Hint: It's not what you think.
It's a gorgeous morning here in the South. There's a chill on the wind but the sun steals it away leaving a balmy ambience in its wake. The house is quiet and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee bathed in that soft winter light coming through my office windows. I have things to do and books to write but I'm trying to enjoy this peaceful moment and write to you.
What I want for Christmas is time.
There never seems to be enough of that around my house. I juggle day-job work with my novel-writing, most times seven days a week. I'm not complaining, love what I do, but coupled with family responsibilities and running a household, the things-to-do list never gets completed and new ones always take their place. Plus, those moments when I pause my fingers on the keyboard and savor the nature outside my window seem to be few these days.
So, what I want for Christmas is for life to slow down, for creatives like me to have more time to sip our coffee on a winter morning and relax doing whatever our hearts demand. After all, writing novels starts with long walks in the woods or just doing nothing (at least that's what my family thinks but my imagination is working full-time while I'm staring into space).
While you're at it, since I also have a writing day job, can you arrange for creative pay equality? Writing is a phenomenal career but the pay needs improving. Or how about making raising women's pay equal to men's a priority? In the South, women make 30 cents less on a man's dollar and you know they also work hard raising families and keeping a household running.
So, I won't ask for Apple products, jewelry, a new car or other material things. Please, Santa, bring me some time.
Heck, maybe you'll be in my next book!
Your truly,
Cherie Claire
P.S. You kinda are in my latest novel, "Ghost Lights."