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Award-winning author Melonie Johnson is a two-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist who loves dark coffee, cheap wine, and expensive beer. GETTING HOT WITH THE SCOT is her latest novel.
 My Year of Spinning Plates It’s the moment authors work toward. Dream about. Wait and wish for. The call. The offer. It’s a moment you don’t forget. I remember when my call came. I remember the thrumming in my veins and whoosh of blood rushing in my ears as I forced myself to remain calm, the epitome of coolness (or so I pretended) as I chatted with the person who would become my editor. Above all, I remember when she laid out the plan for my series. It was a three-book deal, and they wanted to publish them all in one season. Back-to-back-to-back releases. Three full-length novels coming out in the space of three months. “Sounds great,” I said breathlessly, my façade of coolness slipping. I like to compare that moment to Little Red from Sondheim’s Into the Woods: I felt excited… Well, excited and scared. I’d never written so much so quickly. But the first book was already finished, and its pub date was over a year away. I had tons of time. I could do this. This would be easy. This would be cake. Let’s take a moment to chuckle at naïve baby-author me…my year of spinning plates was about to begin. It turns out that yes, I could indeed do this. But it wasn’t easy, and the only cake involved resulted from panic-induced procrasti-baking. Despite all the time I spent in the kitchen avoiding my laptop, I somehow managed, to borrow a phrase from the great Nora Roberts, to get my ass in the chair and write. And write. And write. Revisions on Book One while writing Book Two and plotting Book Three. Copy edits on Book One while revising Book Two and drafting Book Three. More revisions on Book Two. Stuck on Book Three. Page proofs for Book One while copy editing Book Two and finishing Book Three. Revising. Writing cover copy. Revising. Working on blurbs. Revising. Finally, Book Three was off to copy edits. I’d done it. I’d written three novels. But new plates were being tossed into the mix each day. Marketing and promo, building a brand, engaging with readers…oh, and let’s start working on a new series. It dawned on me that if I wanted a successful career as an author, the plates weren’t going to stop spinning. Not really. Not ever. This was my new normal. Upon this revelation, I knew I had to figure out some balance. Not just with the writing, but with my life. I also still had, you know, a family to take care of. A home. And myself. I needed to take care of me, too. I began looking for tricks to help keep those plates in motion so I would be less worried about dropping one and having it crash to the ground (or worse, crashing myself).
A few I’ve found most useful are also the most simple. Things like maintaining a detailed calendar of all deadlines and due dates so something doesn’t sneak up on me. Creating a “time budget” and not overspending in areas like surfing on social media while also making sure there is time for non-writing things like hitting the gym and going on dates (both with my husband and my friends). Perhaps most importantly, I’ve learned to let stuff go. And to be more willing to accept help (yes, the day has come where I let my husband do the laundry…including my laundry). If you’re struggling with the juggle and feeling overwhelmed, I promise you’ve got this. Take a breath, take a break (maybe go bake something), then get back to it. Keep on swimming, keep on spinning.
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