My big change to my writing/working routine that I made this year was actually taking weekends – which is to say, not heaping up lists of things I needed to get done on the weekend only to discover on Sunday night that I had failed to do so.

The current edits of Book Two are kicking my arse well and truly – I’m getting the work done, but it’s gone painfully slowly for the first nearly two weeks, and I only have 9 days now before they’re due. You know that thing where people keep asking me how on earth I write with a 5 year old and a baby and I wave my hand airily and say things like ‘oh, I just snatch moments where I can, somehow it all works out?’

Screw that! Obviously I have completely lost whatever knack I used to have for finding time. It doesn’t help that the baby has just moved into the developmental stage which means she needs a person interacting with her pretty much all the time she is awake. I could work in the evenings if I wasn’t already falling asleep by the time Masterchef ends (which coincidentally is about the time I find myself child-free for most of the rest of the evening, except when I don’t). Sometimes Jem will take up to 4 times being put down, screaming, got up again, etc. before she settles down for her night’s sleep, and by the end of it, I’m shattered.

The first week was mostly warming up, and getting to grips with what I had to do. The second was about pushing into a routine and writing new chapters. Now I’m stuck with having to edit 5 chapters a day minimum, no breaks, to get this done. And that means working weekends. No skipping days.

Sometimes it takes me 2 uninterrupted hours to get 5 chapters edited. Sometimes it’s closer to 4. Even that is a mythical number because in my life, there are no uninterrupted hours.

Add to that the general expectation by my children that weekends are times for fun, family, reading, playing, and Mummy not being cranky at them when they ask for things, and the weekend was very, very hard work. It also means I’ve had almost no time to myself – normally the hours snatched from my children on weekends are used to relax and regroup so I can face the week ahead without turning into a gorgon-like creature who tells her 10 month old to make her own damn toast.

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The school holidays are at an end, and that means I am officially back to work tomorrow. I’ve had two weeks of chasing my daughters around the house, reading library books and Wonder Woman comics with them, sewing, blogging and promoting my new release.

What I haven’t been doing, apart from a couple of lapses, is writing Book 3. I have been reading parts of the manuscript, and nutting away at titles, but I just know that when I go back to write Book 3, I want to build up crazy momentum and just blaze away until I get to the end.

Unfortunately that won’t be tomorrow, because my structural edit letter arrived in the mean time, and that means three weeks of frantic rewriting before the manuscript is sent to the copy editor. Editing is all about the frantic, for me.

Over at Ripping Ozzie Reads, I’ve blogged the playlist I constructed today which will hopefully help me build up the momentum I need and get the work done in the pieces of the day I can snatch for myself.

Now, with a couple of hours left of the “holiday” and my daughters asleep, I can put my feet up and watch Robin Van Persie v. Nicklas Bendtner on SBS. (possibly other people from Denmark and the Netherlands are playing, but who really cares about them?) Best case scenario, both boys get hat tricks and get carried around on their respective teams’ shoulders. Worst case scenario, RVP accidentally beheads Nicky B while breaking his own legs. Hey, they’re Arsenal, it’s not that unlikely.

Maureen Johnson has written a great manifesto about how she is not and never intended to become a brand – she elaborates on what’s wrong with that way of thinking (which is ultimately self-defeating, authors who get too obsessive about Branding Themselves tend to put potential readers off) and how the best way to promote yourself on the internet is to be genuinely having fun with the platforms you use. Not a new concept – this is something that Jeff VanderMeer among others has written about – but Maureen being Maureen, the message here is not only loud and clear but extremely entertaining to read.

Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray follows up this post with the deeply ironic story of an author who had been told to brand herself “just like Maureen Johnson” and looks a bit more at the actual issue of promotions in a world where over-branding labels you as insincere.

Branding and marketing are things that authors tend to worry about a lot! How do you promote yourself without coming across as too promote-y?

Maureen’s example of an author so busy trying to sell herself and her message that she’s missed out on a chance to join a conversation is a good lesson to writers, I think – something to try to avoid in ourselves, like reciting “don’t be Anne Rice on Amazon” as a mantra when dealing with critical/inaccurate reviews. Or is that just me?

I think it’s tricky in particular because the internet has changed what many readers want to see from authors. The “professional, flawless demeanour” that many authors display on shiny websites (and perhaps used to display on TV chat shows) can appear hopelessly old-fashioned, and indeed there’s a new generation of authors whose web presence revolves entirely around a tell-all personal blog or a handful of other social media. And of course, many shades in between. I know that I am genuinely startled to discover that an author I am searching for information about doesn’t have a website or blog at all – and it still happens!

As an author myself, especially with a book to promote, I am often super self-conscious at how I am using the internet to promote myself – is it too much, am I being obnoxious, am I saying too much, am I not saying enough? Everyone does it differently. While I don’t go in for the ‘brand’ concept myself(anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that consistency is not my superpower) it’s more because I would be no good at it than because I disapprove of the concept. The word ‘brand’ gets thrown around a lot when I’m talking to Alisa about Twelfth Planet Press because she literally is creating a brand, she’s trying to establish a business which is distinct from herself as a person: it’s about connecting her publishing house in people’s minds with quality fiction, with well-made books, and anything else is just decoration on top of that. Branding makes sense in that context.

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Maggie Stiefvater blogged a little while back about time management, and particularly how it’s possible to juggle writing with parenthood. I never know what to say when people comment on how I write books while I have small children to look after. On the one hand, I’m constantly thinking of my failings, of the long gap between books, of how long it has taken me to get here. On the other, I don’t want to sound flippant, or imply that anyone can do it, that there’s anything particularly special about me. I don’t want to sound all judgy about anyone who does find it impossible. Some days it is impossible, and who am I to say what someone else’s possibility looks like?

What I should say, but never think of at the time, is this: it’s hard work. Raising children is hard work. Balancing any kind of paid work with raising children is bloody hard work. I’ve learned a lot about my writing over the last five years since my first child was born. I’ve learned not to be precious about how and where I write. I’ve learned how to get it done, one achievable goal at a time. I’ve made it to a really important rung on the ladder – selling books to publishers – and am working very hard on the next one – writing books to deadline.

As Maggie says, having children isn’t an excuse not to write. I’d like to add that it can be, however, a very valid reason, whether you’re talking about five years or two weeks. This is particularly pertinent to me because the school holidays started today.

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Bought today:
3 black garments to be worn under red velvet jacket [note to self, check that red velvet jacket still exists]
1 black (non-nursing) bra to be worn under black garments [note to self, provide snacks for baby at launch]
1 red satin snood for hair
1 pearl hair tie
4 assorted animal masks/ear and nose sets, to adorn one picky five-year-old and a baby
1 toy dragon to entertain baby during shopping expedition

Still to buy:
Bobby pins
Eyebrow pencil for the drawing-on of whiskers

Still to make:
A tail (lion) at five-year-old’s request, presumably to go with the mouse ears.

Sound of my daughter purring, wearing cat’s ears with her school uniform and a black furry bowtie:
Priceless

It’s all starting to happen.

I finalised the launch details today with the Hobart Bookshop, and came away with some pretty posters to stick up to advertise the event. The details of the event are here and I’m hoping those Hobart residents out there who read this blog will be coming along to say hi and join the party. Chris and Janet at the Hobart Bookshop always put on a good launch, and it should all be done just in time to go have dinner somewhere lovely in Salamanca, even if it is a Thursday night.

I was going to say it’s a school night, but apparently there are school holidays about to descend upon us (yes Melander, I know you warned me, but I thought it was late June, not the bit of June that is still barely clinging to May!) and so those of you with small children like me do not have to feel guilty about bringing them along. We may have to feel guilty about what wreckage our children perpetrate upon the kiddy corner of the bookshop, but let us not count our regrets before they happen…

Is it odd that I’m more concerned what my children wear to this event than what I wear? When I think about what to wear my brain goes all tunnel visiony and panic-ridden. I have a baby, I live in t-shirts and track pants these days, I’ve forgotten how to dress up! Raeli went as a mermaid to my last book launch, and I’m now kicking myself I didn’t buy little girl cloche hats from Etsy for this one. It’s probably a bit too close to the even to get them sent out now. Still, one never knows when a cloche hat will come in handy. I’ll just put flowers in Raeli’s hair and drape beads on her, and Jem can come dressed as a cat. Or a tiger. Or a wolf cub. All these things are appropriate to the story…

I’m delighted that Craig Wellington will be launching the book. I’ve known Craig since I was a wee child and now he’s terribly important – a theatre producer, performer, comedian, public speaker and writer among other things, and has become a bit of a local legend in Hobart circles. Having him on board brings a lovely sense of occasion to the event, and apparently this is the first time anyone’s ever asked him to launch a book, which is very surprising to me. Glad I could correct it now!

I’m also working away on a few little publicity projects which should come to light over the next week or two. Watch this space!

3rd of June, 5:30pm, Hobart Bookshop, Salamanca Square. Come along!

So April went pretty well, with me getting back into the pace of regular writing. The first week of May… well, I wrote 6800 words or so, which is not shabby at all, and yet falls short of the 7500 I was aiming for. 700 words, that’s not much, right? Except that these things are hard to catch up on and then you get left behind, and…

Looking back on the week I can see my errors. I did great for several days, not only knocking off the 1500 word target comfortably, but also burning through to do lists, which incorporate necessary tasks, housework, exercise, Pendlerook business, other writing/editing, and those things I’ve been putting off for weeks or months. I’ve discovered a few rules of thumb, like that if I don’t factor in exercise I don’t exercise, and that if I want to actually complete a day’s to do list, it has to be a) realistic and b) not have more than 10 items on it.

Things didn’t get problematic until Thursday, a day when I only have about 3 hours at home, and those hours with a baby, which means one naptime. Trying to pack a whole 10 item to do list into that day was a mistake. Deliberately cutting short the amount of writing I had to do that day, to make it up on my much friendlier Friday (in which I have five hours at home before the school pick up, with baby, and at least two naps) would have been fine if I didn’t also have to do items for Friday. 2000 word Fridays are possible if there is nothing else to get done. I was aiming for 2500… plus STUFF.

Btw in case it’s not obvious, ‘nap’ as a unit of measurement is roughly an hour to an hour & a half when the baby (not ME) is napping and I have time to do things without my attention having to be shared.

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Weird to think that April was the first time I had touched Book #3 (which may or may not be called “Saturnalia,” publishers are hoping for something a little more X of/and X to match the first one… we’ll see… ooh how’s “Ides of Saturnalia”???) since NaNoWriMo last year (November, of course) in which I whipped out the first 50,000 words of this sucker.

By the time April rolled around, I was keen to get going, though a touch alarmed at my utter lack of an ending. At the end of this April, I am still no closer to an ending (well, okay, I have a bit of an ending, but not an ENDING ending, I definitely know what the climax will be) but I have a lot more meat on Saturnalia’s bones.

It’s only 20,000 words, but it was a key 20,000 words. And, you know, past the halfway mark, presuming the book doesn’t get delusions of grandeur. All good things.

At this stage I’m planning/hoping to have the whole thing wrapped up sometime in June, with enough time to redraft, polish, and make it awesome instead of merely ‘there.’

Third books are extraordinary things. You have to pay off everything that has come before, but also ideally it is a creature in its own right. I am hoping that each of my books has individual identities, but I’m pretty sure this one has lots of twists and turns coming that no one knows about. Which must be soooo fascinating to read about given how I’m not actually giving any information up at all.

The good news is that I got in a sex scene I wasn’t expecting, between two characters who definitely weren’t supposed to do that, but I can hardly blame them, as they had time to kill, and who wants to read half a chapter of two people waiting around? Not me! I’ll be interested to see the outcomes & ramifications of that little incident, I can tell you! Yes, writing a book is actually much like reading one, only it takes a lot longer.

I’m still building structure and plot and even a little extra world under my feet, so not yet at that exciting running downhill fast part of the book, but hopefully I will get there soon.

The writing part itself is getting harder, as in the physical act, because even as the book sucks me in and is inspiring me greatly, my baby has learned to crawl and is attempting to nap less, which means my 8:30-2:30 work day is shrinking into occasional bouts of 45 minutes or so at a time. All this and I have discovered that actually I really like having a clean house (and it does make baby crawling less stressful to have tidy floors) which SUCKS because as soon as the baby goes down for a nap my brain is all ‘yay, now we can CLEAN’ which I suspect means there’s something deeply wrong with me.

I have no idea when my edits for Book 2 are going to turn up, and I want to get as much of Book 3 as possible drafted before that happens. I’m trying for 30,000 in May given that 20,000 in April worked out so well. May and June especially will be all about Book 1, which will be fairly distracting…

Then, come September, though there will still be editing and proofing and all that stuff to do for 2 & 3, I will be able to write something new. Even possibly to sell something new, as I’ll be trying to sell on proposal first. I’m also putting in grant applications this year for a Nancy Napoleon novel, since I adore her and the timing is pretty good for some more Hobart Noir. New projects are afoot, haharrr. This writing thing is pretty awesome.

So no, as it happens, April Tansy does not grudge March Tansy that month of time off and getting her head together at all! Apologies to those of you hoping for a slapfight. I seem to be juggling things reasonably effectively right now. Though April Tansy is still snickering about the fact that March Tansy entirely failed to plan for those school holidays right at the beginning of the month. There are some in June too. TAKE NOTE, FUTURE TANSY!

Jem is growing up. In the last week she’s gone from slithering over soft toys to flat out crawling, head high, getting into everything. Which is awesome and exciting, but it’s amazing how fast in parenting the ‘oh wow’ moment goes to ‘oh shit’ as you realise that your child is gradually developing the superpowers they need to evade and thwart you.

I managed a pretty good writing week, but I’m relying very heavily on those three naps a day and it’s hard not to be aware that, you know, things change. One day you wake up and they don’t need three naps any more, then not two, and then they stop napping altogether, and then you’re royally screwed.

Still, there are compensations, such as the five-year-old agreeing to feed spoonfuls of vegie mash into her baby sister so that both parents can eat their dinner while it’s hot.

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One of these days I will alert myself to the impending school holidays early enough that I can arrange my work schedule around them, in order to spend quality time with my children without the slightest hint of resentment that, you know, I’m not getting my words written.

This is not that story.

Honestly, in all my planning to take a break in March and get writing like a calm, controlled maniac in April, how did I fail to notice that the Easter holidays started on April 2? Also that the Easter holidays are not in fact the 5 days that people with jobs (such as my honey) get, but last for nearly two weeks. Okay, a week and a day. I did say nearly.

I managed to escape my mummification today in order to drop in on the (inset witty name I have forgotten) writing group down at Mures. While I didn’t get a lot of work done, it was awfully nice to talk about writing, read through some of my ms (boy I used a lot of words in my sentences in November) and generally get my head into the right space for my real return to the novel, on Monday. Oh, school sweet school.

Raeli and I continued work on the Project From Hell, aka ‘oh wouldn’t it be lovely for me and my daughter to make a paper theatre together, all we need is glue and a stanley knife, what could possibly go wrong?’. It looks extremely dodgy but will hopefully be serviceable enough to stage a lopsided paper doll version of the Nutcracker ballet. No one has yet been hurt.

When in doubt, I pull my girls into a heap on one of the extraneous beds in the house (I am now thinking I will have to design my new study around the queen sized bed, I don’t want to give it up, it’s so snuggly for reading on) and read stories with them. Well, I read them. Raeli takes turns reading & being read to. Jem mostly chews on them. It’s an eco-system of sorts…

Tomorrow we’re going for a repeat attempt at an Easter at my Mum’s place, in which no one is taken to hospital or passing gastro to anyone else. There may be brightly dyed eggs, and someone might fall in the creek. No writing will get done.

Monday, Monday, Monday. How I long for you.