It's Wednesday, which means it's Author Take Over, and this week, I've got R.A Sears visiting! Please welcome her to my blog, and make sure to drop by her pages to show her some love!!
What
an Indie Author’s Day Really Looks Like, a guest post from R.A. Sears
Hello, everyone! I’m R.A Sears, and I write
primarily paranormal fiction. I’ve released the first two installments of my
Ragnarok Legacy series, centered around werewolves and Norse tales. “Lunacy”
and “No Bite” are both available for only 99¢! I’ve also written a few erotic
shorts. I’ve got a ton of works still in progress that I won’t even get in to.
The lovely Sabina asked me to do a takeover, so consider yourselves conquered!
Many people think that an indie author, and
especially one lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, spends all their time
penning glorious worlds with words that flow from an incessant well of
inspiration. Maybe some indies like this do exist out there. This lady doesn’t
happen to be one of them. In fact, I’m under major time-crunch right now, as I
have a book I’m trying to get the first draft down for by the end of October.
Why the urgency? My second son will be born in the middle of November, meaning
I’ll have two children under age two. As one would expect, that means any free
time will be shaved in half, if not into even smaller portions.
To give you a little insight into how crazy
it can be to even hammer out 500 words a day, much less my rarely met goal of
2-3000 words, here’s what my average day looks like. And this isn’t a “poor me”
thing. It’s to show you that “I don’t have time” really isn’t a valid excuse.
You can still churn out quality work, even with as little as 10-15 minutes devoted
to writing daily.
Any time between 5 and 7 a.m.: wake up,
sometimes to shrieking 1.5 year old toddler. (This may come after as little as
three consecutive hours of sleep…) Change diaper, head downstairs to get child
snack, drink, and start breakfast. Get coffee brewing (the most important meal
of the day). Feed cat and dog while cooking breakfast.
8 a.m.: Feed child and self, and sometimes
husband. Make sure he has lunch and coffee to go. Spend five minutes with
toddler waving bye-bye to husband at the front window, until his car pulls
away. Change diaper if needed, refill toddler’s cup, guzzle coffee.
9 a.m.: Engage in various activities with
child while checking social media notifications. Building with Mega Blocks and
reading him the same story no less than three times in a row are common (some
of his favorites are “Barnyard Dance” by Sandra Boynton and those tiny little
Baby Einstein block books.)
10 a.m.: Ni Hao, Kai-Lan. Who would have
thought a tiny Chinese girl would be the only television an 18 month old would
be interested in watching? He’s really only interested when they have a song
going, but it keeps him relatively happy for the better part of an hour.
11 a.m.: Fill cup of milk, read toddler the
same 2-3 books he’s been having for bedtime for the last 6 months, rock for a
few minutes, deposit child into bed. Creep from room and hope he stays down for
his customary two hours.
Walk dog (which takes 15-45 minutes) and
take out trash. Come back inside, inhale some lunch, catch a shower if I’m
lucky, write for 15-30 minutes. (“Write” translates to: stare at blank page,
and browse through Pinterest for most of the time.)
1 p.m.: The Monster awakens. Sometimes he’s
a sweet monster, other times… Not so much.
Change diaper, bring downstairs for snack and drink refilling. Run around picking up toddler toys, and generally keeping him busy.
Change diaper, bring downstairs for snack and drink refilling. Run around picking up toddler toys, and generally keeping him busy.
2 p.m.: Repeat the last hour, but with
lunch thrown in.
3 p.m.: Take toddler outside for a walk and
to play, regardless of weather. (If I try to stop him due to rain, he’ll
insistently bring me his shoes and try to unlock the front door.)
4 p.m.: Wrestle toddler back indoors,
soothe crying fit, start dinner prep and/or wash dishes.
5 p.m.: Toddler starts peeking periodically
out front window, looking for husband’s car while querying, “Da-da?” Attempt to
finish dinner prep so everything’s ready by six.
6 p.m.: Eat dinner with toddler, and
occasionally without husband.
7 p.m.: Husband is usually home by now, and
takes over toddler care with happy squeals to administer munchkin washing. Now
is when I usually get any remaining dishes finished.
8 p.m.: Attempt to write. Usually give up
after half an hour and do something with my hands, like knit or crochet. Watch
a movie/TV show, or the husband playing video games.
11 p.m.: Urge to write is maddening, but
sleep is calling. Retire to bed and hammer out a hundred words or so on the
word processor on my smart phone, and call it a day.
So, as you can see, the life of an indie
author comes in many shapes, some of them boring and mostly filled with
child-rearing. I miss my younger days when I could just sit for hours,
cloistered in the computer room with no one save my characters and I. Maybe
when the kids are in school, I’ll be able to again. In the meantime, I plan to
have “Sanguinarium” the full second novel in the Ragnarok Legacy out in late
2015. I also have a few other things I’m trying to complete so I can put them
out within the next year. But, to give you all hope, it can still be done, even
when your schedule is already packed!
Today on Amazon, you can grab “Lunacy”, the
start of my bestselling series for FREE! You can pick it up any old day if
you’re a member of Kindle Unlimited, but for anyone who isn’t, snag it now! And
you can pick up the novella sequel “No Bite” for just 99¢!
Lunacy: http://amzn.com/B00KTBDQL0 FREE! (8/13/14 only)
No Bite: http://amzn.com/B00D6L0OQK 99¢
R.A. Sears has a cinematic writing style, heavy on the eclectic and strange. A lover of words, she took classes like anatomy and physiology in college--along with criminalistics--to better her craft. Her interest in mythology shines through in her prose, as well as her background in urban fantasy and the paranormal. A protector of all furry creatures and a NY native, she now lives in Maryland with her black cat Nergal, and a dog rescued from Afghanistan who goes by the name Renegade. She shares her space and time with her loving, supportive husband and her firecracker one year old son.
You can find R.A here:
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