WRITING HELL
First, I would like to thank Cindy for having me here today. When she invited me here my first thought was great, I can do March 3rd. After all that is my release date for EVERY TIME WE KISS and two days after my deadline for book 3—no problem. But anyone who has ever written under deadline knows there is always a problem.
I made my deadline. Just barely. I did not write “The End” on book 3 until last Wednesday. But I made it. So where am I going with this? Writing under 
deadline is never easy but it must be done. With the economic uncertainty, the last thing an author needs is an editor looking for a book that hasn’t been turned in yet.
When I started EVERY TIME WE KISS, I was working out of my office that was really an old family room in a 1960s split-level. Then we started the remodel. This was no simple update the kitchen and baths, this was raise the roof, put an addition on the back and take every wall down to the studs. Suddenly, I had contractors knocking on my door at 7 a.m. Dust was out of control and the noise incredible. Did I mention this was my first time writing under deadline?
Before I knew it, my husband and I, and our two boys had moved into our former living room (12×14) with plastic covering the doorways. We had 1 king size mattress, 1 queen size mattress, 1 twin mattress, a small work table for my husband who works from home, an entertainment center with the TV and two portable heaters. It was cozy. (Okay, it really wasn’t). 
I suddenly found myself with no place to write. I couldn’t stay in that room with my husband on the phone and the noise from the contractors. So I started going to the coffee shop every day to write.
I had always liked my privacy when writing, no noise and no one disturbing me. Thank God for the internet classical radio stations so I could plug my headphones in and write…and write. Several times, I really doubted that I could pull this off. But I persevered. As a former software project manager and developer, I had learned that deadlines must be taken seriously. So I gave myself realistic goals for the week. Some weeks 
I made my goals and other weeks I did not. The week my husband was away in a sunny warm locale while Maryland had an awful cold front, not a lot of writing was done. It might have been that the gloves I had to wear in the house didn’t work well on the keyboard. But I didn’t give up. Writing is never easy, whether you are writing for fun (do people really do that?) or writing to get published, or writing to stay published.
I’d love to hear your horror stories of writing under deadline. And if you’re unpublished, have you ever given yourself a deadline? If so, did you make it?
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Great Before and After shots, huh?
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To read Christie’s bio or check out the back cover copy for EVERY NIGHT WE KISS, please see yesterday’s post.
To learn more about Christie and her books, you know the drill—please visit her website.