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A Day in the Life of…. Frances Fowlkes

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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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After viewing her all-time favorite love story, “Anne of Green Gables”, at the impressionable age of ten, Frances Fowlkes has been obsessed with affable boy-next door heroes, red-heads, and romance stories with lots of “highfaluting mumbo jumbo” written within their pages. It only seems natural then that she married the boy who used to pull on her curls in her high school English class, had not one, but THREE red-headed boys, and penned multiple love stories with bits of flowery prose.
When not writing, Frances loves spending time with her family, playing with makeup, and planning her next vacation.

Frances Fowlkes, originally a northern mid-westerner, now lives in the southeast with her ardent hero of a husband, three playful and rambunctious boys, and one spoiled standard poodle.

A self-professed Anglophile and summa cum laude graduate of LeTourneau University, Frances Fowlkes combines her passion for happily-ever-afters with her interests in both American and English histories.

Frances is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America. She is the second place winner of the historical category of both the 2011 Put Your Heart in a Book Contest and the 2012Maggie's Contest, a finalist in the 2013 Royal Ascot Contest, the second runner-up in the 2013 Marlene Contest, and the first place winner of the 2013 Golden Claddagh Contest. Her first book, "The Duke's Obsession" is due out in 2014 by Entangled Publishing.

A Day in the Life of Frances Fowlkes

…is really pretty ordinary. As a full-time author, I do a whole lot of sitting/hunching/slouching in front of a computer screen while strangling my muse into compliance. Pretty darn glamorous and exciting, right?

My weekdays begin at 6am when I wake my two youngest children and ready them for school. I then feed the dog, wake my husband, empty the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, make the bed, scarf down a bowl of cereal or yogurt and wake the eldest son at 6:30am.

Twitter/Facebook/Email checks follow with a peek at the bank account to make certain everything is balanced and all bills are paid. By this time it is 7am and my laundry needs to be thrown into the dryer. I wash my face, apply a little makeup, throw my hair back into something resembling a ponytail and chug some water.

I’m now ‘ready’ to start writing, which I do on and off for the rest of the day. Between pages, I research while surfing the net, recheck social media, add a few vintage dresses/tops/skirts to my ‘favorites’ list on Modcloth.com, and answer any emails that might have crept my way. A daily call from my mom at 9am, keeps me updated on family gossip. Living half the country away from family is hard sometimes, and this is one of the ways we stay connected. For every 20 minutes of sitting, I exercise for 5 minutes, doing whatever comes to mind, be that jumping jacks, pushups, crunches, squats, you name it. The breaks invigorate me.

Around 11am I eat lunch and take my standard poodle (aka, the “princess”) out for a walk in the neighborhood—rain or shine. I toss her a CET (toothbrush chew) upon our return and write on and off until 2pm when I do my daily household chore. I’ve assigned one chore to each day of the week to make it easy for me to keep up. It’s a Tuesday while I’m writing this, so I vacuum the rugs and then sit my rear back in the chair and write until the kids come home at 3pm.

By then, my brain is pretty much mush, but I help my kids with any homework they might have, pack lunches for the next day, and start dinner. When my husband comes in the door at 6pm, I slack off the computer and catch up with him. We eat, we snuggle, watch our favorite TV programs, put the kids down, and slip into bed by 10pm. I then read a chapter or two of the book on my nightstand OR if the muse is whispering, write a page in my notebook to count toward tomorrow’s word count, and turn off the light by 10:30/11pm.

The schedule varies a bit when doctor appointments or errands interrupt, but I try to stay pretty close to the routine. Weekends are my downtime. I love hanging out with my family doing whatever it is that strikes our fancy. We moved to the southeast a few years ago and we enjoy exploring our new state, driving to see places we’ve never been, while revisiting favorites.

Looking back on this, I thought I’d be bored to tears with the monotony, but there is something to be said for familiarity. I love my days, and while sometimes they can get long and even boring (especially when the words are slow in coming), I wouldn’t change them for the world. I get to do what I love, what I feel called to do every day. I’m one lucky and blessed girl.

London 1818 An American Heiress Who Must Swallow Her Pride

Miss Daphne Farrington despises three things: England's dreary weather, the grimy streets of London, and most especially the English aristocracy. Despite her misgivings, she must persuade the very English Duke of Waverly to save her family shipping business. If only she could ignore the way he makes her pulse race whenever she's near him.

A Duke Who Must Overcome Her Prejudice

Edward Lacey, the Duke of Waverly, is convinced that the lovely Miss Farrington, with her penchant for numbers, is the woman he'd like to make his Duchess. But unless he can convince her that not all English lords are callous, calculating rakes, a dark secret will ruin his chance at happiness.

Goodreads Book Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21916116-the-duke-s-obsession?ac=1

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Dukes-Obsession-Entangled-Scandalous-ebook/dp/B00JO3JMC6(http://amzn.to/1eKsWXl)

Barnes & Noble Buy Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dukes-obsession-frances-fowlkes/1119221480?ean=9781622665983 (http://bit.ly/QutzJa)

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    1. It was great having you! I will have to have you back again sometime :)

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