Babies? Being cute? Yes, please.

Check out my upcoming events, including Orem & Midvale, UT signings this Saturday and Writing for Charity on March 17. If you're in Utah and you 1. Have toyed with the idea of being a writer, 2. Like writing but need a kickstart, 3. Have written aplenty but need help with the craft, 4. Have finished product you're not sure how to publish, or 5. Are just curious about writers and like hanging out with us, don't miss this 1 day workshop. We all donate our time and all $ goes to GREAT causes.

In all this talk the last two blog posts about the absence of girls, I thought I should insert a little presence.

She just kept smiling at me from her high chair. Nearly a year and a half old!

She pulled her hair thingies out, which gave her an awesome kind of horn hair action. Poor little scuffed up nose. Toddlers are beings of much action.

This represents one of the 5 social things I've done in the past several months. I'm often asked how I do it: being a mom and a writer. The answer is: that's all I do. You have to give up everything else. For many people, that wouldn't be worth it. For me it is, even if I do miss having friends...at least ones I ever see.

This was a BYOV party: Bring Your Own Vase. Two of my friends had buckets of flowers and everyone could make their own bouquet. Isn't mine gorgeous? I made it all by myself!*

*i.e. I picked out most of the flowers and Shelby fixed it. I have ZERO talent with visual arts. Truly.

Next post, per requests, let's talk about the Missing Moms.

Comments

[Shelby]

Wow...the flowers are beautiful, and your kids are adorable:)

(haha, I love seeing my name places...it makes me feel special, even if it isn't, you know, me...)

[Barbara Mills]

On the subject of Motherhood, I have to say that I am a Mom who just read TWO posts about you on my daughter's blog (A former ultra cutie pie like yours, turned beautiful young aspiring writer.)
So at the risk of her killing me for butting in which I do all too much, I have to ask . . . What event are you involved in at the Texas Library Association Convention this April. Her Dad and I are trying to sign her up so that she can get a chance to see you. Thanks a million and please read about yourself here: http://the-blank-page.blogspot.com/2012/02/thought-sandwich.html and here: http://the-blank-page.blogspot.com/2012/02/on-keeping-up-with-your-favorite.html
And thanks for writing a defining moment for my daughter!

[Christen]

"Toddlers are beings of much action." Truer words were never spoken!

My goodness, the twins are so adorable... :)

[Z Parks]

Yay for cute kids and fun bouquets! I'll be at the writing for charity event on the 17th--I'm so excited! Writing conferences/events are the best fun :)

[Jaya Lakshmi]

Babies are the only thing in the world that inspire pure love and cuteness. I'm so glad the twins have grown so much!

[Laura Mills]

Oh my gosh I wish I lived in Utah and could come to your writing for charity event- hanging out with you and talking about writing would be a dream come true! (not to mention it being for a good cause- what else could an aspiring writer ask for?) I did however see that you are coming to my home town of Houston on April 18-19!! I'm so excited!

Oh wow- well this is strange. I just realized that I'm the daughter mentioned in the second comment on this post...
Well my mom asked many of the same questions I was going to about your appearance in Houston. And I did write two blog posts with you mentioned. :) I've read all of your books except The Actor and the Housewife and Midnight in Austenland (yet!), and I've loved them all! The Goose Girl is still, without a doubt, my favorite. My best friend and I discovered it in our elementary school library, and even though we are high school juniors now, the story is as vivid now as the first time we read it. Anyway, funny how the web can turn out be such a small place. Oh and your toddlers are adorable!

[pambelina]

I am one of those people who have asked you how you balance writing with being a mom and I appreciated your honesty when you answered. I'm a write-at-home mom with two VERY active boys. I always admire writers who are able to have balance. Even when some things get left out (for now). :)

[Julia]

Babies....flowers....what could be better?

I think it is AMAZING that you are happy writing and being a mommy at the same time. It's so great that you are so delighted by your children that all you want is spend time with them and write books. My own mother was just talking to me today about your writing career and your mommy career and how that probably makes you extremely busy. But you keep at it and write terrific books all the while.

You go, Girl!

[Cynthia R]

Talk to me about those bibs. What kind are they? What makes them awesome? You can tell where my focus is. When are you coming to visit me???

[Emma]

They remind me of a little girl we have in the church nursery-little pigtails and always moving. :) I love seeing pictures of your twins; they're so darling.

[Allison]

Shannon, your babies are so cute! They look just like you. Mini-Shannons!

[Gang Hyun]

Babies are so cute, and flowers are so beautiful!

I want to live in Utah...

[Anna Elliott]

What absolute cuties!

And this makes me feel SO much better, you have no idea! I write books (as the breadwinner in the family) and take care of my two little girls and I do NOTHING else. Nothing. It's rare I even get the chance to leave my house. I happened to go outside awhile ago and had the following conversation with my husband:

Me: Oh my gosh, look at the SKY! It's so BLUE today!
Husband: Um, honey, it's always that color. You just never leave the house to see it.

Anyway, you go, Shannon! Just knowing there are other writer mamas out there dealing with the exact same choices makes me feel better! :)

[nerdyem]

Missing moms! Fantastic! This is dangerous to even check your blog at such an hour (during the late-night-bowl-of-cereal-before-bed snack), as I always know I'll end up commenting when I should be going to sleep before a busy day of herding cats...I mean kids. But the topic of "missing moms" was too alluring.

I was hoping to ask you a few questions about "missing moms" at Writing for Charity on the the 17th (also my husband's and my 11th wedding anniversary; what an incredibly patient man to agree to man the kids by his lonesome for most of his anniversary while his wife goes off to shmooze with a bunch of writers! Good, good man! I hope to do something especially nice for him the day after...).

So my question concerns the fact that I have something to say about mothers making sacrifices as part of the theme of the book I'm working on.

My protagonist is perturbed at the start of my story, by the sacrifices she sees her mother making to keep her family alive and thriving (as this heroine herself is ambitious and has great plans that don't include being hampered by the cooking of oatmeal or the washing of dishes for the masses in her own future.)

By the end of the story though, I'd like my heroine to catch an inkling that a woman who nurtures another human being is sending a message into the future. A message of investment and unconditional love, a message of hope and self-sacrifice that creates stability and soundness.

It never sounds like fun to teach the next generation to do their chores through a 20 year stint of sacrificing some of one's own sleep, body, and desires to raise another human being to adulthood. But I'd like to portray a little of the good that comes from sacrifice, if I can. After all, literary agent Donald Maas says that the number one topic people want to read about is...self-sacrifice.

My quandary is this then...in everything I read about writing for an audience of young people, the advice recommends not to include parents in the story. "Find ways to drop the mother out--have her start a full-time job just as the story opens; send the father on a business trip in the first chapter," etc. Just X the parents out!

What if I actually want the parents to be part of the story? They won't be perfect, and they won't interfere terribly, but I do want them to be a sound backdrop that brings my heroine to a realization of what her purpose can be to make this life a better place.

So, Shannon, what do you think about keeping positive parental figures in literature? Where have all the Atticuses of TKaM and the Susan Garths of Middlemarch gone? (As Sir Percy Blakeney would say in The Scarlet Pimpernel, "I ahsk you?!")

Is it uncouth and just too completely passe these days to let heroines see a sane, stable, loving mother who sacrifices some of her own time and resources to guide her offspring into a responsible adulthood?

[Christy Grigg]

Adorable girls and I'm looking forward to the Missing Moms post.

[Maddie]

CUTE little Dinah and Wren!

[Abbey]

This is perhaps the first time since I graduated from BYU 13 years ago that I am feeling sadness at not living in Utah. I wishwishwishwish I could go to that writers conference in Provo. Maine is just too far away for a road trip...

[Ashley R.]

Cute girls. I am so excited for your future books! Random. I know. I just saw two new covers of books that I have been waiting for for a long time (third book in the Matched trilogy, and the prequel to The Maze Runner). I can't wait for the cover of Palace of Stone. :):):):)

[Linda W]

Adorable kids!

[Nike Shox]

every kids are cute.