Name: Amy S. Mercer

Blog: Dreaming About Water

Kids: 2 boys, 6 and 3 (pictured with Amy above)

Paid work: I am a freelance writer and earn money most consistently from essays published in skirt! Magazine. I am also the blog editor for Literary Mama, an intern for the College of Charleston's literary magazine, Crazyhorse, and a board member for the South Carolina Writer's Workshop...so I do a lot of work for free.

Activism: I keep my eye on Moms Rising, and I'd like to think the work I'm doing for women and diabetes is a form of activism. My goal is to publish my book, Dreaming About Water to help inform and support women struggling with the unique challenges of living with diabetes.

Reader since: I've been reading it for almost two years. I always enjoy the personal essays.

Currently reading: I just picked up The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander from the library yesterday and have added it to the top of the big pile by my bed. I organize the pile(s) according to Read Now, Read Next, and Read Later. In my Read Now pile is Modern Love: 50 True and Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion from the "Modern Love" column in the New York Times. Great column. Next in the Read Now pile is Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan (NPR's Fresh Air book critic). The title sums up how I'd like to spend my days. There is also my wish list on Amazon where I just added three books by some of my favorite authors (Ann Packer, Amy Bloom, and Alice Sebold!) that will soon be released. I could go on and on, but I'll stop here.

Favorite mama blog: I have to say Christina Katz's The Writer Mama. I won a one-hour consultation with Christina and took her platform building class, and she has been such a support and so helpful to my writing.

:: Read Amy's essay "Not Mine" on mamazine.com.

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