As we discussed earlier, there has been a constant influx of real life coming down on top of my head.  It appears that it isn’t going to stop, either.

Early last week, we found out my husband’s niece’s husband passed away, leaving her with three teenager daughters, a step-daughter and a step-grandson. That means a funeral.  That means one more kick-in-the-teeth reminder that life is very short and very unpredictable.

The decisions I’m making public here were not because of that, but the reasoning behind them reinforced.

I’m a very busy person, and sometimes my writing suffers because of it. I’ve got a full-time job, a full-time family, and a full-time writing addiction. The problem with all three is that there are not enough hours in the day to work all three full-time and still have time to eat, sleep, and breathe.

Plus the full-time writing addiction has led to the publication of books under two names. At first I didn’t think the split-personality thing was going to be as time-consuming as it is.  Unfortunately, it has gotten to the point where either my writing or my publicity has to suffer, and I want neither to do so. Because of that, I’ve decided to streamline some things.

I never, ever hid the fact that I write under two names, and I absolutely do not care at all that those who pay attention know those names. I am not ashamed of what I write. I chose to write under two names because I write in two very different areas.  Siobhan is the pen name, and she’s responsible for my romance. My first love, however, is horror. I write it, along with sci-fi and fantasy, under my real name (or a variation thereof):  S.H. Roddey.

Because of that, I’ve spent the last eight months keeping up with two blogs, two Facebook accounts, two Facebook Author Pages, and two Twitter accounts along with a host of other duplicated efforts such as Goodreads, Manic Readers, and Amazon accounts. It’s too much for one person to handle when a full-time job stands in the way.

So, at the end of this month, I’ll be shutting down one of the two Facebook accounts and migrating that activity to the Facebook Fan Page (it’s on the sidebar if you want to like it…just sayin’.). For the daily banter and my general nonsense, I can be found on Facebook by clicking this link.

Both blogs will stay because, let’s face it, I can kick out a blog post in fifteen minutes when I really put my mind to it.  The goal is to start scheduling them ahead of time, and aim for an average of two posts per week – probably Tuesdays and Thursdays unless something comes up.  That gives me my blogging time and a reasonable schedule in which to work.

As for Twitter… that remains to be seen. I currently have two accounts, but I’m not very good at tweeting. I almost always forget that Twitter is there.  In the coming months I may consolidate those accounts as well, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m not going to go too crazy.

The rest of those accounts we talked about… they will stay as-is for now. I have to look and see if it’s possible to consolidate any of them, or if I just need to leave them alone and make the best of those situations.

Hopefully by making those changes I can broaden my horizons on the writing front and actually start pushing quality work out again.  It’s worth a try because let’s face it, I can’t keep going like I’m a superhero.

I’d much rather just be Mom.