Laura Kaye: What I've given up to be a romance writer

And now we here from another of those overachieving romance authors who writes about a gazillion novels in a week … (yes, I'm exaggerating. That's what I do on Sundays.) But, still, Laura Kaye's new release, South of Surrender, is just the beginning of the upcoming books bearing her name. To make that happen, she's had to give up some of her favorite things. (P.S.: Laura's not complaining here. No romance author would EVER complain about doing something they love so very much, a point that Laura makes very nicely in this post.)

Laura: There might or might not be a lot of silent squeeing going on over my first visit to the HEA Paste BN blog! OK, there totally is! Thanks, Joyce, for having me here! (Note from Joyce: You're most welcome, Laura! Always love the squee.)

I've just released my 10th novel and I have two more releasing this year and eight more that I'm contracted to write over the next 18 months. So I thought I'd share some of what I've given up to pursue my dream of becoming a published romance author.

• Sleep. Yeah. I used to be an eight-hours-a-night-or-I'm-a-zombie type person. And not the good kind of zombie! Now, to fit writing in, I don't get nearly as much sleep as I used to. For most of my writing career, I've worked a full-time job, and I have two young daughters (ages 9 and 6), which meant that my main writing hours were from when the girls went to bed around 8 p.m. until 1-2 in the morning. Now I average about five to six hours of sleep most days. I'm not always sure this is always a good thing, but it's definitely a change over the past few years.

• TV. Don't get me wrong, I still have a few shows I cannot do without: Game of Thrones, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, to name a few. But for the most part, I've found additional time for writing by cutting out some pastimes I used to do a lot. And I almost never watch anything live anymore — praise the invention of the DVR!

• Gardening. Yep, this would be another of those pastimes I used to spend whole weekends doing. Not so much anymore. Sorry, Home Depot!

• Domestic chores. LOL. OK, I'm not so sorry about this one. Sorta. Mostly, I ignore the piles of laundry that never fully disappear, the major organization projects that are my daughters' bedrooms, and the tumble-Jacks rolling around on my floor (i.e., tumbleweeds made out of my dog Jack's hair). Dirty dishes? What dirty dishes? I don't see any dirty dishes. ... There are only so many hours in the day, and if I'm not working, I'd rather be playing with my kids than worrying about what that brown sticky stuff in my mini-van might be! (Also: I have NO clue. It's on the car's ceiling, for Pete's sake!)

• "Free time." It was sometimes true in my college teaching job that there was always something I could be doing for work: grading, reading a new book in my field, preparing a lecture, research. But that's even more the case in my writing career. There is never a time when there's not something I could be doing. If it's not writing, it's social media, or blogging, or updating my website. Mostly, it's amazingly fun, and I rarely feel like it's a "job," but it can be challenging to always feel like you should be doing something! Type-A personalities, unite!

• Weekends. This is increasingly true. Unless I'm under deadline, I try not to write during my weekend days, but the majority of signings, conferences, and conventions occur over weekends, so I work a lot more on weekends as a writer than I ever did as a professor. Although, there's no question, these events are so much fun to attend!

• Balance. I'm not great at making time for exercise or saying no or resisting the urge to work every moment that I can. I need to spend more time with my family and clean at least occasionally and take naps and unplug. Deadlines make finding balance challenging, as does the fact that I really enjoy what I'm doing. But it's something I want to get better at for my own sanity and my family's!

• My day job. I have a great day job as a professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy. This year, I have taken a year's leave of absence to try out writing full time … and I'm loving it! I wake up every day excited to dive into my stories, interact with my fans, and cheer on my writer friends. This is the most amazing thing I've ever done, and I'm very likely walking away from a very cool job for which I spent seven years preparing at the end of 2013. It's a little scary but exciting!

• The thought "I don't want to go to work today." I've definitely had that thought in other jobs, but here's the thing: Writing doesn't feel like a "job" to me. It definitely is. Conceptually, I often think of what I'm doing as being comparable to running a small business. But it never feels like work. I mean, I get to spend the day telling stories and thinking of hot heroes and playing with my imagination and making stuff up that people enjoy, no less. That's a privilege to do. I finally get what Oprah was talking about when she used to say to find your passion.

I don't intend any complaint in talking about what I've given up to be a romance author. But pursuing and achieving dreams requires sacrifice, and success depends in part on what you're willing to do and to give to create the life you want. I feel lucky to be doing something I love so much and really can't imagine a life without writing. It's all worth it, to me.

Have you ever given something up to do what you love? (To leave a comment, click on the gray comment balloon on the left side of your browser window.)

Thanks for reading!

Here's the blurb about South of Surrender:

She's the only one who can see through his golden boy facade to the broken god within...

Chrysander Notos, Supreme God of the South Wind and Summer, is on a mission: save Eurus from his death sentence and prove his troubled brother can be redeemed. But Eurus fights back, triggering vicious storms that threaten the mortal realm and dangerously drain Chrys.

Laney Summerlyn refuses to give up her grandfather's horse farm, despite her deteriorating vision. More than ever, she needs the organized routine of her life at Summerlyn Stables, until a ferocious storm brings an impossible—and beautiful—creature crashing down from the heavens.

Injured while fighting Eurus, Chrys finds himself at the mercy of a mortal woman whose compassion and acceptance he can't resist. As they surrender to the passion flaring between them, immortal enemies close in, forcing Chrys to choose between his brother and the only woman who's ever loved the real him.

To find out more about Laura and her books, visit www.laurakayeauthor.com. You can also connect with her on her blog, Facebook and Twitter (@laurakayeauthor).