Having a new baby in the house makes it hard to find the time to read.

Finding the time to write, is almost impossible.

If you’ve been dreaming of writing a novel while on maternity leave, you might want to start with a short story or two.

If you’ve been dreaming of reading a novel while on maternity leave, you might want to start with a short story or two.

Vision is a collection of short stories from the University of Hertfordshire Writing Awards. You might remember my mentioning that a story I wrote was on the short list.

Well, I didn’t win.

I came in second.

The 500 pound prize is just what I happen to need right now. And, while I am not sharing the money, I’ll share the love.

I’ve got a copy of the anthology to give away and if you want to win it, all you have to do is leave a comment congratulating me on my win after this post. Comments for the contest will be accepted between now and midnight on July 1st, 2007. That’s Canada Day, so I’ll celebrate my national holiday with this giveaway too. On Monday, I’ll conduct a random draw from the eligible comments and announce the winner of the book here.

Post from: Babylune

Post from: Babylune

The winner is…Helen with this comment.

All of the eligible comments were placed in a Toronto Maple Leaf cap and Helen’s entry was randomly selected by my illiterate 3 year-old (well, he does know the letters S, Z and B).

Congratulations Helen. I hope you find that Fit For Motherhood is full of helpful information. As a special bonus for winning, Helen, Vidaville and I would also like to give you a download of my ebook, The Practical Romantic, for you to give to an unmarried (but looking) friend.

Post from: Babylune

It hasn’t been all bad. We’ve been quiet and inactive and I’ve been reading Waiting for Birdy by Catherine Newman. It’s a collection of essays spanning her second pregnancy and the birth of her daughter. Newman is a funny woman who follows my cardinal rule of good humour: Making fun of other people has a limit, but making fun of yourself, that is an endless source of laughs.

Her experiences reminded me of some of my own and inspired me to realise that, as a mother, I have come a long way.

My husband was changing jobs when our first baby was born. That meant, he was home with us for the first month of our son’s life. We did everything together as a brand new family and the baby’s needs came first. So, we’d plan a trip to the store and get caught in the nurse, nap, diaper change, nurse, nap cycle of a newborn. Somehow, it would take two adults four hours to get one little baby ready to go grocery shopping. Then, we’d get to the grocery store and see a lone woman with a newborn and another kid looking like grocery shopping was the easiest thing in the world to do.

Now, I am that lone woman facing down the aisles of fruit and vegetables with two children. Most surprising is that now, while I am shopping with two children, I plan the weekly menu in one sphere of my brain while the other sphere thinks about re-writing that piece for the exacting editor of Busted Halo or selling the essay I wrote about paying off my student loans. As a first time mother venturing out of the nest, all I could think about was, “Oh God, what if he needs to nurse, be changed, burped, go to sleep, or what if he cries?”

All I can say, is that intense kind of worry just fades. And if it can fade for people as neurotic as Catherine Newman and I, then it can fade for you too.

Post from: Babylune