A Day in the Life of Kerrelyn Sparks

Kerrelyn Sparks, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Love at Stake series (which was a clue on Jeopardy! recently), has generously agreed to give us a glimpse into her day…

7:29 am–  I stumble into the bathroom and step on the scales. Hallelujah!! I’ve lost five pounds this week!

7:30 am– The alarm goes off. Shoot! I was dreaming.

7: 32 am –  This time the scales indicate that I’ve gained two pounds.  And that was just from smelling a pizza.

7:35 am—The snooze alarms goes off. I was dreaming again! Thank God. I get up and get dressed.

7:40 am—I’m afraid to even step on the scales. I go downstairs to see my daughter off to school. My husband likes to leave for work well before dawn. I suspect he is insane. Actually, he suspects I’m insane, so we’re very well matched.

7: 50 am—I put in a load of laundry and empty the dishwasher. Such is the glamorous life of a writer.  Thank God I have a secretary to do some of that pesky writing for me.

7:55 am—I go to my office to boot up my computer and realize I have no secretary.  Shoot!  I have to write the new book all by myself.  How terrifying. I need food.

8:00 am—I’m back in the kitchen, making myself a bowl of Cheerios. I take it back to the office.  There’s no one there to talk to but the characters in my head (see insanity issue mentioned above), but at least my commute time was excellent!

8: 30 am—I’ve made it through my email and my Cheerios. Maybe I should start writing. No, I have a better idea! I can check my Facebook page and the forum on my website.

9:00 am—Oh my gosh, I just goofed off for thirty minutes on Facebook!  And I have so much work to do. There’s that new book I need to start. But first, I’d better check my sales ranking at Amazon and B&N.com.  Book #9, Eat Prey Love, is coming out next week, so I want to see how the pre-orders are doing. The numbers probably mean squat, but if I keep checking them everyday, I can feel less neurotic about my career (see insanity issue mentioned above).

9: 15 am—Okay, the second load is in the laundry, and the breakfast dishes are washed. There’s nothing to stop me from starting that new book…except the copyedits on book # 10, Vampire Mine, which releases next March. The copyedits are due next week, so I’d better finish them up.

11: 45 am—I’m feeling great! I got through a hundred pages on the copyedits. I still don’t know the difference between further and farther, but hey, the copyeditor needs something to correct, right?  I’m actually doing her a favor by remaining ignorant (see insanity issue mentioned above).

11: 55 am—I have to check my email again and see if anything of earth-shattering importance has happened on Facebook or my forum. Hmm, the readers are all asking me to write faster.  Maybe I should start that new book now.  Oh my gosh, I’m starving!

12:30 pm – While I’m eating lunch, I check the guestbook on my website to make sure no one is trying to sell Viagra to my readers.  Really. When a guy needs a little boost (or a big one, apparently), he automatically thinks, “Hey, I’ll go look up the guestbook page of a romance author to find out where to buy my Viagra.”  Maybe I’m actually sane, and the world is crazy.

1:00 pm—I clean up from lunch and fold some laundry. I’m feeling bad that I haven’t written anything new today. But I just remembered I have an interview to do for Sizzling Hot Books and a blog to write for the Supernatural Underground.

2:30 pm—My daughter arrives home from school, and I’m ready for a break. We go pick up the mail from my P.O. Box.  My daughter reads the fan letters to me on the way home.

3:30 pm—It’s time to get some serious writing done!  But first, I need a snack. Then, I feel guilty about snacking so I put on a Richard Simmons’ CD and dance.

4:30 pm—Checking my email and Facebook. The blog and interview are finished and emailed off.  I can squeeze in more work on the copyedits before my husband gets home.

6:00 pm—My husband is home, and we’re cooking supper. While I’m chopping up veggies for a salad, he whips out his handy calorie counter book and calculates the numbers on everything we’ve eaten all day. It seems to be working. I’ve lost 10 pounds. Of course, he takes in more calories each day than me, and he’s lost twenty pounds.  I try not to dwell on that while I have a knife in my hand.

7:00 pm—If there’s nothing to watch on television (which seems to happen often), we catch a few hours of Korean television on the computer. Right now, we’re watching a romantic comedy called Smile, Honey.  There are 45 episodes, so we’re picking up some Korean words like Aigoo! (oh gosh!), Komsamida (thank you), and the funny noise they make when they’re really frustrated. It sounds like Au-whish!

9:00 pm—I take a shower and give my hubby a kiss as he stumbles off to bed. I’m feeling bad about not getting started on that new book today.  I’m meeting my critique group for sushi on Friday, and I need something to show them. The house is quiet, so I’ll try to write a few pages.

1:00 am— Where did the time go?  But aigoo! I wrote 10 pages, and they’re not too bad!  Why do I always do my best writing at night?  Au-whish! I must be part vampire!  Off to bed now.  Tomorrow’s another day, and with the new book started, it won’t be quite so scary.

1:10 am – I try to crawl into bed without disturbing my husband’s sleep, but he always hears me and rolls over to give me a hug. He mumbles something that sounds like “Love you.” And I remember why I love to write romance. Komsamida!

EAT PREY LOVE goes on sale next Tuesday, Sept 28th.

And stay tuned for tomorrow’s A Day in the Life of…