Anna gives great blog!

Okay, so that's my really cheesy way of admitting I'm not too together on the blog thing today -- but she does! :-)

A day in the life? Hah! It's the end of summer crunch right now and I can barely remember today, let alone whatever a "usual" day looks like. I've got one book that has to be in before I run away for the weekend, three more I've got to get finished up by the end of September -- and a project I'd really like to squeeze in if I can find the time... Plus, because I'm nuts like that, I'm currently in the middle of a major site overhaul -- two a.m. this morning I finally got the damn drop-down menu working (thank you Fiona!) -- you should see my desk. There are, at rough estimate, forty-seven different-sized pieces of paper with notes, comments to myself, things I have to remember to do.... Every couple of hours I go through 'em, wad a few up, and chuck them in the vague direction of the trash can.

Oh yeah, and it's a release day :-)

Actually, even when they're as madcap as this one, release days are what make it all worthwhile -- another story out, done, published, and ready to be enjoyed. There is nothing like the feeling of getting a note from a reader, or getting the opportunity (which I have a couple of times) to watch somebody read your stuff, listen to them chuckle to themselves or even laugh out loud... That's the best. Well, that and being able to pay the electric/mortgage/car insurance/internet/groceries... Yeah, this is how I buy my shampoo. God, I miss Pantene!

Hopefully one day Pantene will be an option again. In the meantime, I am madly trying to keep up at the best job in the world, my wrists ache, my eyes are blurry, my dog is starving for attention... but there's another story almost done, and another after that just waiting to be told, and a shiny new website that really will be done eventually!

This is Sierra, signing off -- see you in September!

Just released! Shifter Sisters 3: Stray Cat Strut! Persia finally gets her story -- and her man!

Suburbarific-mom-writerness

Okay, so this post is stolen from a Thursday 13 I did awhile back but it totally captures a 'day in the life' of this gal. The only thing I forgot to mention is that I somehow manage to squeeze in about 2,000 words per day in here somewhere. Usually during the happy breakfast, lunch, and times when the child will take his dang nap.

Happy Wednesday all!

Anna J. Evans
http://annajevans.com

1. Happy Breakfast, accompanied by commentary on Sesame Street. I never have to worry what the Roo is thinking about, he's very comfortable sharing his entire inner monologue...



2. On the way up the stairs to 'see the babies'...mama's going to go sweat in the basement with the firemen. Yeah, they're kind of cute, but dumb as dirt as twice as loud...which isn't hard to do since dirt doesn't make noise...but whatever. Hard to relax with a bunch of doofus fireman watching to see if your shorts ride up while you're doing the squat machine. The one time of the day I get to be without a Roo on me/talking to me/fretting with me and they ruin it. Think I may have to add them to my 'dead to me' sidebar.



3. All done seeing the babies, we have to stop and look at our shadow a few times on the way out to mama's van because shadows are cool.



4. Back at the hissy, the purple turtle must be played with and sand thrown in hair. At least he kept it on himself this time, which is good since mama will use any excuse to avoid washing her hair. This whole 'long hair' thing the hubs likes is annoying. I liked it short and easy to scrunch and go.



5. The plant that I can't keep alive. I can't grow children and plants at the same time...hey, we all have our limitations...



6. Roo riding his blue teeter-totter...and some more empy pots behind him. My mother gives them to me for mother's day...like some kind of hint to spruce up my ugly yard or something....whatever, I figure she doesn't want her grandson or step-grandaughters dead so I don't invest any energy into putting things in those pots or trying to keep them alive. I've got my priorities straight. Kids before plants yo. (Kind of like bros before hos....)



7. The whale pool. I almost passed out after blowing it up. My lips buzzed for half an hour afterward, but the Roo had great fun and I got to finish my book in between throwing ducks and balls at him.



8. Into the house for some yummy sausage lunch (yuck, that stuff smells like dog shit), before going back out to the whale pool because the whale pool rocks. Mama agrees as she's now starting another book. Can't take the computer out there or mama might have found a way to squeeze some writing in...



9. In from the whale pool, and all bathed and dressed and out on the town getting a Care Bears movie (Big Wish, he had grown tired of Journey to Jokealot). Mama of course forgot her purse so we drove all the way there, and all the way back twice, thusly wasting even more time before nap, making mama POSITIVE Roo was going to go down easy on this particular day. It was almost 2:30 after all, and the dude was TIRED.



10. Birth Control aka Roo pre-nap....howling in protest to the injustice of being forced to rest...


11. Mama takes a shower and considers doing damage to herself with the eyelash curler because the Roo. is. still. screaming. 1/2. hour. later....



12. But he finally sleeps for an hour and a half, I bang out about 1200 words that probably suck because I'm so out of the groove and when he wakes up we get some letters ready to go to big'un at camp. Roo helps by opening all the cabinets and pulling out the pots and pans. I finally lose it and use big scary voice. He stops and cries. We kiss and make up and go to the post office.


13. It's 4:30, only an hour before the hubs gets home and I might be able to escape to use the bathroom by myself. As we're driving home I spot the three crosses on the hill and take a picture to remind myself about little baby Jesus in his fleece diaper....and I begin to wonder...what would baby Jesus do?



Baby Jesus would make mojitos...and tell me to drink them and be well...and so I did.

Normal? What's normal?

This week's theme of "A Day in the Life" is kind of hard to wrap my head around. I don't really have a typical day because my work schedule is always under threat of being changed at the last minute. I truly enjoy my day job, though, so it's not such a hardship. I have managed a few ideal days in the last few weeks, however.

My ideal schedule:
- Crawl out of bed with enough time to dress, eat breakfast and brush my teeth before I have to be at work.
- Work at the day job for about four hours.
- Come home for my lunch hour to eat and work on non-day job/other profession or writing-related, but not actually writing, projects.
- Go back to work for about another four hours.
- Come home and unwind by knitting, reading, watching tv, etc., eat dinner.
- Around 9p (if not a little earlier), hunker down to write for about an hour. If I'm on a roll, I can usually crank out between 600-1000 words in this time. To give you an idea, The Man from H.A.T.H.O.R. is about 13,000 words.

That's when I'm in writing mode. Now, for instance, I'm in editing mode. I've also got some non-day job/other profession projects breathing down my neck, so my "unwind" time is really more "what work can I cram in here?" time. My schedule is pretty wacky, but it works for me :)

Oh, The Glamour Of It All

So many times, readers and non-writers want to know what a typical day in the life of an author is like. Now, I don't know about Nora Roberts or Stephen King (but I imagine most days they're at the keyboard at least 7-8 hours, just like a "real" job), but my life isn't exactly glamorous, no matter which day you look at.

But I do try to write at least a little bit every day, with my most productive days being the weekend because that's when I have more time. During the week I have to devote 40 hours (well, 45 including travel to and from) to my day job. And I have found that if I haven't started writing by 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. at the latest, it ain't gonna happen that day. So, if I'm being good and not goofing off, here's what a normal weekday looks like for me:

5:00 a.m. Wake up to the soothing sounds of Celtic harp music. (I have accidentally set my alarm on "alarm" instead of "music" before, and I about have a heart attack when the alarm goes off. I do much better with soothing music. LOL)

5:00-5:30 a.m. Check emails, post blog, hit a couple of readers groups if I have time.

5:30-6:00 a.m. Treadmill. Or not.

6:00-7:00 a.m. Get ready for work. And, yes, it generally takes me an hour.

7:00-7:20 a.m. Put my food together for the day, turn off the laptop, and leave for work.

8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Work. Phfffft.

5:45 p.m. Arrive home. Get in comfy clothes, read my snail mail and relax for about half an hour. Check emails and try to figure out what I want for supper.

6:15-7:00 p.m. Fix and eat dinner, usually while watching the news. (I know, it's a no-no to watch TV while you eat, but I gotta do *something*.)

7:00-9:00 p.m. Write. If I'm being good.

9:00-10:00 p.m. Wind down, get ready for bed.

10:00 p.m. Crash for the night.

There are variations to this theme, of course. Sometimes I might meet friends for dinner after work, which means I'll get no writing done at all. And sometimes at work I have an opportunity during lunch to do some writing, but not usually.

See? Not glamorous at all.

Stuck in the middle...

Or really, the beginning...


I have a few projects that stalled, that I can't seem to give up on. It's hard to give up on a book anyway, because you liked it well enough to start it, but it's especially hard when you KNOW it could be such a good book but you're so swamped with other stuff you just can't seem to get there.

I have two medievals, one set in the 13th century and another in the late 15th immediately after the Battle of Bosworth. Being a Ricardian, the characters in this one are particularly close to my heart--she was a double agent working for Richard III, he was a soldier fighting for Richard who survived the battle and is blackmailing her to hide him. I'm so crazy about the characters and the story, but I just don't have time to work on it--I've had the first chapter or so written for almost two years.

I have a great idea for a paranormal I've been ruminating on and loosely planning for about a year.

I have a vampire paranormal I started a year ago that just needs a little more tweaking before I can send it in--I've been working on it on and off for months.

One day, I'll have time to write them all...sigh.

Man, I almost wish some of 'em WOULD die...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The graveyard of shattered dreams...

Sometimes that's how I view my WIP/unplaced file--a sad, scary place where creative things have gone to die, peppered with the ruins of once great ideas. They're still beautiful in their partially formed state but just...not ready to walk among the living. (Poetical this morning ain't I?)

Some of the manuscripts in there are full stories that need such an overhaul of an edit that I haven't gained the strength to attack them. Some are partials that So-and-so or Whoeveritwas didn't request a full for, and were thereafter abandoned in hopes of finally figuring out exactly what will light Editor X's fire. Others are flashes of great things, with catchy titles and super fantastic hooks that....I haven't had the time to flesh out.

There are probably nearly fifty such documents in my WIP file. Maybe one third of them are PTWD (Projects that won't die). Somehow, no matter how long it takes, they'll find a way to force my attention upon them, compel me to give them the work they need to become full fledged stories. One of those stories is presently my WIP. It was a partial I completed a year ago and let sit for 10 months before beginning the full. Now that little 15k partial is a 40k WIP, on it's way to an ending and a submission to my new editor at Samhain (who liked the partial :)).

So there you go, never say die little projects. Never. Say. Die.

Anna J. Evans Who. Likes. Periods. Today.