Guest Blogger Patty Froese

                  When I'm really happy about something, I tend to clean the bathroom. I'm not entirely sure why, but I've noticed that little habit of mine. For example, I got news that three novels were accepted within just a few days of each other. After I let out something halfway between a squeal and a sigh, I toddled off to clean the bathroom.

                  I think you could say that I'm kind of bad at celebrating. Joyfully scrubbing a bathtub really shouldn't count as celebration at all. I should be off spending money or eating something, or... What do people even do?

                  There is always the Release Party, but I'm one of those people who is very confident online, but gets a little shy about all the attention being on me in a room of actually present people. Online, I'm thrilled with it. In real life, I squirm. My mother always described that as "being a Froese." And I am a Froese...  So the release party with friends and family is kind of out of the question.

                  I think part of the failure to celebrate my successes comes from my starving artist habits. When I was single and fresh out of school, I was living the writer's dream. I lived in a tiny little room in the downtown core of a major city, working odd little part time gigs in order to finance my writing. I could live on a meager budget, I assure you. It was a matter of pride on what I could get out of a wee little pay check.

                  I'm no longer the single, starving artist. I'm now a stay-at-home mom, which means I still have to be thrifty to keep this family whirring along on one income. The beauty of the set up is that I get to stay home and write novels while I raise our son. It's really quite fabulous and I couldn't be happier. In order to keep this beautiful arrangement, I need to stay thrifty.

                  Some habits die hard, and thriftiness seems to be one of them. I get excited about things like homemade bathroom cleaner because it works better and it costs so much less. I also get excited about using black tea to tint my hair and about a hundred other mumsy-wumsy things that tickle my fancy. The point of it all, though, is to let me stay home with my son and write.

                  ...Which has the odd side effect of making me a very awkward celebrator. So I did scrub my bathroom while I called people to tell them my news. As for Facebook, I updated it the second I checked my email and got the good news. ;)

                  In my newest novel, Perfect on Paper [1], my heroine is a lot like me in her dogged determination to make it work as a writer. She's been a starving artist, and she's finally risen above it. When you love something, like your writing or your career, so much that you're willing to forgo that costly celebrating in order to keep doing what you love best, what do you do when the man of your dreams wants you to put it aside?

                  So check out Perfect on Paper [1] and give it a try! I think you'll enjoy it.

                  Check out me, too, while you're at it. I post on my blog [2] daily and you can always find me on Facebook. [3] Like I said... I'm confident online. ;)