My guest is romance author, Elizabeth Seckman. Many perceive the life of a writer as glamorous and easy. Elizabeth tends to snicker over that view of authors. She shares her day with us...
Whenever I wake up, I don the feather boa that accents my silk pajamas, then I float on a cloud to the kitchen where mimosas and strawberries await. After breakfast, I head to my computer and like Rumpelstiltskin (a very gorgeous, curvy female version), I begin spinning words into gold.
After
a few hours, I stop for lunch and go through all the fan mail written on
chocolate stationery. Then I return to work to find that draft I started is
magically finished and ready to be sent to the publisher.With a sharp whistle, courier doves appear and they take the story, page by page, in their little beaks and carry it to the magic place where books are printed and then placed on top sellers lists.
It's not all easy though. Once, I broke a nail.
Okay, so that may be how the world sees a writer's life.
In reality? I roll out of bed in my Sponge Bob pajamas and I put on some fuzzy slippers and a hoodie (I get cold easily). Then I shove the kiddos off to school and I begin. I check email, Facebook, blog, Twitter...anything to delay opening a manuscript file.
When the muse finally gives me a kick in the butt, I start writing. Then the phone rings. Usually a telemarketer letting me know I won a cruise. Back I go. I check my Facebook, email, and Twitter again. Then back to writing.
Then the dog needs to go out. I chastise him for not having opposable thumbs. Then back to writing...after one last email/Facebook check.
I
finally hit the sweet spot- you know, that place where you're completely in the
story and the characters are lining up and telling you what's going on? Yeah,
that spot. I hit that and nothing else matters. Fire alarms sound and if I
don't smell smoke, I don't really care. I'm in the zone. Then the kids come home; the husband returns from work and there I am- still in my Sponge Bob pajamas promising them pizza for dinner.
Tanner Coulter comes from a longer line of wealth-creating, blue blood stock.
Jo graduated college top of her class, moving toward a future full of possibilities. Tanner dropped out of college, trading a law degree for drinking games and one night stands.
A family crisis throws the rich party boy and the poor genius girl together. The attraction is immediate, though neither one is a heart-in-the-sand-drawing believer in true love. But as the summer sun heats up along the shores of the Outer Banks, so does the connection between them. Maybe, just maybe, they can win at love by defying reason. EXCERPT
Elizabeth divides her time between her beach cottage and her scrupulously clean house in the hills of West Virginia.Ooops. That's fantasy Elizabeth. The real Elizabeth spends her days schlepping after her four boys (five if you count their father) and the assortment of pets they swore they'd take care of.
She does live in West Virginia; the house is clean when the mother-in-law visits; and she does have serious dreams of living at the beach.
Elizabeth is a Marshall University graduate with a degree in counseling. This has proven very beneficial when dealing with the make-believe friends she hangs out with all day (she calls this 'writing').
