Yes sir, Chicken Little and I have had an awful lot in common recently…

On Sunday afternoon, I returned home from five days in Orlando at the Romantic Times Convention – a totally fun, totally exciting whirlwind of an experience!  Friday I head out for two days at Colorado Romance Writers’ Romancing the Rockies conference.  I’m facing a deadline for the next book that’s literally plunging right at me [who knew weeks could go by so fast???], and I still haven’t sent out those darn invitations for my son’s high school graduation!!  *gulp*  It would be easy to let myself slip over into panic mode right about now…

But I don’t.  Know why not?

Because, just like CL, I have friends.  But unlike him, I’ve learned to listen to mine!  All these wonderful fellow writers are only an email away, ready and willing to pull me back from the edge.  Or at the very least, ready to tell me to quit whining,  pull up my big girl panties and get back to work!

When my children were little, I frequently sought out other mommies to compare notes on just about everything from bad behavior to foods to tempt kids to teething to… well, you name it.  Being a mama can be a pretty isolated job, spending your days with little people who can’t always express their needs and sure aren’t into discussing yours!  Connecting to other moms can be a lifeline.  It can be wholly reassuring to hear that other moms go through the same things you do.  Besides, you share that bond of working toward raising the happiest, most well-adjusted children you can in the face of any adversity!

Being a writer is a pretty isolated job, too.  I spend my days with characters who sometimes refuse to talk to me at all…and even when they do, they’re all in my head!  Just as I depended on the sage advice and fellowship of other mommies when I was raising my little ones,   I now depend on my fellow writers.  We share the bond of trying to produce the best, most interesting books we possibly can in the face of, well, everything else in our lives!  

So, unlike Chicken Little, I know my sky isn’t really falling.  I know I’m one of the luckiest women in the world because my sky is filled with all those twinkling stars — all the writers [and MamaWriters!] I’m honored to call friends.

What about you?  What pulls you back from the edge when you feeling the stress building?

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Melissa Mayhue is the author of the award-winning Daughters of the Glen series from Pocket Books.  Her latest release, A Highlander’s Destiny, is available in bookstores near you now.