Guest Blogger - Molly O'Keefe

We're excited to have RITA award winning Superromance author Molly O'Keefe guest blogging with us today! I can't wait to find out more about her upcoming series...and about what it felt like to win a RITA. So, someone give up a swing so Molly can have a seat and share! :-)

Thank you so much for having me! This is my kind of crowd - Lots of advice and information, lots of commiserating and a swing set! What's not to love?

I am celebrating the publication of my Notorious O'Neill Series with Superromance for next two months. Inspired by Paul Newman and pralines, The Notorious O'Neill series takes place in Bonne Terre, a fictional town in Louisana. Savannah, Tyler and Carter are siblings who were left on their grandmother's doorstep twenty years ago by their con artist mother. Each of the children has spent the last twenty years battling, or in Tyler's case embracing, the notorious reputation attached to the O'Neill name.

The siblings are in danger of falling out of touch with each other - pulled in separate directions by their fears and lifestyles - when the fall out of a seven year old jewel theft shatters all of their lives.

For Savannah, the baby of the family, it's a matter of learning to trust again, only the man she chooses to trust ends up breaking her heart. Tyler has to go home to Bonne Terre to face down his father, his demons, and Juliette Tremblant - the girl he loved and left years ago. Carter, as a Baton Rouge politician has been trying to keep his own skeletons in the closet - but when a beautiful stranger publicly claims Carter got her pregnant his life and lies begin to unravel.

Throw in a devious grandma with a tarnished past, a couple of stolen gems and a family home with plenty of secrets - and you have the Notorious O'Neill series.

I have two young kids, a husband and a pretty busy writing schedule. And the key to my life is compromise and discipline. I have to write - so I do. And because I write - LOTS of other things don't get done. In fact, as I sit in my office, my laundry is towering over my shoulder and the smell of dirty diapers from the full diaper pail wafting through my dirty house. But I have all the ingredients for dinner tonight and I've written five pages. That's my compromise.

TOP FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE MY LIFE DOABLE

1. Salad in a bag. This is dinner most nights a week. You'd think I'd be skinnier.

2. Rachel Ray -- hate her talk show LOVE her cookbooks. I'm not kidding. It takes 30 minutes and it's good. She's not lying. She's annoying as all get out but she's not lying.

3. Lap top computer not hooked up to the Internet. For those of you who don't have this and lament about not getting any writing done - this is the key. Free Cell has brought down many a writing day.

4. Coffee in massive amounts. I am not a coffee enthusiast. A recreational coffee drinker - nope. When my son was first born my husband asked if I thought maybe, just maybe I was drinking too much coffee and I told him (getting his drift and not taking kindly to it) - with sincere and utter heartfelt rage - that coffee was the only recognizable thing I had left from my old life. The coffee stays in the picture.

5. Deadlines. I'm not talking about editorial deadlines - though they are good but they are so far away. I could procrastinate forever. Nope. I have deadlines from my critique group. It's supposed to be at least a scene or a chapter every week but we've strayed from that - but if I go longer than two weeks without handing in a chunk of writing for them to critique I know I am falling behind. This is so invaluable because I know if I had a deadline just for myself I'd blow it every week. Like I do with dieting and working out.

So that's it - much like writing it's not glamorous. It's a little sad actually - but it's what I do in order to make this little dream of mine doable.

So, what are your tricks? How do you keep all your balls in the air?

Thanks for visiting with us today, Molly! Three lucky commenters will receive a book from her newest trilogy so be sure and let us know you're here. And don't forget to visit her at her website http://www.molly-okeefe.com/index.html to find out more about her upcoming releases.