Normal? I'm taking a year off from the working world to write full time. My husband recently retired and I've learned "royalty" sleeps until noon. Who knew? Meanwhile, we "minions", are up much earlier, ensuring the "kingdom" runs smoothly. We also have three cats. I never realized how much work was involved in a retirement scenario. I like to rise at eight (if cats and life events allow) and read the paper over a leisurely cup of coffee before heading upstairs and booting up the old PC. (Royalty or not, dear hubby knows better than to ask for breakfast-unless he prepares his own. Toast and coffee works for me). I walk two miles five days out of seven, weather depending. Unlike Gene Kelly who might have enjoyed singing and dancing in the rain, I don't like walking in it.

Email is this procrastinator's safe harbor. I check emails and write five pages on any work in progress. I edit and revise one chapter of a "finished" manuscript if one is ready. Are any writers ever really finished? I wonder. I'm currently completed revisions on Pesto Packin' Mama, a contemporary romance with a twist on The Secret Baby Plot.

Then, as most women, there's cooking, cleaning, and marketing to fit in somewhere. And weekly lunch visits with my wonderful crit partner , Jan Dale who is writing an intriguing cozy series that's southern-based, funny and about a tax collector of all things but tremendously appealing. Her agent is currently shopping it around.

--Nan