Finding Balance as a Writer and Mother by Cassandra Lawson || RAVEN'S BLOOD #Giveaway

Finding Balance as a Writer and Mother

By Cassandra Lawson

Thank you Melissa Snark for having me on here today and featuring my newest book, Raven’s Blood. I also want to thank everyone who has stopped by to learn more about Raven’s Blood. Today, I’m going to share a little about my struggles to juggle the many hats I wear.

When I worked outside of my home, I dreamed of working from home and being my own boss. In this fantasy, I never imagined I would be so difficult to work for. I often set unreasonable goals for myself. I frequently refuse my requests for a day off. Just this morning, I wanted to stay in bed and read. My boss reminded me of the guest blog post I needed to write. Needless to say, it is difficult to organize the responsibilities I have, and I am not always successful. In attempting to find balance, my two biggest challenges are defining my priorities and setting reasonable goals.

As some of you may know, I am a homeschooling mom. This aspect of my life adds an extra challenge when trying to balance my career as a writer, my family life, and my downtime.  It also adds to the importance of setting priorities. As much as I love being an author, the care and education of my children comes first. That was the easy part of prioritizing. Okay, I’m going to admit that I love a clean and orderly home. Actually, it has been an obsession at times. That priority had to get moved down the list a little. Some days, my husband comes home to a clean home. Other days, he wonders if our house was vandalized while he was at work. The hardest thing to prioritize was my own downtime. This is still a struggle for me. I get around this by getting away from home. It’s hard to sneak up to the office to write or edit when I’m away from home. I won’t lie and say I’ve perfectly prioritized my life, but things have improved since I published my first book in May of 2013.

Believe it or not, setting priorities is easier than setting reasonable goals. I start with a very vague idea of when my next book is coming out until someone asks me about the release date. At that point, I pick up my phone and select a date. Then I turn into a very difficult boss. I want to push myself to get the next book out faster than the last one. I tell myself I should improve my efficiency each time. That is not always a reasonable expectation, especially for someone who is still getting familiar with the scary world of publishing. I finally settled on five months for each book. This is hard for me when I get near the end of a book. I want to stop sleeping to finish writing and editing. My poor husband starts to feel completely neglected during the final stages of a book. As you can see, this is an ongoing project for me.

Finding the right balance is something I continue to struggle with and I expect I always will. Understanding my need for balance helps. At the end of the day, we all need to find balance in our lives to stay somewhat sane. Okay, if you’ve read any of my books, you already know sane might be an exaggeration. How about if we agree that I try to stay happy?

Raven’s Blood

Moon Virus

Book 1

Cassandra Lawson

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Date of Publication:  03/25/2014

ISBN: 978-1495234514

ASIN: B00J369IK0

Number of pages: 300

Word Count: 85,088

Book Description:

Following the death of her wood nymph mother at the hands of vampires, Raven worked hard to build a life for herself in one of the few remaining human settlements. Her life takes a frightening turn when she finds herself an unwilling guest in a vampire settlement, but things are not anything like she expected them to be. Still, she cannot help but feel that her attraction to the vampire leader is a betrayal to her mother’s memory and her human friends.

From the moment Connor first laid eyes on Raven she has thrown his entire world off-balance. In order to prove his strength as a leader, he has no choice but to take her up on her offer to trade her freedom for that of her human friends. Having begun his life as a slave, he has no interest in keeping the wood nymph captive. As a man, he has no desire to feel this overwhelming attraction to a woman who hates him and his kind.

As Raven spends more time with the vampires, her feelings for Connor grow even stronger and Connor finds that she may be the one thing he cannot live without. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges that could threaten the survival of vampires and humans alike. As Connor struggles to unravel the mystery of the attacks from a new species of vampire, a madman will go to any lengths to get Raven’s blood.

Available for purchase on Amazon.

Tour giveaway detail:

• 5 Ebook copies of Raven’s Blood

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt:

Connor was shocked when Raven took off. She skipped the overgrown trail and headed straight into the trees. He followed her, awed by her graceful movements. If he’d been human, he never would have been able to keep up with her. With each step she seemed to gain strength.

Connor finally caught her arm. “Slow down some, little nymph.”

 “Why?” she asked with a radiant smile. “Are you having trouble keeping up with me?”

Connor stepped in closer to her body and leaned in until she was trapped against a tree by his much larger body. Her gasp made him smile. She had obviously noticed his erection pressed against her belly. “Vampires get excited by the chase,” he said. “It weakens my self-control.”

 Her eyes widened. “I thought you said you didn’t want an unwilling partner.”

 “I don’t,” he said. “That’s why I would have to lay you down on the ground and lick every inch of your sweet body until you begged me to take you.”

Her pulse quickened and Connor couldn’t resist the temptation to lean forward and run his tongue across it. That made him even harder and he hadn’t thought that was possible.

 Damn, but she seemed to be considering letting him do it. The green tint to her cheeks deepened. Never in a million years would he have guessed that green tinted flesh would be a turn-on. This hadn’t happened before so he assumed it had something to do with her proximity to nature. He suddenly wondered if other parts of her body flushed green when she was excited. Damn, he really would love to strip her naked and find out.

Finally, she let out a shaky breath. “Sorry, I’ll move slower.”

He released her and adjusted his jeans. “We need to stop for a minute so I can get things under control,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” she said nervously. “I wasn’t trying to do that to you.”

“You never are,” he said mostly to himself.

Music Playlist

I have always been a bit of a rocker. For that reason, I wanted to share some of the songs that I listened to while writing Raven’s Blood. Since Raven’s Blood is set in Oakland, Alameda, and San Ramon, I decided to limit my playlist to San Francisco Bay Area musicians.  Playlist here.

About the Author:

Cassandra Lawson is an author and homeschooling mother of three from the San Francisco Bay area. She has always had a very active imagination and loves making up stories. When she is not writing she enjoys baking, spending time with her family, listening to music, or curling up with a good book.

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