Our first profile this month features Leah Stewart, author of Body of a Girl and The Myth of You & Me. Leah is a wonderful author who celebrated the release of her second book this past April. She is a great example of what being a mom author is all about, even if she doesn’t see it that way.

MWLM: How do you juggle being a mom and a published author?

LS: Well, a lot of days it feels like I don't. My husband's home in the morning, so I try to get errands, correspondence, and other tasks done then, and then work during her naptime when the house is totally quiet. My routine, pre-baby, was to write 500 words a day, so I try to achieve that. When I know what I'm going to write that day, it's no problem, but when I don't, I'm often just getting warmed up when I hear my daughter stirring in her room. Next year I'll be the visiting writer at Murray State University in Kentucky, and my husband won't be working, so the idea is that we'll both have a great deal more time to write. I'm looking forward to this to such a degree that Murray, Kentucky, is sounding like paradise on earth.

MWLM: Do you have a specific writing style? Are you very structured or do you just let the story take on a life of its own?

LS: My approach is somewhere between structured and inspiration-driven. I start with a character — because I like to write in the first person, a voice — and some idea of the larger issues at stake in the story. Then I get substantially into the book and have to stop and spend a frustrating period trying to figure out where the story's going and how best to shape it, and at that point I make outlines of what I have and what else I need, and then the approach is more structured and deliberate. This is more or less the way I wrote my first two books, and as it didn't seem terribly efficient, I tried to begin my third by writing an outline. But ultimately I abandoned it, because having already thought through all the scenes I found it boring to actually write them.

MWLM: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

LS: I knew I wanted to be a writer pretty early, definitely by high school. But I hesitated to tell people I was a writer until I'd published a book, because I dreaded that, "Oh, and what have you published?" question that always follows.

MWLM: Do you believe in writer’s block? And if so, how do you overcome it?

LS: No. Sometimes I haven't yet found the best way to approach a scene, or a character, even if I think I have, and until everything clicks into place in my head it'll be slow-going getting words onto the page. So it's less like being blocked, more like being at an intersection and having no idea which way to turn. When this happens, I read, I go for walks, I talk through the problem with my husband, I think about it as I'm drifting off to sleep – all things that get the gears turning in the subconscious.

MWLM: Who has most influenced your writing? Why?

LS: This is a tough one. I have teachers who've been immensely helpful, and authors whose books I love, but probably I'd have to say my husband, who has for years been my best and toughest critic, and whose voice I now hear in my head when I know I'm trying to get away with something.

MWLM: What is one piece of advice you would give to a mom writer?

LS: Don't feel guilty about the time and mental energy you give to writing. I know I'm a much better mother to my daughter when I've had time to work. 

MWLM: If you were stranded on an island and could only bring three books with you, which books would you choose and why?

LS: Pride and Prejudice, because I never get tired of Austen's incisive dialogue and characterization, or the passionate, reluctant love of Mr. Darcy. And because Elizabeth Bennett is such an enjoyable person to spend a few hours with: direct, smart, funny, and confident.

Eva Moves the Furniture, by Margot Livesey, because it reminds me that we continue to have connections with people we can no longer see or touch.

Jesus' Son, by Dennis Johnson, because it's hilarious, sad, and transporting all at once. And it has some of the best sentences I've ever read.

Alana Morales, has a degree in Psychology and is a certified teacher.  She taught high school English for six years before staying home with her two children and becoming a freelance writer. Her syndicated column Family Business, which is about being a WAHM, appears on over 13 online sites as well as her local newspaper. Her first book, Domestically Challenged, is due out in 2006 with Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc. You can read more of Alana’s work and get information about her book at AlanaMorales.com.