Guest post by Samuel Mahaney

As my 35-year Air Force career came to an end, I began to think of college days when I wrote poetry and prose during my spare time. My plan then was to continue writing throughout my adult life. Well, life as a husband, father, Air Force pilot, Georgetown Capitol Hill Fellow, Harvard National Security Fellow, lawyer, and Two-Star General didn’t agree with my aspirations to write during my spare time, because, well, I didn’t have any spare time.

As the light at the end of the tunnel—retirement—approached, I decided I would write full time as a second, post-Air Force, career.  When I told friends and family, some of them gave me the look. You know, the one that sarcastically conveys, "Yah, sure you are, sport."

Read Time: 3 minutes

​At the time of this post’s writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of daily life, both personal and professional. People are scared, and many writers have put their dreams on the back burner.

​Although I fully understand that this exceptional situation means that many simply do not have the time or energy to focus on their writing careers, many other would-be published authors are not submitting because it’s not “the right time.”

No, we are not often in the throes of a global pandemic. But we each individually experience upheavals in our lives that make us feel like we should put writing or submitting on hold. Whether it’s an apocalypse or a breakup, there will always be a reason that now is not the opportune time.

​Today, I want to put those thoughts to bed. Here are five reasons to submit your work right now.

​January 26 is an emotional day for me. Though today I have four years of distance from the event, I suspect this day will always feel turbulent. It’s a reminder of so many things for me, but one that rises to the top is that my personal world could be demolished in an instant. Of course, that goes for all of us.

My friends, I have a new favorite tool. It's called SaneBox, and it's right up there with Social Jukebox on my list of tools that help me keep my life together.

This app is amazing, and it is so simple. I honestly can't believe I haven't been using it for years. This is going to be a short post, just to let you know this exists—because I wish someone had told me.

You may or may not have heard of decision fatigue, but you have no doubt felt it. Decision fatigue refers to the exhaustion we feel after making so many large and small decisions over the course of the day.

Those in positions which involve more decision-making are of course more prone to this phenomenon. A 2011 study found that judges were likely to deliver harsher rulings later in the day. 

​But decision fatigue impacts everyone. Think about how many decisions you make every day. What to wear, what to eat for breakfast, how you want your coffee, whether to stop for gas, how to greet your coworkers, which task to start first, what language to use in an email... The list goes on.
​

I have been blogging in this little corner of the internet for going on a decade, and this blog has never had a real name. But I have finally chosen one: Pen Your Own Pages.
​

I love National Novel Writing Month. I believe it teaches important lessons for beginning writers—and provides a reminder for more experienced writers. Putting pen to paper (literally or figuratively) is the most important things. Tough days come and go, but keeping up your writing momentum is crucial.
​

—Madeleine L'Engle

​If you've been hanging around here for a while, you may have heard of (or joined) The Community of Readers & Writers. I created the Community sort of on a whim, without any real plan of what I wanted it to be. I just knew that I wanted to create some sort of place for writers to connect.

Well, I've been thinking a lot lately about what the Community really means to me, and I have some ideas. The first step is a new name.
​

​This is that post. The how I got my agent post.

This is exciting to write, but also a little daunting—which I suppose is why I'm writing it about a year after I signed with my agent.

During the years I spent querying, these types of posts were so helpful and encouraging. She got an agent! I will too.

So here we go. I'm going to lay out the whole sordid tale, from start to finish. And it starts in a very scary place, my friends . . . high school.​
​

Time management is crucial to productivity. After all, we reveal our priorities by how we spend our time. But sometimes it feels like there's just not enough time to go around. How often have you heard or said, "I wish there were more hours in the day"?

The traditional way to view time management is to start with the allotted 24 hours and break it into sections. Let's say we devote 8 hours to sleeping. That means we have 16 left. How much do you devote to work or to spending time with loved ones? Do you "waste" any on trivial, nonproductive things, like watching television? With this model, we treat time almost like currency, and we devalue any time not spent "productively."

But is that the best way to approach time management? Or life management? I don't think so.