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This one\u2019s for the moms out there who are also writers.\n\nWriter moms.\n\nMy mom was a writer mom. I am a writer mom. You might be a writer mom, too. And I'm sure you know one.\n\nPlease know this: Writer moms are trying to raise their family while advancing their writing in some way.\n\nAnd it\u2019s hard.\n\nMadeleine L'Engle once wrote in one of her Crosswicks Journals:\nDuring the long drag of years before our youngest child went to school, my love for my family and my need to write were in acute conflict. The problem was really that I put two things first. My husband and children came first. So did my writing. Bump. (p. 19)\nI got a chance to hear Madeleine speak one time, and afterwards she signed books. I would have one instant to ask her about that\u2014to ask about writing and motherhood.\n\nWe waited and inched forward in line until it was finally my turn.\n\nI handed her Walking on Water. She asked for my name and scrawled a note on one of its front pages. She looked up and handed it to me.\n\n\u201cThank you,\u201d I said.\n\nThen I blurted out: \u201cWhen your kids were young\u2026how did you do it? How did you manage to write?\u201d\n\nShe looked up at me.\n\nOne beat.\n\nTwo beats.\n\nI\u2019m sure my eyes looked wild and desperate, but\xa0I needed to know.\n\nThree beats.\n\nFour beats.\n\n\u201cIt was hard,\u201d she said.\n\nAnd that was all she said. Then she looked past me, hand outstretched for the next book.\n\nAsk any writer-mom and she'll tell you the same. It's hard. We know that. We need a little something more to keep us going.\n\nI craved more than that\u2014some insight or encouragement from a mom who had been there and could speak into the life of a young writer-mom. I finally got another chance, not with Madeleine, but with Holly Miller.\n\nHolly wrote for\xa0The Saturday Evening Post and taught at Anderson University. She was leading a workshop\xa0in a small setting and invited questions afterwards. I lugged my big ol' portfolio with me, so I positioned myself at the end of the line so I wouldn't hold things up unzipping it and flopping it onto the desk to show her my work.\n\nFinally, it was my turn. She gestured to open it up,\xa0so I unzipped the portfolio and she flipped through it. I told her how young my kids were and asked how she did it. How did she raise her kids while achieving such success as a writer?\n\nShe answered,\xa0\u201cI\u2019m where I am today because I worked long hours full-time when my kids were young.\xa0And now they\u2019re grown. You\u2019ll still have time to develop your career later, but you only have now with your kids. Your kids are so little, and they\u2019re little for such a short time. Right now, I suggest you focus on your children. You\u2019ll never regret spending time with those kids."\n\nThen she said this:\xa0\u201cKeep your finger in the publishing world.\xa0Just keep your name out there. Publish locally with your paper, like you are. Submit to magazines. Keep it going on a small scale and your time will come.\u201d\n\nThat. That's what I needed to hear.\n\nKeep your finger in the publishing world. Keep it going on a small scale, and your time will come.\n\nI needed someone to tell me that making those small deposits in my writing career would add up and pay off later. Holly was right: they did. They do.\n\nIf you're a writer mom, let me pass that along to you:\n\nKeep your finger in the publishing world\u2014keep making deposits in your writing career\u2014and it will add up.\n\nYour time will come.\n\nIn fact, your time might be...right now! Those small deposits? It's happening! Your writing life is happening!\n\nYou might be trying to raise your kids, getting up early to make your word count or staying up after the kids go to bed so you can meet your deadline. Keep making progress as you can. It is adding up.\n\nIf you know a writer-mom personally you can encourage, I hope you will make it your goal to make a deposit into her life to encourage and empower her along the way.\n\n \tOffer to watch her kids so she can write.\n \tSend her a gift certificate to eat out,