I’ve just sent  in my latest book.  And for the last week, anyone who walked past my office could tell how close I am to writing those magical words ‘The End’ because – well – let’s be honest here, because of the tip that my office has become.

It’s always like this. I’ve tried to work tidily. I’ve tried to plan things so that I get moments in between chapters to sort out this room and put things away. But it never works out that way. It’s pretty hard to understand, really. I mean, writing a book doesn’t actually take up much space. I need my computer, keyboard, a notepad and pen to scribble down those new ideas of important points I just must not miss. Perhaps a research book or two, one for the language used by the hero I’m writing ( Sicilian this time if you want to know) and one about the country in which he lives or where the book is set. And – er – well, that’s it.

So how does my office come to resemble a landfill site – overflowing with bits and pieces and with the surfaces overflowing so much that things even end up on the floor which is affectionately nicknamed the ‘filing cabinet’ by my family? They have lived with this so long that they can tell what stage a book is at simply the state of the floor.

So I was relieved to read somewhere that people who can’t work unless the place looks like a disaster  are said to be geniuses.

Now that’s the perfect excuse I need – I work in a mess like this because I’m a genius. I can live with that. Or, as my friend Anne McAllister says, we’ share the same interior decorator – “Rooms by Untidy”. I think it’s because as I get deeper into a book, I become more and more involved in the fictional world and less involved in the real one. I’m an ‘all or nothing’ writer so when I start writing I concentrate on it hard until I’ve finished. After which I finally lift my head up and look around at reality again. And I’m usually pretty shocked by what I see.

There are   books I’ve used for research, books I’ve read and need to put  away. Books I’ve bought and  mean to read.  The TBR  pile– Keepers – books to pass on to my son (his reading habit is worse than mine).  There’s the bundle of letters I need to answer the bigger bundle of  receipts for my accounts, there’s the critique I’m supposed to be doing, the  cards and gifts I need to wrap and send to friends with birthdays. There are notes for my next project, research books for that. Maps of Scotland where I’m teaching next week.  Notes for the course I’m teaching . . .

But now that I’m done I can clean my office, sort everything out, buy new office supplies – and maybe even read some of those books.  The only problem there will be choosing which ones to read and in what order.

I’ve been looking forward to this day for  what seems like ages. To a time  when I can heave a sigh of relief, press send on this manuscript and then turn my attention to the tip. I’m looking forward to it . . . The sun is shining outside, reminding me that it’s Spring and time to freshen up the house anyway and I’m beginning to wonder just what colour the carpet is in here.

And next time I’m really going to try to be more organised. . . . honest!

But  I’ve also been looking forward to today for another important reason – today I’m celebrating the publication day of my brand-new USA release – when The Konstantos Marriage Demand comes out in the Presents EXTRA line-up.   It’s always a  fabulous and exciting  day for me, even if I can’t actually get to see the book on the shelves in the bookshops.  And it’s  the day that makes all the work, all the time and  – yes – all the mess  – so worthwhile.   And this book is special to me because it’s earned me the honour of a Romantic Time Top Pick award and a rating of 4.5 stars.  (If you’d like to read more about it, then I’m talking about The Konstantos Marriage Demand over on the I(heart) Presents web site today). And I’ll be chatting with everyone here – and there – when I’m not busy sorting and tidying my office.

What about you? Are you a messy genius like me? Or are you super-organised and efficient. Leave a comment – maybe give me your best tip to help me get things done and keep some order in future. And I have a signed copy of  one of my back list books for whoever Sid picks as  a winner (if I can find Sid in all the mess!)
And I hope you enjoy The Konstantos Marriage Demand if you read it.

FINDING TIME

By Julie Cohen

“How do you find time to write?”

That’s probably the question that people ask me the most, and it’s a fair enough question. For the first two years of my career as a published author, I wrote three or four books a year whilst also working a demanding full- time teaching job. I quit my teaching job when I had my son, but I kept up the word count while changing nappies, going to playgroup and nursing colds. Now I like to say I’m a full-time author, but in reality, you’re never a full-time anything when you’ve got a young child at home.

My usual answer to this question is quite truthful, and it’s this: I write when my son sleeps, and now that he’s older, I write while he’s at nursery. I calculate how many words I need to write daily to meet my deadline, and that’s the number of words I write; it works out at an average of about 1500 a day, which is reasonable.

But that’s not the full story, because actually I’ve found that “How do you find time to write?” isn’t the right question for me. Maybe it was when I was unpublished and writing on hope, but now that writing’s my job, I have to write or I don’t get paid. The real question, the one I struggle with on a daily basis, is this:

“How do you find time not to write?”

Because writing, like any other job, can take up all your time. Even when you’re not at your computer you can be thinking about the characters, or plotting the story, or planning your marketing strategy, or making outlines of questions to ask your editor or agent next time you talk with them on the phone. You can be dropping off postcards at your local book shop or you can be making contacts at your local library. Not to mention all the writers’ groups and websites there are to join, and critique partners’ work you’d like to help with, and research books to read.

Since becoming self-employed I’ve found it hard to turn off from work, especially as I work in the middle of the dining room, so I don’t have a study door to shut. I have to make a conscious decision to shut down the computer and to be there in the moment for my family and friends and especially for my husband and son, with my mind fully engaged, and not flitting off to some fictional world.

My heroines always have a little bit of me mixed in with them, and Nina, the heroine of NINA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF GLOOM, is also someone who finds it difficult to turn off. She’s in love with her boss, and a bit of a workaholic. And when she’s not at work, she’s thinking about portraying the perfect image, buying the perfect shoes, shopping and partying and ringing up her father to make sure he doesn’t forget another dental appointment. She’s always busy, always “on”. Because if she’s busy, she doesn’t have to stay still and be with herself.

And then, of course, she loses it all—her job, her money, her contact with friends and family, even all of her gorgeous shoes—and she’s forced to live in the Temple of Gloom, a run-down gothic building with far too many gargoyles for its own good. She’s got nothing to keep her busy. Nothing to do but be still, and watch, and listen to herself, and learn.

And that’s when her real story, the story of the real Nina, begins.

I look for those moments in my own life: the ones when I can be still and present. Where I can find the courage not to write. I don’t always succeed, but I try.

What about you?

Julie’s website: http://www.julie-cohen.com

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Although many of my blogs here will relate to questions of grammar and usage, I will occasionally dip into the craft of writing. After all, although I was an editor for many years, I am also a fiction writer and enjoy studying both grammar and writing.

Which leads me to today’s topic on writers using the word “huff.”

The last three books I’ve read featured characters who either huffed dialogue (as in, “Unhand me, you cad,” she huffed) or just plain huffed (as in, “He shook his finger in her face. She huffed.”)

Prior to my reading these three books, I don’t recall ever having seen the word “huff” used as a tag for dialogue or as a way of describing a character’s reaction.

And frankly, while I was reading those three books, I found that I really disliked the word because it always pulled me out of the story. I would pause in my reading, trying to visualize the heroine huffing. (First of all, I had to get past the visualization of people huffing paint fumes in order to get high. Fortunately, in the context of the books I was reading, that definition of huffing didn’t apply.)

The second visualization that came to my mind was that of the wolf “huffing and puffing” and blowing houses down in the old story about the three little pigs. Again, not an attractive picture, at least for a heroine.

So exactly how does one huff? I decided to research the question. The definitions I found included “to puff or blow,” “to make noisy threats,” “to bluster,” and “to breathe heavily.” Of the various definitions, “to speak indignantly” was the one that most closely fit in the context of the sentences I’d read in which “huffed” was used as a tag for dialogue.

But if an author wants the heroine to speak indignantly, why not write, “Unhand me, you cad,” she said, waving her fist in his face (or some more imaginative way to show the heroine’s emotions)? But “huffed”? Excuse me; that’s just weak.

Or am I missing something? Is huff a word that is taking on a new and popular meaning? If you’re a writer, do you use “huff”? If you’re a reader, does the word “huff” bother you or do you even notice its use? I’d love to hear your opinion.

An afterword:
A couple of days after I wrote the preceding, I ran across another use of the word “huff” in yet another book, and this time I had no problem with this particular author’s usage. Her sentence read, “She huffed her breath out in a sigh.” Okay, I can totally visualize this. I can even do it, filling my cheeks with air and blowing it out slowly through my lips.

So maybe there is a place for the word “huff” after all. On rather rare occasions, I would hope. Certainly not more than once or twice in an entire book.

But I’d still like your opinion. To huff dialogue or not? Or do you care one way or the other?

Leave a comment and I’ll pick two folks at random to receive a copy of Dealing with Denver, my contemporary romance set in a small Tennessee town where absolutely no one huffs.

Emily Bryan is running a quarterly contest in conjunction with her free online novella A DUKE FOR ALL SEASONS. Each month her readers vote for the direction the story should take and she writes the next chapter. March is the last month a vote will enter readers in her March 31st drawing for a $100 gift card. The link to the contest is: http://www.emilybryan.com/contest.htm

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