Shannon Hale, revisited

Shannon Hale has been in the Minneapolis area the last few days promoting her new book. Rachelle, a woman from our ward, knew her pre-publication, and invited her to a small gathering at her house. Our book group read Princess Academy in August, and so most of them came to meet her, get books signed, hear her talk, etc. As I mentioned before, the thing I have been most intrigued with her is her ability to have this career while simultaneously caring for a young son, with another baby arriving in a few months. She said last night that she is mostly a mom who writes during her son's naps. Others were interested in hearing about her work, her views on HS English classes, and other topics. I really wanted to hear more about her family-work balance. I wanted to know how she was able to turn out quite a bit of work since her son was born almost three years ago and how she views her future as a writer and mother of two children. But of course, I was nervous in a large group, and couldn't break in forcefully enough to ask my questions. Then I had to leave a bit early to come home for our dinner guests. Maybe I"ll email her and ask her to blog about it.

Anyway, after the kids were in bed, I surfed around her website and thought enviously about her. I mean, she has this career-she is driven to write and she manages to write, and write successfully, and she is able to spend most of her time with her kid(s). Yes, she has worked a long time for this and has received a large number of rejections, she is passionate about her work, I'm thrilled for her success. But, I just spent the later part of the evening feeling depressed. I felt that familiar tinge of regret. Why didn't I pursue a career that was more hospitable to a mother-profession combination? I haven't been looking for work really, and wonder how I can keep at least a little toe in the door.

The good news is that the first substantive chapter of my dissertation has been accepted for publication and I have been working on the final edits the last couple of weeks. I will submit that to them today or tomorrow. And then I will send out the other two chapters and see how the reviews come back for that. And while I was sitting working on that today, the idea came to me to contact my former advisor at BYU and see if I could come to Provo for summer term to teach a class or classes. I think it could work. I would come with the kids, hopefully AJ could work remotely a bit, and we could hang out there for a couple months during the summer. Utah is probably the best place to do soemthing like this, as there is family in the area and other supports to make it possible. We would probably also have gone to Utah anyway for a family reunion, so it makes it all the more possible. I got emails back from her. My advisor is now the dept chair and she made it sound like a very possible option. So, we'll see where that goes. If I get to teach, I hope to make some connections with faculty there and perhaps get started on some other research projects. it might just be enough...Anyway, I am feeling more hopeful, but still wondering what is best.