will totally ‘get’ your creative way of thinking. It really takes one to know one.

1. Prepare yourself for an ‘awesome, crazy, weird parent’

It was funny (and somewhat humbling) to compile the list from my crew. What can you or your kids add to this list?

Are you willing to share? J

 *************************************************
Pepper writes Blue Ridge Romance peppered with grace and humor. She's a mom of five and speech-language pathologist who loves hanging out with her Alleycats and pals both online and off. You can learn more about her on her website, www.pepperdbasham.com, or spend some time on The Alley.
She is thrilled to be represented by Julie Gwinn of The Seymour Literary Agency. Her debut novel, A Twist of Faith, arrives in bookstores in early 2015!! You can learn more about the story and the series at www.mitchellscrossroads.com
 

18 comments:

Casey said...

Haha! Gotta love that! Your kids are awesome. Can we meet someday? :)

Joanne Sher said...

LOVE it, Pepper! I'm sure my kids would give some more as well. And by the way, your picture at the bottom of this post? GORGEOUS :D

Heather Day Gilbert said...

Love this and I'm sure my kids would agree! Mommy is sometimes in her own little world! Cute list.

Pepper said...

IT was a lot of fun to do!
Case, I would LOVE for you to meet my kiddos some time! They would love you!

Pepper said...

Joanne,
Thanks for the sweet words!

Pepper said...

Heather,
Oh I bet your kids could add a few ;-) Our little worlds are so much fun sometimes, aren't they? :-)

Sarah Forgrave said...

LOL, I love this, Pepper! #6 is my fave (and it probably applies to me more times than I care to admit). :)

Pepper Basham said...

Sarah,
I know!!! I wonder how my kids handle 'normal' people after living with me so long.

Loree Huebner said...

Hysterical! My kids have always lived by #6...haha.

Melissa Jagears said...

You are obviously a better parent than me, I'm sure my list would be more like "Be prepared to wait two hours for breakfast" or "Don't expect to use the computer any time soon"

Lori Stanley Roeleveld said...

My 21yo adds "Prepare for her to look like she's listening to you but then look up from her laptop after an entire conversation and say, 'Wait, what?'"

Pepper Basham said...

Melissa,
I think my kids are being nice. Though they haven't had to wait for a computer (most of the time) because my writing happens late at night - but I can't say that I've always been great at getting food on time ;-)

Tyson's chicken nuggets are wonderful things! ;-)

Pepper Basham said...

Lori,
Yep, I'm surprised one of my kids didn't think of that one. Maybe ignorance is bliss ;-)

Given my older ones a few more years and they'll probably come up with another long list :-)

Pepper Basham said...

Lori,
Yep, I'm surprised one of my kids didn't think of that one. Maybe ignorance is bliss ;-)

Given my older ones a few more years and they'll probably come up with another long list :-)

Debbie Maxwell Allen said...

Here's another one:

When you make any kind of comment, or share something that happened, she'll say, "That would make a great story!"

Amy Leigh Simpson said...

Oh I LOVE this!! Number 6 made me laugh out loud! I KNOW I do that one. Mine would probably add something like, "Saying she needs 5 more minutes to finish a scene, and will repeat the words an hour later with a glazed hungry look in her eyes." ;)

Krista Phillips said...

I'm with Melissa... my kids list would be completely different.

"I have to say mom 1,000 times before she looks away from her screen and says, 'where you saying something?'"

"She makes us pretend she is going bye-bye... then sneaks back into the house and locks her bedroom door while we watching the baby, otherwise the baby will scream for her."

"if your number of chores have tripled since she started writing...."

....

Yeah. The list wouldn't be nearly so kind!

Sarah Sundin said...

My kids would add - expect her to be late picking you up from school. I can't tell you how many times I was late, and my daughter would look at me in a sage, knowing way, and say, "You were writing again, weren't you, Mom?" Guilty as charged. The kitchen timer has become my best friend.

Speaking of which...minimum day today...son is waiting...Bye now!