Book & Baby: The Complete Guide to Managing Chaos & Becoming a Wildly Successful Writer-Parent - A Review

by Suzanne Lieurance

Most professional writers have a list of their favorite books about writing.

Here’s a new book that’s going at the top of my list.

It’s called Book & Baby: The Complete Guide to Managing Chaos & Becoming a Wildly Successful Writer-Parent by Milda M. DeVoe.

This book might seem like an unlikely choice for me since my children are long grown and I now have a rather quiet household with just my husband and me.

But it offers tips and advice that any writer—at whatever stage of their life—can benefit from.

For example, all writers face periods in their lives when they don’t have long stretches of time for writing.

This book helps any writer see how they can write in short periods of time, or even make time out of no time.

The book also gives suggestions and advice on how to manage your money, sleep, and energy so you can be present for your children and still write your book. It also covers:

° Finding an Agent
° Book Tours
° Accountability
° Social Media for Writers with Kids
° Writing with an Empty Nest
° How to Apply for Grants
° And more

Milda M. DeVoe created this book as a guide for anyone who wants to be a successful writer and parent. She is the founder of Pen Parentis, a collective that brings well-known authors—who also happen to be parents—together to discuss writing, parenting, and advice on combining the two.

Throughout the book, you’ll find excerpts from the Pen Parentis’ salons that answer questions on how to be a writer-parent at every stage of parenthood. It’s like an informative peek into the lives of these writers with insights that any parent can instantly relate to. For example, one writer says, “Becoming a parent refined me as a writer. Sure, it took away my time to create, but now I create with verve and purpose.”

The quote I related to the most, however, was this one: “My kids give me my best material.”

I think this is true for most any writer-parent.

Learn more about Pen Parentis at https://www.penparentis.org.

And get the book at amazon.com.


For more writing tips, be sure to visit writebythesea.com and get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge. Once you're a subscriber, you'll also have access to a Private Resource Library for Writers.

Suzanne Lieurance is the author of over 40 published books, a freelance writer, and a writing coach.

3 comments:

Terry Whalin said...

Suzanne,

Thank you for calling to our attention Book & Baby. I recall the years when my children were small and the challenges to find any time to write--but I was determined and got my fingers on the keys and wrote--often at all sort of odd times but it happened.

Terry

deborah lyn said...

Thanks Suzanne for this enjoyable and informative post! All key points for our journey. I'd never heard of Pen Parents and used your link to check out their website, what a wonderful group of writers!

Karen Cioffi said...

Suzanne, Book & Baby sounds like a useful book. Raising children is probably the most time-consuming job there is. Tips on how to squeeze writing time in there is invaluable.

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