Today I have the privilege of sharing a wonderful article by author Carol Snow. Her most recent novel, What Came First, was released just this last week and I’m happy to say it’s fantastic! I’ll be posting my review soon as well as a giveaway, so make sure to check back. Until then, please enjoy the marvelous story about how Carol became a published author of seven books all while becoming a new mother!

I was four months pregnant with my second child when I came up with the idea for what would be my first novel – or, more specifically, the first novel I would finish. I still remember the feeling of excitement as I paced around my house, scenes from the book-to-be flashing through my head like a brightly lit movie as my unborn son shifted in my belly.

I did the math. I had four months, maybe a little more, before giving birth. (My first child had been early.) If I pushed (pun unintended, I swear), I could finish the book – or the first draft, at least, before a new baby took over my life. I could do it, if only I put my mind to it!

No I couldn’t. I was maybe a third of the way through the manuscript when I gave birth to my son, a wiggly baby who grew into a toddler with a fondness for dashing into the street, experimenting with scissors, and sticking his head in the toilet. (“I pretend I am at the ocean,” he explained.) I adored my children and was grateful for the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom, but there were days when I felt like my unused brain would rot and dribble out of my ears. I longed for the vast stretches of uninterrupted time that I assumed made a writing career easier for people without children.

By the time I completed the first draft of my first book, my son had not only been born, he was swimming. The final push (pun intended this time) did come, but not until he was in preschool and I had three whole hours a day to myself. That book, Been There, Done That, came out in 2006. Fast forward five years to now, and my seventh book has just been published. (Which is a ridiculous pace, I know; I should really spend more time away from my computer.) My new book, appropriately enough, is about motherhood.

What Came First tells the story of Laura, a successful lawyer and single mother who wants to have a second child – but first she must track down the anonymous sperm donor she used nine years earlier. Her search leads her to Wendy, a scrapbooking, cookie-bingeing housewife overwhelmed by her out-of-control twins, and Vanessa, a young woman who longs for the kind of family that her commitment-phobic boyfriend resists.

I came up with the idea for this book years ago – though my initial instinct was to have one of the three voices be the donor’s – but didn’t think I was the person to write it. What did I know about being a single mother? Or having a child through artificial insemination? Or dealing with infertility? Eventually, though, I came to realize that at its core my story was about motherhood and families: the compromises you make; the way nothing is as easy as you think it will be; the recognition that no one parent or family is perfect.

Now that my children are older, I’ve got big stretches of time to write while they are at school. Ironically, I think I was more productive – or at least more disciplined – when I was forced to focus in three-hours chunks. More than anything, though, I’ve come to appreciate the time I spend with them, which, in the end, means so much more than the words I produce.

By Carol Snow, author of What Came First, http://www.carolsnow.com

First comes love, then comes marriage, then . . . things can get a little complicated.

Vanessa wants just one thing for her twenty-ninth birthday: an engagement ring from her longtime boyfriend, Eric. But when the ring turns out to be a mix CD and Eric turns out to be a guy who doesn’t want to get married or have children, Vanessa considers a new path to having a family.

When Wendy and her husband, Darren, couldn’t have children the old- fashioned way, a sperm donor seemed like the perfect solution. She never imagined she’d have out-of-control twins who’d drive her to cookie binges and scrapbooking while Darren escaped into the virtual world of computer games.

Single and career-driven, Laura didn’t need a man to have a baby - at least not one that she ever met. Thanks to an anonymous donor, she shares her life with her adored eight-year-old son, Ian. She’ll do anything for Ian - even fill their backyard with a bunch of noisy chickens. But the one thing Ian really wants is something Laura’s never been able to give him: a sibling.

Now, to grant Ian’s wish, Laura starts a search that will not only change her life but Vanessa’s and Wendy’s as well…

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