Good morning, dear readers. Today I have special guest Zee Monodee talking about how to have it all. Bottom line: you have to want it bad enough. Zee is a great example of never giving up, never surrendering. A woman after my own heart. :)
Hello
everyone; my name is Zee Monodee. I am a wife, a mother, a stepmother, a
writer, an editor, a critique partner, and I also dabble as a cover artist.
Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with malignant breast cancer, a disease that
tried to make a comeback some two years ago. I turned twenty-nine this year,
and amidst all these roles and setbacks, I have studied eight years through
distance learning to earn my bachelors’ degree in communications science.
No,
I’m not superwoman; I’m not a heroine; I’m not “brave” or whatever else comes
to your mind when you hear the word “cancer.” I’m just a woman, just like you
women reading this – and I’m a human being with dreams and wishes and issues
and problems, just like everyone else.
In
the past seven years, since I started writing, I have completed eight
full-length manuscripts and two short stories. I’ve handled countless other
manuscripts as a freelance editor (and one-time when I worked as a senior
editor and assistant to the editor-in-chief at an epublishing house). Oh, and
did I mention I am also a voracious reader who devours some twenty-five to
thirty novels a month?
No,
too – there aren’t enough hours in a day; I make do with the same twenty-four
hours we all get. And yes, since my body took such a blow with cancer twice, I
need the sleep. Seven to eight hours a night, otherwise the residual fatigue
from the chemo drugs and the radiation treatments can leave me sluggish.
Why
am I telling you all this?
Because
everyone asks me how I can get all that done. My answer is - how can I not?
You
see, there is one little thing we all seem to forget about in this time and age
of instant gratification and non-existent patience – it’s called discipline!
Remember
when you were a kid, and when you wanted to play when it was time to head to
school, your mother would tell you that “there’s a time and a place for
everything”? Well, guess what – your adult life is not any different. You are
the one responsible for everything you do and don’t do...and discipline helps
you get there.
I’m
not speaking of a rod and cane type of discipline here. My point is – you owe
yourself this dedication, once you decide what you wish to be in your life.
When my first marriage crumbled, I vowed that if I ever got married again, I
wouldn’t let distance worm its way into my couple once more. When I met this
man who came with a three-year-old son in the bargain, I vowed I would not be
an evil stepmother who resents that kid for taking some of my man’s time. When
I found out I was pregnant, I vowed to be a good mother to this child, never
mind that I was certain I would be an imperfect mother at the best of times,
and a totally incompetent one at some points. When I started the distance
learning program to earn my degree, I vowed I would pass every one of these
thirty papers on the first try. When I started writing, I did it with the aim
of being published, of being more than a flash in the pan with one pubbed book
and endless unfinished manuscripts.
All
of what I highlighted above happened in the scope of three years. Yes, I
tripped, and fell, and bruised myself and got the scraped knees to prove all
that. I wasn’t a success immediately – it took a lot of trial and error to find
the “right” spot. I worked out schedules, rolled out routine after routine to
find some semblance of order in the chaos. But none of that worked...
especially not when I didn’t have the discipline to put myself into one of
those roles’ shoes and be what I vowed to be.
It
is so tempting to make excuses! Trust me – I know that temptation, and I fall
prey to it often. But I also know if I don’t do it (whatever “it” turns out to
be at that moment), no one will get it done for me. Nobody would study and pass
my exams for me; nobody would bring up my son and then hand him to me on a
platter and go, “here’s your boy all reared up”; no one would hand me a coupon
that says “happy marriage for 1 month” and tell me to cash it in on the first
day of every month; nobody would write the stories I desired to write, and that
my publishers were waiting for, if I didn’t write them myself.
So
I discipline myself. My day is spread out in such a way that I can dedicate a
piece of me to every role I have to play. There’s a time and a place for me to
be everything I have to be – when my son is at school and my husband at work, I
am the writer that writes. When my boy – and his brother – gets home from
school, I am the mum and stepmum they drive crazy with their too-loud
videogames and endless fights. When my husband gets home, I am still the mum but
that goes a little in the background, because I am then the woman that this man
desired to make his wife and with whom he’s wanted to spend the rest of his
life (poor soul... I know, I feel for him too...).
Without
this discipline, I know I would be at my computer all day – writing, surfing
the web, helping other writers with crits and beta-reading feedback, taking on
freelance editing jobs often to help my fellow editing crew and take a load off
their shoulders. Believe me – I came close to losing it all at one point. I was
working as the senior editor/assistant to the editor-in-chief/right-hand woman/
jack of all trades/*insert whatever job had to be done at the pub house
here*... and work was twenty-four hours, seven days a week of my existence. I didn’t
realize – until it was nearly too late – that discipline is what I owed myself,
and what I owed the people in my life.
You,
too, reading this, are a writer and a spouse/parent/friend/daughter or
son/employee. None of us is just one thing without being another. If this is
your reason for not going out to chase your dream, then stop hiding behind this
smokescreen – you can do it all... as long as you stay true to yourself!
Bio:
Zee
Monodee
Stories
about love, life, relationships... in a melting-pot of culture
Zee
is an author who grew up on a fence - on one side there was modernity and the
global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with
the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she'd stand tall on her
wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional
upbringing.
From
this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said
wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were
on their own fence.
This
particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her lifelong
dream of writing - her heroines all sit 'on a fence', whether cultural or
societal, in today's world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and
love.
Hailing
from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in
Communications Science. She is married, mum to a tween son, & stepmum to a
teenage lad.
Check
out Zee’s latest release in the Corpus
Brides romantic suspense/espionage series, out with Noble Romance
Publishing.
Before
The Morning
.
. . is a time of great darkness. . .
A
trained killer with borderline sociopathic tendencies:
Rayne
Cheltham traced out her life's path when she was twelve: she would marry her
best friend and bear his children, and in the process, stifle the restless edge
in her. When he vows never to marry, she gives in to the darkness and becomes a
clandestine agent—until the day he walks into her world again, and her
carefully fabricated façade crumbles.
A
former cop burned by life and his personal demons:
When
Ash Gilfoy meets a woman who reminds him of his childhood best friend, he
starts upon a path that leads him down into an abyss once again. The day Rayne
waltzes back into his life, he knows she is his second chance, and the one who
will save him.
Each
thinks the other is their redemption . . . until they discover how deep the
other's edge of darkness goes
No
one knows Rayne used to be a spy and an assassin, and no one knows why Ash left
the police force. The secrets between them make them sit on a keg of gunpowder
with a lit fuse in their hands. Neither knows what 'normal' means now,
especially Rayne, whose whole life is built on a lie. Truth is threatening to
explode in their faces, and that is not the only menace they have to face.
Someone is out to get Rayne, and she must disclose her past before it is too
late.
Can
Rayne and Ash survive all that's thrown in their path? Can they hang on to the
last thread of their relationship, and can they emerge, still together and
still alive, in the morning after the deepest darkness?
And
check out Zee’s other works:
WALKING
THE EDGE (Corpus Brides: Book 1): Currently FREE - A romantic suspense novel,
wherein an amnesiac woman is on the quest for her forgotten memory... Escape
from London all the way to Marseille, France, and discover the secrets, deceit,
danger, & the powerful love, she uncovers during her search! https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/304/Walking-the-Edge
CALLING
HOME (A Destiny's Child Book): A heart-warming romantic tale of a cold and
reserved forensic pathologist, the riotous tween that lands into her life, the
chaos of motherhood... and the prospect of love, with the handsome (and much
younger!) village doctor next door! https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/369/Calling-Home
Contact
Links:
Facebook
& Goodreads: Zee Monodee
Twitter:
@ZeeMonodee
