Sherry Gloag: A Week In An Author's Life

Today I would like to introduce to you, Sherry Gloag, the author of The Gasquet Princes Series. I love reading about authors’ typical days and so I asked Sherry to tell us about her typical week. Welcome, Sherry, and thank you for being here today.

First, thank you for inviting me to guest on your blog today.

I’d love to be able to tell you I’m some kind of wonder-woman who can do ten thousand things at once and all of them perfectly.  Nice dream; or perhaps nightmare.  Think of trying to main such high standards ad-infinitum?  Urgh!

So what’s the reality? Nothing like the dream, that’s for sure. J

 My average day starts with my wonderful DH bringing me a cup of tea in bed.  For some it is coffee, for me it’s tea. I can’t start the day without a cup of tea.

Do I have a ‘Tinkerbell’ fairy to do my housework for me?  Absolutely not!  So I try to get that out of the way before I sit at the computer.  Otherwise the housework would not get a look in.

The days of chasing kids out the door in time for the school bus are past, but somehow, and I have not discovered how, yet, the time I should gain from that always seems to disappear. When I do get to the PC, I prefer a PC to a laptop, although I do have one, fortunately, as a backup in times of crashes and the like.  I mean, if I didn’t, last summer I would have been in such big trouble when my PC went AWOL, and the –euphemistically named repair company took more than nine weeks to ensure the machine never worked again!  I mean, this may not be a typical part of a writer’s life, thankfully, but it happens, and it proves a writer must keep regular backups of their work.  On that occasion I lost 24 hours worth of work because the machine crashed just before the daily scheduled backup took place.

Another thing I occasionally do is to email my work to myself.  If, as in this case I had to start over with a new machine some of that 24 hours worth of work was still available to me.

Emails.  I love getting emails, especially from readers and friends.  Since I first began dipping mu toe in the online writing world I have met some fabulous writer friends.  People who are so generous with their time, their advice and help and support.

Blogs, both my own and commitments for others generally comes next.  Since I tend to forget about time (I mean where has this year gone so far, already?  There’s only twenty days left until the longest day of the year!) I can’t say I spend ‘x’ amount of time on the PC dealing with all the different online commitments.  Slowly, very slowly I’m getting my head round FB and the likes and still working out how to remember there are others things to do! 

Shopping ranks up there with housework, but my craftwork and hobbies are always calling for my attention, and like writing I find my craftwork very therapeutic.  In fact, given I get so wrapped up in the emotions of my characters, my crystal work is far more therapeutic, as is my gardening!  And with a hosepipe ban in place right now that adds to the work load of keeping the garden watered.

Organisation is not my forte, which is why I never make New Year’s resolutions. I make lists.  Thankfully, I’m not yet at the stage where I make lists of lists.

I do stop for meals, when I remember, or when DH reminds me he/we both need to ‘e-a-t’.

I usually spend the evenings on my writing, writing.

While for many, this routine may seem tepid at best and monotonous at worst, I kinda enjoy it after the rat-race of running our own business for near two decades. I no longer have those endless commitments and daily schedules to customers and business contacts.  Also I am becoming mildly agoraphobic, so I have to take time out to try ensure that does not take over my life. Yes writing means commitment and schedules, but I can set my own, change them to suit me and my family and expand them when required.

I can’t claim to be an organised sort of person, so tweaking my routine from day-to-day, week-to-week, is not a problem for me.  There are days I’ll spend several hours on my WIP, work in progress, and on occasions I may go a couple of days writing little or nothing at all.

I suppose some would accuse me of living life vicariously through my characters, and in a small part they may be right, I do become totally wrapped up in them when the writing is flowing, and woe betide the idiot who interrupts. :-)  During these times family and friends have come to accept they are not at the top of my personal pecking order. But equally there are times when I make them my priority and set my writing aside for them.

I read for pleasure and reviewing.  Since becoming a published author my reading perspective has changed.  I’m more analytical, which is both good and bad.  I learn so much more than I used to when I simply read for pleasure, and it is harder to simply read for pleasure anymore because the analytical mind jumps right in there when I come across a flawed piece of editing or a sentence that once upon a time I’d have ‘read over’, and can’t do so now.

Are there occasions when I wish I was some kind of wonder woman who could sparkle at everything I tackled?  Of course there are.  Especially when I’m trying to work out how to do something, and having absolutely no success at all! But then I try to remember that quote Attributed to Jerome Eugene Morrow, a character from the movie Gattaca (1997). “If at first you don't succeed try, try, try again?”  Since I heard it as a child it must go back a whole lot further than that, but I can’t remember the source :-)

THE GASQUET PRINCES SERIES

BLURB “From Now Until Forever”:

For Prince Liam, families meant bad news, unwanted commitments, and the loss of his personal freedom.  Love spawned white picket fences, slippers at the hearth with a wife and kids making demands, so why did those images disappear when he met Melanie Babcot?

Melanie Babcot fought hard to escape the horrors of her youth and vowed to remain single and free, so when paid to protect Prince Liam from insurgents why did her personal pledge fly out the window?

 BLURB “His Chosen Bride”:

Prince Henri Gasquet is happy to let his father, the king, choose his bride for him until he meets Monica Latimer.

Monica Latimer is not prepared to risk letting any man close enough to learn about her Gift. A gift that normally has men running for the hills when they find out about it.

EXCERPTS

EXCERPT “From Now Until Forever”:

Liam Fitzwilliam Gasquet stared in amazement at the blooming patch of red milliseconds before the pain exploded in his arm. Some trigger-happy idiot had fired in his direction. Indignation didn’t have time to take root before another bullet kicked the dust at his feet.
Not ‘trigger-happy’.

Intentional.

The rebels had found the fourth and youngest son of Jean-Phillipe Gasquet, ruler of the tiny kingdom adjacent to the Swiss border. When had they discovered his whereabouts?

With a reluctant sigh, he faced the truth of it. They hadn’t ‘found’ him at all. They’d followed him.

EXCERPT “His Chosen Bride”:

She lost track of time until the flames caught her attention once more. They flickered from orange to gold, to silver, to white.

A flurry of snowflakes masked the flames and for a second Monica watched the most beautiful, pristine snow-scene she’d ever seen. Her lips curved in longing. How she’d love to get a toboggan and slide down that slope. She knew where it was, and had done just that many times in her childhood, first with her parents and then, in clandestine manner, with her brother. Sneaking an old tin tray from the back of her mother’s walk-in pantry, she’d then grabbed Billy’s hand and they’d rushed out the back gate, heading for the lakeside track that led up into the hills.

Darkness, dense and thick with grief dropped over the scene.

Startled and disconcerted by the strength of emotion emanating from the vision Monica shifted to her knees, ready to stand, when a voice, a deep male voice, sharp with fear called out her name.

“Monica!”

She knew she’d never heard the voice before, and yet—it was as familiar to her as the image she saw in her mirror each morning.

“Help me, Monica.”

Desperate for more clues, she searched the darkness within the flames until it sputtered and faded. With a curse she jumped up and ran for the phone. With her outstretched hand hovering over it she halted and let her hand drop to her side once more. What could she say? What would the police or rescue team think of her if she called them and told them she’d seen a vision of a man in distress?

They’d laugh in her face and classify her as a lunatic. Well, maybe not. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d contacted them with positive information but something—an instinctive gut reaction told her what she’d seen this time hadn’t happened yet.

                                             ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Multi-published author, Sherry Gloag is a transplanted Scot now living in the beautiful coastal countryside of Norfolk, England.  She considers the surrounding countryside as extension of her own garden, to which she escapes when she needs "thinking time" and solitude to work out the plots for her next novel.  While out walking she enjoys talking to her characters, as long as there are no other walkers close by.

Apart from writing, Sherry enjoys gardening, walking, reading and cheerfully admits her books tend to take over most of the shelf and floor space in her workroom-cum-office.  She also finds crystal craft work therapeutic.

GIVEAWAYS

Sherry will giving away the following prizes:

* One randomly drawn commenter at every stop will win a hand-crafted book thong.

* One randomly drawn commenter during the tour will win a hand-crafted selenite pendent

* The host with the most comments (excluding Sherry's and the host's) will win a hand-crafted selenite pendent 

 Note:  This giveaway is international

 Please follow the tour and comment to increase your chances of winning.

The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/05/virtual-book-tour-gasquet-princes.html

IMPORTANT LINKS

http://www.sherrygloag.com/

http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=689789287

Buy Links for “From Now Until Forever”:

http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=7105194

http://www.amazon.com/From-Now-Until-Forever-ebook/dp/B006GYAV44/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322854797&sr=1-1-spell

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/sherry-gloag-from-now-until-forever?keyword=sherry+gloag+from+now+until+forever&store=book

Buy Links for “His Chosen Bride”:

http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=9472803