Julia Spencer-Fleming: Laura DiSilverio has a pretty high profile in the mystery world. She's the
author of ten mystery novels, including the Mall Cop series for Berkley
Prime Crime and the Swift Investigations 
humorous PI series for Minotaur. She teaches for MWA’s Mystery University, and serves as
Vice-President of the National Board of Sisters in Crime (where our own Hank Phillippi Ryan is President!)
humorous PI series for Minotaur. She teaches for MWA’s Mystery University, and serves as
Vice-President of the National Board of Sisters in Crime (where our own Hank Phillippi Ryan is President!)
But it wasn't until I met Laura in person that I realized how much we have in common. We're both Air Force brats. Like my husband Ross, the USAF was Laura's first career - she was an intelligence officer. We both left practical jobs to try our hand at writing and spend more time mothering. And, most significantly at this point in our lives, we're both dealing with teens and preteens at home. Which is why, when Laura said, "I want to write about the ridiculous ideas lofty goals my kids have for the future," I knew we had to have her here at JRW.
My older
daughter, 15, is planning for a career on Broadway. She takes voice
and dance (musical theater and tap), sings with the school choir,
performs in school plays, and spent six weeks this past summer
working nine to five every day with the youth rep company she
auditioned for last March. Her father and I watch all this with a
certain degree of—shall we say?—trepidation. 
We’re
worried for her, that she’s aiming for a career where .0004
percent of the people who try to make it succeed (okay, I made that
figure up, but I doubt it’s far off—it might even be generous),
and she’s bound to meet with soul-eroding rejection while living
on Ramen noodles, selling her blood plasma, and sharing a studio
apartment with six roommates of dubious hygiene habits and countless
cockroaches.
We’re
worried for us, that we’ll empty our retirement funds to support
her in NYC and she’ll return home at thirty, disillusioned and
worn down, trashing her chances for more conventional employment by
quoting Lady MacBeth at job interviews, and making it impossible for
hubby and me to continue with our plan of getting frisky in every
room of the house whenever we want and as loudly as we want once
we’re empty nesters.
Must Be This
Tall to Ride the Rollercoaster
Daughter the
younger, newly turned 13, plans to attend Stanford on a volleyball
scholarship, study engineering and architecture, and become both an
architect and an Indian fast food restaurant billionaire. (She has
long lamented that there are no fast food joints that serve Indian
food and she’s planning to fill that gap.) This might all be more
likely if she was taller than 5’3” since the average Stanford
volleyballer looks to be about 6’3”. We don’t squelch this
dream too hard because she’s got a decent shot at getting into
Stanford on an academic scholarship and we’re in favor of the whole
billionaire thing since she says she’ll support us.
The Parenting
Dilemma
The
parenting question we struggle with is this: How do you encourage
kids to dream and follow their passions, and yet inject enough sanity
into the process that they’re prepared to cope with failure and
know when it’s time to try something else? Don’t look at me for
the answer, ’cause I got nothin’, although I have been known to
extol the benefits of a career as an actuary, mortician or IT
specialist with benefits. If you’ve got good parenting advice on
this topic, bring it on.
Dream On
This all
made me think about having the courage to follow our dreams and
passions, even the little ones. I spent twenty years in the Air
Force, dreaming of being a novelist, and now that’s how I make my
living. 
(Okay, it’s not much of a living. If I didn’t have a
pension and a hubby with a good job, my children would be dreaming of
secure careers as Wal-Mart greeters, rather than of Broadway, but if
I were single I’d be able to afford Spam with my ramen noodles once
a week.) I’m still working on my dreams of visiting every
continent and learning to ballroom dance.
(Okay, it’s not much of a living. If I didn’t have a
pension and a hubby with a good job, my children would be dreaming of
secure careers as Wal-Mart greeters, rather than of Broadway, but if
I were single I’d be able to afford Spam with my ramen noodles once
a week.) I’m still working on my dreams of visiting every
continent and learning to ballroom dance.
What about
you? What dreams, seemingly ridiculous or hard to achieve, large or
small, have you taken a stab at? Going blond? Getting a college
degree? Climbing a mountain? Playing an instrument or learning a
language? Pursuing a particular career? Are you glad you tried it
or do you regret the time and effort you invested?
Rev up those dreams, leave a comment
and get a chance to win an Advance Reader Copy of Laura’s
upcoming release, SWIFT RUN, or a copy of the book when it releases on 27 November! As a fun bonus, check out the Minotaur Art blog, where art director David Rotstein shows us sketch by sketch how his team came up with SWIFT RUN's amusing cover.
Laura's also offering a
chance to win an iPod Nano by commenting on an entry in the
Courageous Moment essay contest on her blog, The Year of Living Courageously,
between now and 14 November.
You can find out more about Laura and her books at her website and at her blog, The Year of Living Courageously. You can follow her on Twitter as @LauraDiSilverio and friend her on Facebook.
