A Day in the Life of.. Vanessa Kelly (& Giveaway!!)

Welcome to Stitch Read Cook's weekly feature!!

A Day in the Life of..

This is where us bloggers & fans get a glimpse inside the days of our favorite authors!

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About Vanessa:

I write romance, and I’m proud of it!  Under my Vanessa Kelly name, I write Regency-set historical romance for Kensington Zebra.  My second book, Sex And The Single Earl, won the Maggie Award for Best Historical Romance. I’ve been named by Booklist as one of the “new stars of historical romance” (that was so cool!), and my third book, My Favorite Countess, was recently nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award.  I also write contemporary romance and romantic suspense with my husband, under the pen name of V.K. Sykes.  Amazingly, this has not led to a divorce.

Hubby and I are lucky enough to spend part of the winter in Florida, escaping the snow and ice of our Canadian home.  We spend those months on a small lake which, the occasional alligator aside, is just about as close to paradise as you can get.

 You can find me on my website or my blog.  I’m also on facebook and Twitter.  Come say hi!
 

A Day in the Life of Vanessa Kelly

6:45  Wake up when hubby—who is retired but still rises at the crack—gets out of bed.  Insert earplugs and go back to sleep.

8:00  Decide hubby has finished reading the newspapers, and get out of bed.  Pour bowl of cereal, retrieve newspapers, and vow to spend only 15 minutes scanning the headlines before getting organized for the day.

9:00  Take break from reading newspapers to check Kindle numbers for V.K. Sykes indie published books.

9:30  Finish reading newspapers and vow not to spend time on internet, so as to make up for time spent reading newspapers.  Make first cup of coffee.

11:00  Get off email, Twitter, and facebook and go take shower, lamenting my pathetic lack of discipline.

11:30  Make beds and straighten up, because I absolutely cannot write or even think if the apartment is messy.  Sadly, that is not a procrastination technique.  I literally cannot work if my personal space is disorganized.  Make second cup of coffee.

12:15  Decide it’s too close to lunch to really start on anything, and that I might as well eat.  Go across street to supermarket to get something for lunch.

12:45  Sit down to lunch with a section of the newspaper that I forgot to read this morning.

1:30  Do lunch dishes and firmly exhort myself to go into office and begin writing.  Organize desk and files, pull out my Alphasmart to begin writing, and remember that I have a guest blog post due in a few hours.

1:35  Panic.

1:40  Remember that guest blog post is just a series of interview questions.  Find email containing questions and begin answering them.

1:50  Check email, and get distracted by article sent to me by my critique partner. 

1:55  Decide I have to call critique partner to discuss article.

3:00  Get off phone with critique partner, finish interview questions, and send off to blogger.

3:05  Make cup of tea and take Alphasmart to bedroom to avoid internet distractions.  Begin writing.  Stoutly ignore all phone calls from friends, while feeling extra virtuous that I have such phenomenal self-discipline

4:00  1,000 words later (yay me!), look out of window and realize that it’s a beautiful afternoon.  Pull hubby away from his computer and go for walk.

4:45  Stop by store on way back from walk to pick up dinner fixings.

5:00  Scan recipes for something interesting, then decide to go with one of my standbys.  Less work and I can get back to writing.

5:15  Stick whatever I’m making in the oven, and return to writing.

6:30  Hit target word count for the day.  Turn on news and finish making dinner.

7:15  Eat dinner with hubby.

7:45  Begin cleaning up kitchen with hubby, then realize I have to write blog post for my own blog.  Hubby derails impending panic attack by offering to do dishes while I write blog post.  I refuse to acknowledge his suggestion that this was all part of some fiendish plan to avoid the dishes.

8:30  Finish blog post.  Run bubble bath as treat for having such an awesomely productive day.

9:30  Sit down to watch TV with hubby.  Remind myself how lucky I am to have a devoted husband, a roof over my head, and friends and family who love me.  And a large screen TV in high def. 

11:00 Hubby goes to bed.  I pull out book I’m currently reading, snuggle under quilt on couch, and vow to only read for 20 minutes before going to bed.

11:30  Skim ahead in book to find out where chapter ends.  Decide I might as well read to end of chapter.

1:00  Several chapters later, force myself to close book and turn off light.  Refuse to turn light back on to read, even though I’ve gotten to absolutely the best part of the book.  Finally fall asleep.

GIVEAWAY!!

What’s your favorite part of the day?  That first cup of coffee and the newspaper, or do you really relish that time you carve out to read a book? 

One person who comments will win a copy of My Favorite Countess.

Open to residents of Canada & the US.

Giveaway ends on  December 26th (midnight EST)

All you have to do to enter is answer Vanessa's question!

Don't forget to leave your email address (example:  aislynnt(at)gmail(dot)com)