Okay, full disclosure: I can’t really juggle, as in bowling pins, knives, or flaming torches. I barely have the visual-spatial and physical skills to catch one ball, let alone deal with three at once. I am, however, pretty good at juggling in a more metaphorical sense. I have to be.

For one thing, I juggle several responsibilities. There’s my family, of course. At 20 and 17, my daughters need less intervention than they used to, but I’m still called on on a daily basis to provide transportation, sustenance, work overseeing, and advice. Then there’s our fairly needy cat as well as my (considerably less needy but still an occasional responsibility) husband. I also have a demanding day job as professor. This semester that entails 150 students in three classes, committees, research, advising, administrative duties, etcetera ad infinitum. And on top of all of that I try to maintain a busy writing and publishing schedule.

Even if we ignore the rest of my life, I juggle as an author too. For one thing, I toss around various genres. My latest four projects have been, in order, a contemporary, horror, romcom, and paranormal. Even if I stuck to a single genre, however, I’d still be juggling because authors have to do many tasks at once. For example, I might be promoting my newest release while also in edits for the book after that, writing the book after that, and researching the book after that.

Now, I’m not complaining, mind you. A lot of this juggling is happening because of choices I’ve made, and I know how very fortunate I am to be in the position to have all these balls in the air. I’m also aware that many of you are undoubtedly engaged in juggling acts that make mine look simple indeed.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not hard.

So here’s the question: How do we keep on doing our act without becoming exhausted and without dropping the balls?

I don’t know that I have a definitive answer to this, but I do know some things that help. One big one is to draw on sources of support: friends, family members, members of our professional communities. Ask them to help out when the balls are zooming around too quickly (and make sure and reciprocate when they’re in the same position). For example, my husband does most of our grocery shopping and dinner prep, and when life especially overwhelms me he takes on many of my regular chores as well.

Another strategy that helps me is to occasionally let things go. Basically I triage my responsibilities, and if that means temporarily not doing something, that’s okay. Of course, some responsibilities can’t be ignored (just ask my cat), but sometimes others can be delayed for a little while.

Despite my best efforts, every now and then I do drop one of those balls. Or several. Which brings me to my next point: I can pick those dropped balls back up again. Sure, there may have been a temporary embarrassment, those terrible moments when things went horribly wrong. So I start again. And I keep on practicing.

How about you? What are you juggling and how do you keep things going?

***

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

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