Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, I have the wonderful author Theresa Meyers. Here book, The Truth About Vampires, released March 1rst, 2011 in the Harlequin Nocturne line of books. She agreed to stop by to tell us about the day in the life of a writer. Thanks for stopping by!
The day in the life of a writer isn’t nearly as glamorous as portrayed in television’s Castle or Muder She Wrote. In fact some days it can be down right normal.
5:00 am – Alarm goes off. Hubby gets up to get ready for work.
5:30 – Head downstairs, and make tea, a breakfast wrap and lunch for hubby and a cup of tea (Irish Breakfast or English Breakfast) with Splenda and milk for me.
6:00 am – Turn on the computer in my office, and check email. If time turn on Tweetdeck and see what’s going on. Write emails to agent, editors if necessary (since they’ve got a three hour head start on me for the day).
6:30 – Go upstairs, wake up kidlet one to get ready for school. Go back downstairs and continue planning out work day or dig through research websites or books to find the information I’m going to need for the day’s writing.
7:00 – Make breakfast and lunch for kidlet one. Wake up kidlet two for school.
7:25 – Walk kidlet one a ¼ mile to the bus stop and wait. Walk back home.
7:40 – Make breakfast and lunch for kidlet two. Let the dog out. Feed the cats.
8:00 – Walk kidlet two and the dog a ¼ mile to the bus stop and wait. Visit for five or ten minutes with my neighbor who has kids in the same grades.
8:20 – Walk back home and feed the horse, the chickens and the rabbits while the mini-aussie “helps” by running around barking and trying to herd me and the animals. Bring in pellets for the woodstove. Make another cup of tea (Wittard’s Vanilla, Chai, or Seattle’s Market Spice or Chocolate Mint).
8:30 – Turn on the current book sound track on my computer. Pet the fat fur-ball of a calico cat who believes her morning must start with herself spread in front of my computer screen. Adjust to the black and white cow-cat who wants to sleep on the top cushion of my office chair, move my feet around the dog under my desk and start writing, plotting or editing on current work in progress.
8:45 – Nudge the calico cat away from my tea cup. Why she likes my tea, I don’t know. Must be the milk.
9:00 – Call friends if we’re having a tea day to make plans for the afternoon. (Mommy tea days with my non-writing friends once a week help keep me sane.) Call critique partner if I’m stuck in the story or get edits done on her pages if she’s sent some. If I’m really, really stuck, I go clean up manure in the horse’s pasture. If I’m not stuck I get in a half hour of exercise and clean up.
10:00 – Take a break, eat a protein bar. If it’s Monday get ready to go volunteer for a few hours at the student store at the junior high. If it’s Friday, get ready to go to the elementary to teach art for 1.5 hours. If I’m teaching a class online, go check the boards, write up another lecture and post it as well as answer class questions or comment on homework. If it’s not Monday, Friday or a class lecture day, get back to writing/editing.
12:00 pm – Stop for lunch. Poke around and see if there are leftovers in the fridge so I don’t have to cook anything else. Unfreeze a baggie of home-made chicken soup or make an avocado sandwich and another cup of tea (more Wittard’s Vanilla, Stash Mojito Mint Green tea or Tazo Focus, which tastes like chocolate with a bit of orange).
12:15 – Back to the keyboard. Check Twitter. Maybe post on FaceBook. Check email. Answer requests for back cover copy, guest blogs, speaking engagements, send notes to writer’s groups, booksellers and visit favorite blogs to read and leave comments. Write on proposals. Return any phone calls.
12:30 – Back to writing/editing. If it’s tea day, pack up whatever I’m bringing to tea (we all bring something to make a lunch out of it – sometimes we’ll make chicken curry sandwiches with salad, sometimes chicken Marsala with noodles and a salad and fruit. Usually one person does the main dish, one person the salad, another the fruit, another a tea treat like freshly baked banana or pumpkin bread, another the tea and half-and-half or eggnog and Splenda, and another some kind of bread or dessert.) and head over to whoever’s house it’s at, unless it’s at my house in which case I quick-clean like a maniac.
2:00 – If I’m at home grab another cup of tea and maybe eat an apple, a mandarin orange or a cheese stick. If it’s an errand day, do a quick run to the Post Office, the bank and the grocery store and maybe Costco or the feed store to pick up supplies for our mini farm.
3:15 – Wrap up writing for the day. Greet the first kidlet home from school. Get snacks and homework started. Get another cup of tea (Stash Mojito Mint Green tea, Whittard’s Vanilla, or chocolate mint.)
3:30 – Greet the second kidlet home from school. More snacks and homework. Unless it’s Tuesday, then drive to junior high and pick up one kid from marching band practice then go to elementary and pick up the other kid from choir practice. If it’s a Friday take kids to various friends if they are staying over or pick up friends.
4:30 – Get started on making dinner. Have kidlet one go feed the horse, kidlet two the dog and cats.
4:45 – Hubby gets home. Greet him. Keep cooking dinner.
5:30 – Eat dinner with the family, then clean up. Help with homework.
6:00 – Help with homework. Hubby is in charge of helping with instrument practice for trombone and saxophone. If it’s Monday night we all sit down and watch BBC’s Top Gear together.
7:00 – Read news online. Check email. Keep helping with homework. Make another cup of tea (Stash Mellow Moments Green Tea, Good Earth tea or Peppermint). Maybe read a little of my “reward book”(which are my to-be-read pile of books I only let myself read if I’m either exercising or if I’ve finished my writing pages for the day).
9:00 – Herd kidlets upstairs to get ready for bed. Tuck them in. Turn down the woodstove, put the dog in his kennel. If it’s a normal work day, get to go to bed or read for a bit, or if it’s Friday I get to watch Supernatural. If I’m on deadline and needing to push harder I go lock myself in my office with another cup of tea, my headphones on-blaring my book sound track-and continue writing until page count for the day is met before going to sleep, sometimes until midnight.
See, pretty normal. My job is writing and I’m at it almost all day along with the normal family stuff. I tend to write between five and ten pages a day, sometimes more if my writing isn’t where I need it to be because of time spent editing or marketing to make my deadline. I save the fun stuff, gardening, sewing on new steampunk costumes, canning jam or green beans from the garden, going shopping etc., for the weekends and don’t watch much television.
In the past I actually worked from home juggling a public relations agency along with the writing so I spent a good deal more time on the phone and with emails and did a lot more trips to the Post Office. So you can write and work another job too. It’s just a matter of all of us having the same 24 hours in a day to work with. You just have to decide how you’re going to use your time. Even if you write one page a day you can have a completed novel at the end of a year. So that’s a peak into my day. Was it what you thought or not?
Theresa Meyers Bio:
Raised by a bibliophile who made the dining room into a library, Theresa has always been a lover of books and stories. First a writer for newspapers, then for national magazines, she started her first novel in high school, eventually enrolling in a Writer’s Digest course and putting the book under the bed until she joined Romance Writers of America in 1993. In 2005 she was selected as one of eleven finalists for the American Title II contest, the American Idol of books. She is married to the first man she ever went on a real date with (to their high school prom), who she knew was hero material when he suffered through having to let her parents drive, and her brother sit between them in the backseat of the car. They currently live in a Victorian house on a mini farm in the Pacific Northwest with their two children, three cats, an old chestnut Arabian gelding, an energetic mini-Aussie shepherd puppy, several rabbits, a dozen chickens and an out-of-control herb garden. You can find her online on Twitter, Facebook, at her Web site or blogging with the other Lolitas of STEAMED!
The Truth About Vampires
Harlequin Nocturne – Vampire Romance
March 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 0373618549
ISBN-13: 978-0373618545
ISBN-13: 978-0373618545
Pulling back the veil on a world shrouded in darkness, Theresa Meyers’ stunning debut reveals a sinfully handsome vampire whose secret is about to exposed…
All her life Seattle reporter Kristin Reed sought her breakout story. She never thought she’d find it in the crimson lair of a real life creature of the night. Kristin never believed vampires existed—until with dark brooding eyes and a decadent chocolate scent, Dmitri Dionotte called out to her…
Dmitri and his clan’s true nature was cloaked in secrecy until a warring vampire order threatened their existence. Kristin was just the woman he needed. She couldn’t resist their story…or Dmitri. Her blood pulsed hot and furious when he touched her, and with his kiss, all logic fled. But each night she spent with her vampire lover brought her closer to death and destruction. A death not even an immortal could triumph over.
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