3am woke up with a great idea for my current manuscript, typed it into my phone notes and went back to sleep. Most of my good ideas turn up during the early hours and if I don’t immediately note them down, I’ve forgotten by morning.
The Second Life of Nathan Jones
7.15am - My wife is a midwife and she’s off doing a twelve-hour shift so it’s up to me to get the girls ready and out the door for school. Breakfast and clothes are eaten and donned. My eldest Erin (10) says ‘I want a French braid?’‘What like a croissant?’
‘Not bread, B-R-A-I-D.’ she says spelling it out for the idiot.
I’m none the wiser.
‘For my hair.’ she says exasperation evident in her voice.
‘I could manage a pony-tail… maybe.’
‘I’ll do it myself.’ She stomps off to her bedroom with her hairbrush and her younger sister, Emme.
They spend the next hour messing about with each other’s hair until it’s time to leave. They hoist their school-bags onto their backs and I notice that they’re both sporting pony-tails. ‘I could have done that in five minutes.’ I comment and get narrow-eyed withering looks in return.
After they’ve gone I park myself at the living room table ready for a morning of work (the day job). First up is a Skype meeting with colleagues which ultimately ends up as a phone conference due to technical glitches. I could have remained in my pyjamas after all!
At lunchtime I sneak half an hour of editing and working on my latest manuscript before taking part in another tele-conference and submitting a report that is three days overdue. I answer a few emails from my publisher trying to explain why I haven’t finished editing the edited notes they sent me ages ago.
The kids arrive back from school, demanding food. I haven’t even thought about dinner yet. ‘Daddy.’ Emme scolds, ‘I’ve got Brownies in an hour, and Erin’s got Gymnastics.’
‘Pizza?’ My suggestion is greeted by cheers, the first thing I’ve done all day that they approve of!
Over dinner I tell them I’ve got a new book coming out. Emme, asks, ‘Does it have pictures?’
‘It’s got one on the front.’
‘But none inside?’
‘No, just words.’
‘That’s boring, who’d want to read that?’
Who indeed. I’ve put their names on the dedication as well, I might take them off.
After picking them up from gymnastics and brownies and my wife from work we head home and are all ready and in bed within thirty minutes. Just before we go to sleep I tell my wife that Emme wasn’t impressed with my new book. My wife asks, ‘Why can’t you write a book like Fifty Shades of Grey, I might read that?’
I might take her name of the dedication too!
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