It's been a month ...

...since I turned in the manuscript of my first ever, so close to being a dream come true book, My Mother Wears Combat Boots. It's just short of a miracle that I even pulled it off. I had serious doubts. Considering that I was pregnant, gave birth, had a newborn to care for as well as my then 6 year old, moved from Miami to Seattle and all the while tried my best to stay up late every night to turn off mama brain and turn on writer mama brain, it was a stretch. Trying to write after the girls went down for the night was unsustainable. Baby woke to nurse during the night (at 17 months old today, she still does!) and I just got too tired during the daytimes to be decent.

Thanks to our 2006 tax return (applause for the EIC!) ... enter my savior babysitters. I'll tell you all about the both of them soon, but for now, suffice it to say that I couldn't have pulled it off without them, or Ernesto's encouragement. Oh the irony, I can't write because of the kids and without them, wouldn't have had my subject material. Now a month later, writer brain having been turned off, I'm scrambling to get the final pieces of the puzzle polished, the introduction and the references section. Just two hours ago, thanks to our 15 year old neighbor Jasmine taking both girls to the playground, I got the resources / suggested reading list finished.

So welcome to the My Mother Wears Combat Boots blog. I'm new to this sort of thing, so I'm uncertain how it will go, but it'll be much easier for me to maintain than a website would be. My tech skills (and free time) are seriously lacking and behind the times. However, immediate plans here include news about the book's upcoming release, book-related events and eventual tour dates, and a semi-archive of my columns from MaximumRockNRoll since 2000.