After a weekend of croup, colds and Mother’s Day I got to thinking about balance – or rather the lack of it in my life. Sometimes I wish I could leap into one of my books and inhabit a fictitious world where (hopefully) the author has painted an ideal scene far removed from reality – a place I can sink into like a big, comfy couch.

In reality, I find trying to fit my writing in is the hardest – everything else, all of life’s errands and mundane tasks (laundry anyone?) always seem to take over and there I am trying to squeeze out the creative juices at 10:30pm as I try to get some writing done. It can be soul-destroying some days as writing is my passion – it’s what I love to do more than anything (except be with my family and kids of course!) but I never seem to find the right balance. I always end up desperately trying to meet the deadline while juggling freelance (non-writing) projects, my boys (husband, twins and dog), the newsletter for my local twins group, day-to-day stuff (I try not let my kids starve or go naked), as well as promotion and publicity for my books. Some days, in true Australian fashion, I think I’m as mad as a gumtree full of galahs…

My heroine, Ursula Marlow, doesn’t need to worry about balance. She has servants after all – so when she arrives home to her luxurious Chester Square home, her butler will take her coat and bring her a nice cup of tea, Cook will have prepared a lavish Edwardian dinner, her maid will have taken care of the laundry and her housekeeper will have made sure the household affairs are in order. Sounds pretty nice, huh? When she feels inspired she can tuck her knees up on the chaise lounge and read the Strand Magazine before she has to face the necessary sleuthing for the book. As author I get to play with other forms of balance – dialogue, description, inner monologue and action. Unlike my life, Ursula rarely gets caught up in lengthy (i.e. boring) tasks because a few pages of that would cause a reader to nod off. No, she is spared all of that and besides, if I start getting tangled up in details like what she is going to wear, eat or where to find a missing button, I can just end the chapter and move on!

With twin toddlers I think I need to reset my expectations of balance and just accept that chaos really is the norm – that there will be few ‘Zen-moments’ in my life at present. So for now, I’ll just continue to struggle to fit my writing life in with everyday life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life, I just wish I had a couple of clones stuffed away in a closet that I could bring out when the deadline draws near!

So how do you find balance? How do you carve out time to do the things you love? All and any tips are appreciated!

~Clare Langley-Hawthorne was raised in England and Australia. She was an attorney in Melbourne before moving to the United States, where she began her career as a writer. She lives in Oakland, California with her family. Consequences of Sin, her first novel was published by Viking in 2007 and the paperback released by Penguin February 2008. The second in her Ursula Marlow mystery series, The Serpent and The Scorpion, is due in bookstores October 2008.