For most of us, it’s work and family, isn’t it? Sometimes, it’s a major project, or an illness. It can be care of children or other loved ones. Maybe it’s school. Each one of those has played a big role in my life and now – what can I say? I’m stuck with Dumb and Dumber here on the right. Oops – I meant to say Nick and Ranger. These are my babies now. Plus, Bob – our one surviving cat, who seems to be getting older by the minute. He’ll be fourteen years old in June.

For years, I concentrated on my kids - doing everything I could to maximize their grade school and high school experiences, attending concerts and sports events. Parent-teacher conferences. Awards ceremonies. Private talks [ahem] with the principal…  (Hard to believe, I know – with those angelic little people you see at the left).  They’re older now, finished with college, and going about their own next phase as young adults - graduate school, work, whatever, and thankfully, all three live close, so we see them often. The older two are in serious relationships, and we hope one day they’ll marry and have kids and settle down nearby. Looking at that picture, it’s hard to believe they were ever that little. The youngest on the far left is about a year old there, and the other two are aged 5 and 3. Yikes – time flies!

I managed to work my career around the raising of my kids. When they were really small, I was a nurse on the second shift in ICU. I left for the hospital in the late afternoon, which meant we had a sitter only for a few hours until my husband got home. Then he’d handle dinner and homework and get everyone to bed. When I started my writing career, my office was at home, and I was always around (I don’t think the kids appreciated that quite as much when they were in middle and high school ).

A few years ago, my mom became ill. Turns out it was a terminal disease, and she declined very quickly. It was an incredibly fast six weeks from her diagnosis (when she was up and around, driving herself, shopping, cooking, reading, gardening)  to the day she passed away. My siblings and I kept her at home – her home - and took care of her there, 24/7. Of course we didn’t know how quickly the time would pass, but we all managed to put our lives on hold so that at least one of us could be with her. You do what you have to do, right?

I had just switched to Avon around the time my mom got sick, and my first book with Avon (my 11th overall) came out a few months later. Since then, I’ve written nine books for Avon — the most recent shown here. (You can read an excerpt from this book if you visit Margo’s books page and scroll down).  Mom would have been really pleased. Not that she was such a huge romance reader. She was an English teacher who enjoyed all kinds of books, and she was hugely proud of my second career.

Tell me what rules your life these days. Is it positive or negative? Do you feel like you have control over it?