Hi, I’m C.M. Lievens, author of A Good Enough Reason.
I’m lucky. I don’t have an evil day job. Writing is my main job, along with promoting, blogging, editing, and everything else you can think of that’s related to writing. I love it, but I won’t deny some aspects of writing full-time are hard.
I have a pretty rigid timetable I follow every week day. I write from 10 a.m. to noon, have lunch, then write or edit from 1 to 4 p.m. That’s a lot of time to dedicate to all thing writerly, but it doesn’t mean I actually get a lot of things done, because it’s so easy to get distracted.
What do I get distracted by? For one, my son hasn’t gone to school since we moved in January. We moved to a more populated area, and I wasn’t able to find him a free spot in pre-school. He’s only four, and he’s THE big distraction, because either he’s in my office every ten minutes or so asking for something, or he’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Just today, he gnawed on his pajama pants and managed to make a whole on both knees. He’d decided he was a rabbit.
Then there’s the second huge distractions, and I know I’m not the only writer to deal with it: cats. I have three. One hates me, so he’s not a problem, but the other two are as needy as my son is, so I’m usually trying to write around a butt parked on my notebook and a head placed right in front of my screen, and that’s when no one is walking all over my keyboard.
Those are the physical distraction, but there’s also the shiny on my computer—Facebook. Once you start scrolling, you can’t stop, and of course as soon as you do stop and start writing, someone tags you, or PMs you, and you just HAVE to answer right away.
If it’s not Facebook, it’s fanfiction. I’m guilty or reading short fics in between writing two paragraphs. At least they’re short.
But I found a way to get around being distracted by the shiny Internet. I sprint with three other authors. There’s a set time, forty-five minutes, and I usually try to write at least 1000 words over that time. Competition, even a friendly one, does miracles for my word count.
“Mom? Anyone? I’m home.”
Ellis groaned at the sound of Connor’s voice. “Living room!” he answered. He looked up from his book as Connor came in.
“Hey.”
“Really, Connor? Really?”
“What?”
“Oh, come on. You and Damien moved out, yet you’re here more often than when you lived here! Can’t I get just one little year of peace before I’m off to college?”
Connor smirked and flopped on the couch next to Ellis. He reached up and tried to ruffle Ellis’s hair, but Ellis dodged the offending hand. “Hey, don’t do that!”
“Why? It’s not like you have to seduce anyone.” Connor leaned against Ellis, pressing him into the back of the couch as he tried to touch his hair.
Ellis squirmed. “How do you know? I could have a date.”
Connor made a victorious noise and grabbed Ellis’s hair in his fist. Ellis froze, because the last time it had happened, Connor had left Ellis minus a few strands. He’d rather let his brother ruffle his hair. It would be less painful than to continue fighting.
“You have a date, huh?”
“I didn’t say that.” Ellis pushed away as soon as Connor released him. He made a show of straightening his clothes and his hair, even knowing the latter was probably a lost cause.
Connor poked Ellis in the ribs. “Come on, spill the beans. Who is she?”
“I told you, I don’t have a date. I was just joking around.”
“Well, it’s about time we find you a girlfriend. You’re almost eighteen, and I’ve never seen you with a girl.”
“What about Anna? She’s a girl.”
Connor waved Ellis’s words away. “She doesn’t count. She’s basically already married to Rick.”
“What is it with everyone trying to find me a bo—girlfriend?” Ellis bit his lower lip and prayed his brother hadn’t noticed his slip.
Connor did look at him as if he were trying to read him, but he didn’t ask, so Ellis relaxed.
“So, have you heard from Matt?”
“Yeah, he called the other day.” Matt had become a member of Ellis’s family over the years, pretty much a fourth brother. “What about you? Are you still with what’s her name?”
“Jess.”
“Oh, okay. Are you still with Jess, or have you moved on again?”
“You say that like it’s a habit or something.”
Ellis stared at his brother incredulously. “That’s because it is. You go through more girlfriends in a year than I go through books.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Okay, maybe not that many, but if you don’t have a different one for every month of the year, I’d be surprised.”
“I like Jess.”
“The surprising part is that she likes you.”
Connor mock punched Ellis in the shoulder. “Very funny.”
“You know me, I live to entertain.”
“I thought you lived to aggravate me.”
“That too.”
![GoodEnoughReason[A]FS](https://lovebytesreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GoodEnoughReasonAFS.jpg)
Author Name: C.M. Lievens
Book Title: A Good Enough Reason
Release Date: May 23, 2016
Length: 68441 words/220 pages
Categories: Contemporary, New Adult
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover artist: Bree Archer
Blurb:
High school seniors Ellis and Dale are as different as day and night, or so Ellis believes. Ellis loves to write, while Dale loves soccer. Ellis has only a handful of friends, and Dale is Mr. Popularity. But when they’re partnered up for an AP English project, Ellis learns different can be good. Really good.
Dale Stephens has it all: friends, a hot girlfriend, mad soccer skills—and a secret. He’s bisexual, but because he’s never been in love with a boy, it’s always been easier to keep that part of himself hidden. Until Ellis changes everything.
As their love grows, Dale realizes it’s Ellis he wants to be with—only he’s not ready for the world to know about them, especially after the way his mom reacts to the news.
But when they are outed by a bully who has made a career out of tormenting Ellis, Dale and Ellis must face down their fears and try to stay together. What will happen when the bully goes too far? Will Ellis come out of it unscathed?
Buy Links:
C.M. Lievens is a penname Catherine Lievens uses when she writes stories with little to no sex, and more specifically, Young Adult ones.
She lives in Italy with her husband, three cats, and her son, who luckily isn’t going to be a young adult for many years to come, because Catherine is not prepared for that just yet. She loves to write about different people and situations, hence the need for a penname.
When she’s not putting pen to paper to plot her next story, writing while avoiding her kid’s questions (he’s way too curious for his own good), or talking to her cats, she can be found hiding in the bathroom, because that’s the only place where she can read in peace.
E-mail: lievens.catherine@gmail.com
Blog: https://cmlievens.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.lievens.9
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/CM-Lievens-1659898224299254/