The life of an author isn’t all boas and fascinators and book signings. . . Well, actually, it hasn’t been that way since before Covid. Even the not-so-glamorous research trips have been curtailed for years. These days, I’m tied to my desk or laptop pretty much ten hours a day. I try to write my book pages in the morning, while fielding business e-mails from fellow authors, assistants, and whatever I’m working on that day (and for the last two months, from the bookstore I mentioned above). I research as I write, so there are days when not many words reach the page!
In the afternoons, I write newsletters, blogs, post on social media, edit, revise, do busy work like file for copyrights and update websites. Since I’m utterly incompetent at graphics, I have an assistant who creates those for me. (Waving thank you at Monica!) And then there is the sheer drudgery of proofing formatted files on books I’ve just spent a year of writing and rewriting. . .
It’s no wonder writers are driven to drink. It’s the only excitement we get all day! Except I’m allergic to a lot of the things that go into wine and the like and I settle for a decadent cup of doctored coffee and half a cookie, if I bothered to bake any.
So writing is a job just like any job, except we get to make our own hours and do it in our pajamas, if we want. How do you find small pleasures in your daily routine?
If nothing else, I have the first book in my new Psychic Solutions Mystery series ready and up for pre-order. . .