« Shopping! | Main | So I never learned to swim until I was 23 . . . »
June 6, 2005
Blame It On The Farmers
From Beverly, June's Guest Literary Chick!
OK, I'll admit it--I'm a recovering workaholic. I used to get to the office at 9 a.m. and never left before seven, always carrying my laptop so I could work until at least midnight. But when I first started writing, I noticed a change in myself. I tried to treat it like a real job, but once I tasted that freedom, my inner workaholic was smothered by my inner lazy evil twin. And the worst thing about being your own boss is that you can't fire yourself. Without that threat looming over my head, I find myself falling into an entirely different sort of routine, one that includes sleeping in, wasting time on non-essential tasks, and spending the day reading on the couch when I really should be working.
Tto be fair, even with this schedule, I have managed to write six novels and two novellas in the past 26 months. So why am I so hard on myself? I'll tell you why. It's those $%^*(!# farmers. They're the ones to blame for this mentality that, in order to be considered a good worker, one must rise with the freaking chickens and go to sleep the minute darkness falls.
Well, I for one am rebelling against this attitude. I'm not milking cattle or irrigating crops here. I'm making up worlds and people in my head, and this doesn't have to happen during the hours of 7 a.m.-5 p.m. So from now on, I am embracing my inner sloth! Perhaps I should form a club of sorts? Our motto could be, "Sleep Late or Die!" Our logo, a picture of a farmer on a tractor inside a red circle with a diagonal line slashed through it. Not that I have anything against farmers, mind you. I just resent that their internal body clocks allow them to spring up out of bed and get to work while I'm groggily complaining that I just got to sleep and it can't be time to wake up yet.
And on that note, I must go. You see, my writing day does have a routine. It just starts at 1 p.m. rather than 5 a.m. Only, I feel myself getting sleepy. Maybe I'll go take a little nap first . . .
Beverly
P.S.--Thank you to the Literary Chicks for asking me to be the guest blogger in June! I'll be giving away four copies of The Tiara Club, my July release, at the end of the month.
Posted by at 12:21 PM | Comments (8)
Comments
Oh, I love this post. Especially after I heard from DH that his father, the farmer, put in a 20 hour day the other day to finish planting beans. Oh..I think dogs are one key to farmers' ability to wake up. I know my in-laws are wakened every single day by their yellow lab at 5, 5:30 every morning.
Now I've got to hunt down info about the Tiara Club. Interesting title.
Posted by: NicoleH ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 6, 2005 2:00 PM
Well, my kitty wakes me up at 5 every morning too, but I feed her or pet her or whatever it is she wants me to do (she's 15 years old and has become very demanding--good thing I love her!) and then I GO BACK TO SLEEP! :) I come from a long line of farmers, so I've had this "you must get up at the crack of dawn or you're worthless" thing drilled into me all my life. It sucks.
You can find an excerpt of The Tiara Club at my website (http://www.beverlybrandt.com) if you're interested. It's a fun book that has absolutely nothing to do with farmers or getting up early, but is chock full of beauty queens, food, and deadly secrets being kept in a small Southern town.
Beverly "Embrace Your Inner Sloth" Brandt
Posted by: Beverly at June 6, 2005 3:09 PM
Yay! Beverly! So glad you're here!!! And a terrific post to start - I say, embrace the sloth!
L.
Posted by: Lani at June 6, 2005 7:36 PM
Beverly--you sound like my kind of gal :-)
Michelle, heading back under the duvet...
Posted by: Michelle C at June 7, 2005 6:34 AM
My husband and I are farmers and we NEVER get up early ... this weekend, I slept in until 11:30, 10:00 and 11:00 respectively. Even when the men are busy in the field they rarely start until after 8:00.
Modern farming rocks!
Posted by: Jennifer Jacula at June 7, 2005 7:15 PM
Excellent news, Jennifer! Maybe I should change the title of my post to "Blame It On Dad!" Of course, then I'd have to dredge up much more than just my preference for sleeping in!
My father came from a long line of dairy farmers, back in the day before there were milking machines (or so he says--I've never actually checked out when they started manufacturing these; he could have been lying all this time!). According to him, by the time he left for school, he'd already been up for hours and milked the cows. Twice. So we were totally lazy for complaining about not wanting to get up at 6 a.m., because, of course, when he was growing up, he had to be up at 3.
Y'all know the rest of the story. After milking the cows, he had to walk to school. Uphill. In shoes that had cardboard in them to keep the snow out. In June.
Being the smartass that I am, I was always like, "Well, Dad, we don't have cows in the backyard here in Seattle. If you get some, *then* maybe I'll get up early." Hmm. Is it any wonder that I spent the majority of my childhood being grounded?
Beverly
Posted by: Beverly at June 7, 2005 7:32 PM
"Sleep late or die!" I'm in! One question: What do I do with my kids? *asked with wide-eyed innocence*
Posted by: Lynn Daniels at June 12, 2005 1:47 AM
Gosh, Lynn, I don't know. Can't they take care of getting themselves fed, showered, and ready for their day by the time they're, like, two or three or something? *answered with wide-eyed innocence* :)
Bet you all can tell that I don't have kids...
Posted by: Beverly at June 12, 2005 11:18 AM
