Happy New Year!

January 7, 2019 by Z.A. Maxfield

It’s January 7th already!

It seems like I haven’t been out on the interwebs forever. Part of that is because my family has been home for two weeks, and part is because we not only have holidays here, we have three birthdays right after Christmas. Busy, busy!

But now that everyone’s back to work, I have breathing room to think about what’s going on in my life.

I hate making New Year’s resolutions. I never keep them. I don’t expect that after the first of a new year I’ll suddenly become a gym-goer, or a radically clean homemaker. It’s way too much pressure.

What I can do is continue making the small changes I started a few years ago. Cook more healthy food. Tidy things on a schedule, move a little more each day than I really want to. Look forward, not back.

I’m not gonna lie–I lost ground at the end of the year with regard to some of my goals. I held on to healthy eating by my toenails, and my 80-20 rule (eighty% of what I eat is supposed to be nutritious) got flipped around to maybe 20% nutritious and 80% Lord Have Mercy. And that’s on a good day. I really do need to get more exercise. I have yet to put away the holiday decorations. But I don’t see any of that as a drastic change. It’s all more of a course correction.

I don’t see my life in terms of what I’m not doing right. I’m all about enjoying the people and things I love. My life is about loving a journey that isn’t always going to go in a straight line.

Every day, I learn new things. Thanks to a Christmas gift from my family, I’ve become a proficient sous vide chef, so we’ve been enjoying a LOT of perfectly cooked fish. I have an Insta-pot, so we can make healthy meals in a flash. I have a local gym membership, and I might decide to actually go. Or I might lie in bed for a whole day reading, and I’ll feel good about that too.

What I believe is every day is a wonderful opportunity for a fresh start. Every day can be the beginning of a brand new journey. All it takes is one step.

Where do you want to go today?

Generosity of Spirit – My List

June 5, 2018 by Z.A. Maxfield

Generosity of Spirit has been the rule, not the exception in the author community as I’ve experienced it. I have been privileged to see my name on lists of authors who have helped with other authors’ careers, and I want to make my own list, here.

At first, I was tempted to put our willingness to help one another down to the obvious–writers cannot stop talking about writing or they’d have to do it.

But that’s not all this is about, is it? Because I have a theory that every real writer starts out as a reader. And for them, books aren’t simply commodities that can be packaged and marketed like the latest celebrity perfume, using a hint of this. A touch of that. People like this color this year so why not use that on the box?

Every reader/writer wants books to be good.

Most important, every real writer wants to do the impossible: Write the book no one has ever written before, so brilliantly that it breaks all sales records, without being a commercial success, because ew. Amiright?

When writers talk ideas are born.

There’s no reason your ghost written-in-a-week novel, dressed up with a fabulous cover, stuffed with fifty backlist titles, can’t be good. But the statistical chances of it being as good as a novel by a proven author are unlikely.

Marketing those books, buying ads, generating sales is hard work. So is day trading, or running a Ponzi scheme. So is grinding Texas hold ’em in Vegas, don’t ever let anyone tell you the life of a professional gambler is easy. But buying a book someone wrote and putting your name (or a fake name that pays into your PayPal account) on it, has to be the ultimate delusion.

Books enlighten us, inform us, and direct our future actions. They create empathy for our fellow travelers on this planet, even if those people are not like us. They are own-voice stories, and fiction, and fantasy. They speak of faith, and ethics–of the possible dangers of rigorously applied morality or cutting edge science, because writers can make hard concepts easy to understand. They invite discourse. They challenge perception.

Like cameras, they kill fascists.

And in my experience, writers have preferred lifting their fellows quietly, relentlessly, and lovingly rather than attempt to gouge or steal or bully or set attack dogs on their colleagues.

Twenty people without whom I would not have a career*, are:

***I knew I’d forget important people. Edited to add the amazing Heidi C. and Marie S. who came into my life with Coffee and Porn (figuratively speaking.)

Terry Black
K.A. Mitchell
Josh Lanyon
LB Gregg
James Buchanan
Louisa Edwards
Samantha Kane
Deidre Knight
Treva Harte
Laura Baumbach
Kris Jacen
Belinda McBride
Lynn Lorenz
Heidi Cullinan
Marie Sexton
Damon Suede
Caitlyn Willows
Christopher Koehler
Amy Lane
Rhys Ford
Louella Nelson
Debra Holland

*Many more are not listed here as I gave myself a not so hard limit of ten… headdesk.

And the winners are…

March 16, 2018 by Z.A. Maxfield

Winners of the “Ides of March” Drawing!

Congrats to Pam, Annie, and Mary, to whom I just sent copies of Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up.”

It has become my passion to create a clutter-free organized, and dare I say it? Pleasant environment. I want to love where I work and cook and sleep.

We’re nowhere near that ideal yet, and, I doubt it will last, but in the meantime…

WIN THE DAY!

My Mendacious Biography…

March 11, 2018 by Z.A. Maxfield

My bio is no longer true.

I did NOT give up housekeeping entirely to begin my writing career. It turns out–I only put it off.

My entire plan was: Once I become a bestselling author, I will have someone else clean my house.

And yay, right? I’ve sold some books. But it turns out that kids need dentistry and shoes and eventually college and I still don’t have a housekeeper.

Therefore I have been undertaking The Great Clean since the middle of last year. And no, I am not done. But I will tell you that I have decluttered the garage, the office, the kitchen, the laundry room, and my bedroom. The boys did theirs too, and I’m quite proud of them. They each have a system. We’re still a hot mess, but getting there.

I have been cleaning by location, which–DOESN’T WORK for a lot of reasons. Mostly because I have this terrible tendency to think, well, I’ll put that there, FOR NOW.

Yeah. So, then I got the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo, and drumroll please…

It changed my life.

Because it’s not about finding places for all the stuff you have; it’s about deciding what sparks joy and letting the rest go. It’s about knowing what’s going to be in a drawer before you open it, knowing the exact whereabouts of the thing you need and finding it and using it and thanking it and putting it back–which is so smugly woo-woo I think I threw up in my mouth a little just saying it, and yet…

Le sigh. Sometimes smugly woo-woo things work, even if you despise their very idea.

My gift to you? I will be giving away 3 copies of this book on the Ides of March. (That’s Thursday, March 15, 2018)

Just fill out the form below, and I will receive an email to let me know you want to enter the contest. You must be able to receive the book electronically from Amazon, I guess, I should mention that. I tested it, and I made it work. No newsletter signups will be involved. I hope this works everywhere you see this blog post, but if not, I won’t be offended if you sign up a couple times to make sure. It will definitely work from my website.

I’m doing this because I want you to feel the way I feel when I see the room I’m sitting in now, clothes neatly hung in the closet, floors clean, everything in it sparking joy like a badass motherf*cking, joy-sparking…joy sparker. I must pause and enjoy…

Be well, and spring forward into the best year possible. I am cheering you on!

I haz sadness.

August 18, 2015 by Z.A. Maxfield

We’re spreading straw on the street outside Chez Maxfield because our beloved Pepper, the Lab who has been a part of our lives for nearly fourteen years, is not doing well.

(Euphemisms aren’t my strong suit.)

This is the first time I’ve ever experienced this outside of fiction, and I’m feeling a little blue about it. I think my family expects me to be the one to say, “It’s definitely time.” But as with people, these old-age problems seem to go in fits and starts. Just when we’ve had a very bad night and I think, “its definitely time,” she’ll perk up for a bit. Maybe she can read my mind.

I’m feeling the pressure of responsible stewardship.

We’ve always been super lucky to have Pepper with us. She’s a one-of-a-kind shelter find. Loving, loyal, and unafraid to be around my rambunctious offspring. She makes a TERRIBLE watch dog because she’ll welcome anyone into our house just for scratches. Team of men wearing balaclavas and carrying assault rifles? Come right in! What’s in your pockets? Anything nummy?

And for years, we’ve joked that Pepper isn’t very bright. But then we realized how really, really well she has us trained. Once Pepper emits the soft half-bark that lets us know it’s suppertime or that she needs someone with thumbs to open the back door, we get up, do whatever she wants, and wait to be told we can go back to our lives.

She singlehandedly (swinglepawedly?) abolished Daylight Savings Time by ignoring it for the last several years. She eats and pees at the appointed time, no matter what the clock says.

These days she stands at the bottom of the stairs and looks over her shoulder expectantly. No way does Pepper scale those stairs alone. What if there’s no one up there when she gets there? Lately, we’re all on board with walking up with her. Half the time we end up staying wherever she is, just to keep her company.

And it’s not the case that we’ve spoiled her, either. She really is the most convenient dog, as long as we maintain the status quo. Her needs have been very few. Mostly she enjoys finding a nice, comfortable spot from which to feel superior to us.

At least that’s what we think she’s doing. If she’s got anything else on her mind she hasn’t said.

I’m going to miss her. She’s a member of our family. My husband and kids are gutted about this.

This is one of those times being the mom isn’t the easiest job.

I’m inspired by…

December 10, 2014 by Z.A. Maxfield

My friend Jason will be biking in the AIDS/Lifecycle event in May, 2015 . That’s a 545-mile bike trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. As many of you may know, I have a history of supporting the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The work they do is crucial and caring and life affirming, and I’m so proud to be even a small part of it.

Jason also happens to be my Weight Watchers leader, a man who–having lost 160 pounds– has taken his life in a whole new healthy direction and is now helping others to do the same. He is truly an inspiration to me and everyone he meets.

He’s the man who got (almost) my entire family to walk four miles around Mile Square Park at 8:00 am on Thanksgiving Day… LOL. Miracle worker? Maybe.

Anyway, I’m supporting his goal of raising money for AIDS research with a modest donation, and I guess I just want to put it out there: If you’re feeling in a festive mood and want a great person and organization to support, in the spirit of the season, I’d like to introduce you to a man who inspires me every day:

You can read his own words HERE

Signal boost this if you feel so moved. I’d love it if we can make his goal of $5,000 a reality. It would be cooler still if we could blow the roof off it. We can do it if we all work together.