Holy cats! Used to be–I think–a writer would write a book then write and send query letters to agents and wait for a reply while working on another book, often around the demands of a family and job. You can still do that today.

And get left out.

Today, it takes more than a voice, finely honed craft and a good story to write if you want to sell it. Now, you have to be a master of social networking and epublishing. Which is awesome. I love learning new technology. But when the hell do I write?

Example: Almost every week on Facebook, Jane Friedman offers a list called “Best Tweets for Writers.” I clicked on a link today about getting a free book from Smashwords on Kindle about how to epublish for free. I’ve heard about Smashwords–a couple writers in my critique group have books up there. I don’t have a Kindle but think I might like one. But I was able to download the free book onto my PC after I downloaded Amazon’s free App to read Kindle books on your PC. So, I did that and went back to download the book. Fortunately, the cyber gods are in a cooperative mood this evening and my computer is new and I remembered my Amazon password, so all went smoothly. Now I have to make time to read the book so I can epublish my book after I scrape together the time to finish and revise it.

That’s just one example.

It’s like when I started out in grad school for education in 1997. Whole Language was hot, standards were just an idea in a few heads and No Child Left Behind had yet to be the brain fart of Ted Kennedy or whoever. Without so much as a “by your leave” basal readers were back, standards replaced common knowledge and community values and some people who probably never taught a child anything decided on a way to blame teachers for all the reasons some children do no learn according to their mandated federal schedule. I’ll stop here. I’m getting angry.

Back to the time issue. Now an author is expected to have a blog and become proficient in marketing with social media, develop an online following and graciously respond to comments by said followers. I don’t have a problem with the ideas.

BUT WHEN DO I DO IT ALL? And still write the book to market, blog and network about.

Unemployment might be my answer for a little while. In less than 3 weeks I will have no job to go back to in August (yes, school starts early to mid August in AZ). I tell myself I will develop a carefully detailed schedule to utilize my time to the max.

I’ll let you know when that happens.

In the end, though, I’m grateful for God’s abundance that gives me the time, resources and ability to write fiction. Not everybody in the world has these luxuries,