Guest Blog - Lauren Carr

Please help me welcome mystery author, Lauren Carr to the blog today. 

Having a Life: The Wonderful Problem

The last few days, my husband has been mentioning an acquaintance who is having a hard time right now. Barely out of his teens, this young man has just graduated from college, has no job, no friends, no girlfriend, no wife, no kids, and lives in his mother’s basement.

He has no life.

A few years ago, I attended a book signing for John Lamb, author of the Bear Collector Mysteries   He is a  retired police officer who collects teddy bears, and his life mirrors that of his protagonist Brad Lyon, also a retired police officer who collects teddy bears. Yes, John Lamb’s life is a cozy mystery! During our conversation I learned that Mr. Lamb is able to devote eight hours a day to his writing and churn out two of his bear mysteries a year.

Me: Between husband, son, two dogs, and at that time taking care of my elderly father-in-law who has since passed away, it was all I could do to squeeze in four hours a day for writing and get one book out a year.

“Oh, so you have a life,” John Lamb replied after hearing my tale of woe. Not that he doesn’t have a life, it was I who had one.

Back before I had a husband that couldn’t cook; son that feeds his homework to the dogs for breakfast; kitchen that can’t stay stocked; laundry that won’t stay clean; and soccer team that scored a goal yesterday for the other team-oh-my!; I would have given my left arm to not have a life and devote eight hours a day to my writing career. I’m left-handed.

Like George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, I yearned for what I didn’t have while not thanking God for the many blessings I did have. 

What has happened to make me appreciate the obstacles in my life that keep me from writing eight hours a day and churning out two books a year and having that glamorous writing career I always dreamed of having? No, it didn’t happen all in one night in which an angel got his wings after showing me what life would have been like for those around me if I weren’t around to coach them in how to score goals for the other team. I guess it was the natural realization that comes with approaching middle-age.

 As I was approaching my fiftieth birthday, I had a moment in which I looked around me and saw those, like the young man my husband had noted, who had not been blessed with the family and friends I had. Then, like the beginning of It’s A Wonderful Life where the audience saw significant moments in George Bailey’s life, I recalled a night a lifetime ago in mine.

It was one of those nights that many young women have. 

My heart broken by who I had thought was the love of my life, with all my friends married or engaged and starting families, I spent one night praying to God for a husband and family. At that moment, my greatest fear was not that I wouldn’t have a career as an author, but that I would end up alone without people in my life who cared about me. 

My greatest fear was not having a life.

Yes, God does answer prayers.

So now, as I sit here typing this as fast as my fingers can fly across the keyboard because my son is burning down the kitchen while cooking breakfast because he can’t wait one minute longer for me to come cook it; and the dogs are wrestling at my feet threatening to knock the computer out of my lap while I try to finish this because I missed my deadline because I had to do the laundry because my husband insists the whole world will know if he wears the same pair underwear two days in a row, I have to say –

It’s a Wonderful Life!

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Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother used to read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. She wrote A Small Case of Murder after giving up her writing career to stay at home with her now twelve-year-old son. Her first book, A Small Case of Murder, was named finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Old Loves Die Hard is the second installment of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, which take place on Deep Creek Lake. She lives on a mountaintop in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, with her husband and son.

Financial Crisis

The financial news is dismal right now, and it doesn't look like it is going to improve any time soon. Friday's Dow saw a dramatic drop of 660 points, and the European and Asian markets also took a nosedive in early trading.

Banks around the world are in trouble, and Britain is threatening legal action against Icelandic banks to insure that British subjects can get their deposits back. This after Iceland nationalized their banking system in an attempt to keep the banks afloat.

When I read that item on CNN News, I couldn't help but think of George Bailey and the Bailey Saving's and Loan from the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Despite George's plea that people not panic and draw their money out, there was a run on the Savings and Loan during the Great Depression. Luckily George had enough cash on hand to pay a percentage of everyone's deposit, so people got some of their money, and the Savings and Loan survived.

Today, another George is asking people not to panic. President Bush spoke at a news conference this morning and appealed to the American people to stay calm. He said fear and anxiety only make the financial crisis worse. "Here's what the American people need to know: The U.S. government is acting, and we will continue to act, to resolve this crisis and return stability to our markets," he said.

Our natural instinct to protect our interests and take care of ourselves, but this is a time when we all need to think about the long term. If we all panic and take our money out of banks and other financial institutions, there will be a depression. That's a given. That's what started the avalanche that became the Great Depression, and that's what can bury us now.

So I am asking everyone to take a deep breath and ride this one out.

I'm also asking if we can just have a week off with no trading, no futures speculation, and no lending. It seems to me that with everything in such a state of flux, taking a break just might help settle some things down.

Just a thought.