So I'm sitting here on my couch taking a legitimate sick day. What's wrong, you ask? I'm battling the dread pink-eye. Yes, I have a childhood communicable disease. And it's miserable. My poor eyes are red, sticky, itchy, and gimpy. I'm not allowed human contact for 24 hours.

Since I'm a teacher, I took a sick day so I don't spread this plague to my bright-eyed students, who would just absolutely hate to catch something that would force them to miss a day or two of school. Sick days as a kid were a miraculous suspension of time, and it's no different as an adult. A sick day is a respite from busyness - I'm not allowed to do anything but rest and take care of myself and ingest liquids and put drops that sting onto my eyeballs every few hours. The downside - I have to miss a couple of dress rehearsals for my play (which is this weekend), but in the theater, things always seem to come together anyway.

Right before a very curt, older doctor diagnosed my disease yesterday, I received a fraud alert from my bank. Apparently, my card number had been used to spend $650 at Shaman Market, as well as donate a bunch of money to some e-fawateer.com and other strange-sounding businesses. So as goop invaded my eyes, some random loser invaded my bank account. Even though it wasn't a huge amount comparative to what it could've been, it got me thinking about how easily once can be invaded and how little control we have over it all.

There is so little in life we can predict or avoid. Sure, I can reset my passwords and put the antibiotics in my eyes, but really, will any of that really guarantee anything? Only that I may not have itchy eyes for a few days and that my account is safe until it gets skimmed again. I don't know where I picked up the eye cooties, or where it was that my card was compromised.

Lack of busyness on a sick day also allows the mind to wander. I think I make myself busy so I don't think about all the things that can go wrong - I like to believe that I have control over my life. Then conjunctivitis and bank fraud thrust their way into my life. Of course, that sent me down memory lane and all the things I had no idea could happen. My dad leaving, my mother dying, all the trips to emergency rooms over the years when my kids did crazy things like eating Christmas tree lights and breaking their bones.

But there are also wonderful things in my life, also out of my control. Like meeting my BFF in the third grade, having my children turn out to be wonderful, kind, adorable people, falling in love again when I least expected it, and often meeting the right people at the right time who support me in my crazy writing endeavors.

So I guess what I'm learning on my fevered sick day (did I mention I just a few moments ago threw up and started getting chills in addition to my eye ailment?), is that communicable diseases and other horrors are awful in the way that other intrusions into daily life are wonderful. I don't want to know what's coming next. It could be dangerous.

 I belong to a most fantastic theater group called The Players, both as a member and as a member of the board of governors (which sounds way more fancy than it is). When I tell people this, they assume it involves key parties or something along those lines, but it's really about getting together and putting on literal plays in an historic Indianapolis theater, dressing up in black tie attire, dining at a country club, and dancing to the stylings of local easy-listening bands. The bands almost always feature a woman who thinks she can successfully cover "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. PSA: Unless you ARE Adele, you have no business singing that song.

But I digress. I'm in the throes of my second play this year. The first was a very funny rendition of "The Newlywed Game," in which I played a gal named Megan who was a little controlling and into S&M. I got to wear a black wig, leather (okay, pleather) leggings, and a chain around my neck (see pic above). In just a couple of weeks, I'm performing in the "It's a Wonderful Life" radio show. I do the voices of young Harry Bailey and Tilly the secretary (who has a great Boston accent) as well as sing the radio theme. It's not Christmas, but this story is good all the year long. Bonus - I get to wear 1940s garb. I've always been convinced I would've been most happy living in that era.

I adore being onstage. It's so fabulous pretending to be someone else for a few hours, and, to be honest, I thrive a bit on attention. Okay, maybe more than a bit. I draw my energy from an audience, which explains why I love teaching literature. It's like a permanent acting job with a salary, benefits, and a captive audience.

But the best part of this little club is the people. Theater people are my tribe. They're creative, weird, a little off, slightly inappropriate, and the funniest people on the planet. They push me to be the best I'm capable of, and are brutally honest and quick to point out shortcomings (but in a good way). In the end, there is something magical about working so hard to create something that other people want to see; to draw them into another world and make it believable. There's magic in the applause and magic in the bonding of the cast. The acrid, dry smell of an old theater is nearly as perfect as that of an old book. And theater people provide endless entertainment and material for anyone writing a book... (subliminal plug - Book 2 of the Cate series is nearly finished and due to publish in May/June).

I love being a Player. And I'd encourage you all to be Players too, wherever you are.

Yes, I am a dance mom to the most lovely girl over there to your left. As I write, I'm sitting patiently in a squishy hotel lobby chair (the very swanky Indianapolis Hyatt, which boasts a spinning restaurant on the roof) whiling away the hours upon hours I wait for the 15 minutes or so (over 4 performances) my precious daughter takes the stage with her dance troupe. It's worth it to see the absolute joy on her face as she contorts her flexible body in ways that would send me straight to the hospital for a Demerol drip.

I am unlike the other dance moms. Once again, I find myself an outside observer. I assure you that most dance moms are not like the ones on the show, though there are one or two who make my skin crawl. But I don't feel like I belong here somehow. Some of these moms MAKE THEIR DAUGHTER'S COSTUMES. They have rhinestone Bedazzling parties during hours when I am at work. They showed up at 7am looking ready to go to a cocktail party; I looked exhausted and haggard, and slunk back to the room to go back to bed as soon as the daughter was all set with her number and off to classes in preparation for the afternoon extravaganza. Right now, the other moms are flitting around, probably making custom goodie bags for the girls, and I am sitting here feeling inferior and trying to look VERY BUSY on my computer before someone hands me a hot glue gun and tells me to make hairpieces. I am missing the craft gene, and would end up burning holes in my typing fingers if I went anywhere near a hot glue gun.

But this is about my daughter (WARNING: BRAGGING TO ENSUE). My amazing, smart, talented daughter who I look at and cannot believe she is mine. This girl somehow maintains a 4.3 GPA, takes all AP and honors courses in high school, and dances 15 hours a week or more to hone her life's passion. She also taught herself to play the ukulele in one day, and has mapped out the rest of her high school career so she can gain entrance into MIT's quantum physics program. She makes my head spin. But it's her dance that makes me verklempt. Her grace, beauty, strength, and passion inspire me to be a better mother and teacher and person. She also made me a dance mom, and provides me with the chance to be part of the dance community, even though I am a terrible dancer with clodhopper feet and a hobbit body. Her enthusiasm as she cheers on her friends is contagious. She's genuinely happy when they win. Seeing her confidence as she dons a costume and puts on more makeup than a pirate hooker is just so cool (and the makeup looks surprisingly natural from the audience). Dance is the best thing in her life, and I never want to stop being a dance mom.

Since I am just so awed by my baby girl, I'm going to treat you to some very artsy pictures of her, taken by an equally talented photographer who is just 15 years old. And then I have to scurry, because I see a Bedazzler in my peripheral visions and fear I'll be asked to touch it...

Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you as a person?
I’m a mother first and everything else second. I’ve been married to the love of my life for the last eight years and we have a rambunctious two-year-old who definitely keeps me on my toes. I work retail, which means I know how to smile on the outside while cursing you under my breath at the same time.
 
 
How did you know you wanted to be a writer?
It may sound cliché, but I just knew. When I was younger, I either had my nose stuck in a book or was scribbling a story idea on a piece of paper. For a while, I toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor, but didn’t think that I was smart enough, so I ended up majoring in English in college and the rest is history.
 
What is your favorite of all the things you’ve written?
Hmmm. That’s a good question. I’d have to say that the second novel that I attempted, a YA mystery novel has to probably be my favorite one so far.  All I’m going to say is it’s Pretty Little Liars meets the Seven Deadly Sins. If that intrigues you, Catching You by Katie Gallagher releases this February!
 
What are you working on right now?
I’ve gone totally out of my comfort zone and decided to try and write a science fiction novel. In it my main character gets married to one guy, but the next morning she wakes up with a totally different life and has to figure out which life she really wants. 
 
What is your best memory from your childhood?
Since we just got off the holiday season, I would have to say Christmas. My dad used to make me read T’was the Night Before Christmas every year while he videotaped it. He’d also let me and my older brother open one present on Christmas Eve and then we’d put out cookies and milk for Santa Claus and carrots for the reindeer.
 
Tell us about a book you’d recommend. Why do you love it?
Any book by Melissa Foster. If you like hot romances, then her series’s are for you. You can start anywhere, but if you don’t want to be confused, I would suggest starting with Sisters in Love.
 
How did you end up writing for Rebel Ink Press?
My former publisher got bought out and the new publisher didn’t take the novel that I’d just finished, so a writer friend, Anna Kristell,  suggested that I submit it to Rebel and they liked it and I’ve now got the first two novels of my Forever series published with them, with another novel coming out next month.
 
Describe a perfect writing day.
I have a two year old, so my “perfect” writing days ended b.k. (before kiddo), but essentially if I am able to sit at the kitchen table with the laptop for an hour maybe two, if I let her take a long nap, I feel like I accomplished something. I can’t open Facebook  or I get easily distracted chatting instead of writing.  Or being able to write in my notebook while she watches cartoons.
 
Describe a terrible writing day.
Getting zilch written at all.
           
 
Do you ever make public appearances? Where can we meet you in person?
Unfortunately, since my books are mainly e-books, with the promise of a paperback set in the future, I don’t do appearances, but you can get a signed copy of my novel using Authorgraph if you want.
 
Where can we find your titles?
 You can find my books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble under the pen name Katie Gallagher. Click on the book cover pics below for direct links!

 

Today, I spoke to a dear friend of mine. I met her about 16 years ago (YIKES) when we were both teachers at a most wonderful little elementary school in the bucolic hamlet of Groveland, MA. She taught special education; I was a reading specialist. Our paths luckily converged, and today we are two hot moms in the primes of our lives and careers. Well, she is hot. I am mostly just a funny sidekick.

Through the years, we kept in touch and our daughters were fast friends. Since she grew up in Massachusetts, she gave me the inside scoop on where all the good beaches are. She is also perpetually of good cheer, hope, and encouragement. Her book turned into a business, Mom's Lifesavers, which launched a career that didn't even exist 16 years ago - something none of us could have foreseen - as a social media genius. And I just published the book that she encouraged and nagged me to write for years (insert shameless plug - click HERE to buy my fabulous novel). I have since moved to Indiana, but still remember my Massachusetts days with much fondness, in large part because of her.

At one point in our conversation today, we laughed at our twenty-something selves and how seriously we took everything. We also were foolish enough to make plans and (HA!) expect that those plans would actually happen. Our daughters were born about 6 months apart. She went on to quickly have another daughter, and I waited three years before birthing twin boys. There is nothing that will knock you off track more than a passel of kids! All of a sudden, I found myself talking about sippy cups and strollers and diaper bags with my friends. These things were SO IMPORTANT. Then, I blinked, and realized my oldest will be able to drive a CAR in a little over a year, and I realize that sippy cups and strollers and diaper bags don't matter so much, because soon my baby will be able to DRIVE A CAR.

We chatted some about how life is so unpredictable, and how pleased we are to be able to embrace it. I don't know that either of us would've had the nerve to put ourselves out there back lo those many years ago. But there is a reason we met, and a reason why people enter our lives at different points. Who knows what things would be like if we had never met? If she hadn't made me feel confident, funny, competent, and smart every time I saw her? If we didn't make the effort to keep in touch?

I would love to go back to my twenty-something self and tell her not to take herself so seriously. That her life, while bumpy sometimes, will be pretty decent when she's forty-five. But then I realize that not only would twenty-something-year-old me never believe that I could ever be forty-five, but she'd also write it off as an old person trying to tell her stuff that she knows better about. Right now, I am just content to be where I am in life - a wife, mother, teacher, writer, and actor (yes, I am very dramatic, in case you didn't notice). I am relaxed and ready for the next ebbs and flows that come my way, and hopeful that I'm finally on the cusp of superstardom. Never stop dreaming...

Welcome to  Fab Writer Friday!! Please contact me at courtney@courtneycorcoran.com if you're a published author wishing to pop up here! I'm hoping to feature a writer a week so we can get to know each other.

The debut author is Donna Steele, a fab fellow Rebel Ink writer!
 
Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you as a person?
Yeah, ask something easy. I was a secretary for 50 years – went to work in the family business when I was 12 so I'm organized and efficient (read that lazy) and arrange things so I can get 'er done with the least physical effort. Part of that stems from the fact I was born with EB (a genetic skin disorder where any friction takes my skin off – like gripping the mop to clean the floor) – which I think made me more introverted and made the people in my imagination more fun than 'real' people. That's why I like to hang out with them more.
 
How did you know you wanted to be a writer?
When I started I didn't even know to label it. I've written stories since I was a little kid – finished my first novel at 16, just never stopped writing. Finally got the courage to share what I'd written. I'd been married to Hubby over 20 years before I let him read the first word.
 
What is your favorite of all the things you’ve written?
Like picking my favorite child… I really like “Dance Partner.” It's short but it hit the right notes with me and I liked the way I felt when it was finished. That said, creating the worlds I have in my science fiction books thrills me.
 
What are you working on right now?
Well, I write sci-fi paranormal and small town romance. Now I'm combined the two in a story I'm calling Before You – a woman gets stranded in a small town while on vacation and finds out a lot about the past of the town and herself.
 
What is your best memory from your childhood?
Christmas mornings with the family – Daddy had these big lights you used for 8 mm films and that added magic to going into the living room. He used those just for the ambiance long after he quit using the camera – LOL!
 
Tell us about a book you’d recommend. Why do you love it?
I really enjoyed Cyn Hadyn's Candles on the Beach – it's historical but not the England history everyone's come to expect – Japanese/Brazilian captain with New England young woman. I like that kind of surprise.
 
How did you end up writing for Rebel Ink Press?
Sheer unadulterated luck! I searched for small print editors and saw the genres they were accepting. I sent the manuscript in for Rth Rising and E liked it!! The best part is she accepted it before the rejections from other places arrived so I really did sell my first book on the "first" try! Met Cherry Adair the next day at a conference and she jumped up and down as excited as I was – I'll never forget that.
 
Describe a perfect writing day.
Home alone, total silence in my office with whatever friend I'm writing that day – Hubby gave me a great office chair that swivels and has a footstool – I love it!
 
Describe a terrible writing day.
I start getting group texts from my friends – each person answering and sending to everyone. I can't not check because it might be important but the distractions drive me batty. It's hard to get back into a scene then be interrupted again five minutes later.
 
Do you ever make public appearances? Where can we meet you in person?
Haven't yet. With eBooks it's harder to have a "signing" but I think I'd like to someday – that introvert thing immediately comes into play.
 
Where can we find your titles?
I'm at Amazon and Barnes & Nobles, AllRomance, and Dance Partner is also an iBook!