I'm a bestselling author and also a successful business woman – although the working around fifty to sixty hours a week doesn't always feel successful. It just feels exhausting!
Author Lynda Stacey writes for Female First
I’m the Sales Director of a Stationery company in Doncaster. It’s a job that I never set out to do but ended up with anyhow. Twenty odd years ago, in fact nearer thirty years ago and between jobs (I was a nurse), I said yes to helping out my older brother. He needed someone to do sales. “Start Monday? Just till you start your new job …” he’d said. Well. I’d always been good at talking so, I thought it was a good idea... and yes, you guessed it, I’m still there but now I’m a Director.
My work from Monday to Friday involves sales, organising price files, blending spreadsheets, looking after customer contracts and chatting to all types of customers that range from builders and mechanics, through to Chief Executives, which means that every day is different.
It also means – and this is the bit I love – that I get to do quite a lot of people watching. I pick up on their different mannerisms, attitudes and voices. The result being that, by the time I finish work for the day, I tend to have a whirlwind of ideas flying around in my mind, all which could and most probably would end up being used in a novel somewhere.
But you've probably guessed this, too ... I don’t get to write as often as I’d like. Getting up at 6.30am, getting home at 6pm and then having dinner, a home and a husband to look after, all means that by the time I sit down and write, it’s around 8pm at night.
It’s normally around 10pm when I stop, and this is when I pour the wine (Just the one glass) and relax for around an hour before I go to bed and then the next day it all starts again.
My main writing time is at the weekend when I tend to get up very early, around 6am – there's dedication! But I love those few hours while the house is quiet, while the husband is still sleeping and before I begin doing the washing, ironing and cleaning. Most weekends I get at least three or four hours of each day that are just for me … a mug of tea and my laptop! These are the days I love writing the most. These are the days when I can really get into my characters and the days when I go back and put all the description, the dialogue and the content into the bits of writing I’ve done in the week.
A day in my life does sound exhausting. And it is. But being an author is something I’ve always wanted to do. I'm told I'm rather good at it. This is my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Except, perhaps, for an extra few weekends here and there ...
Lynda Stacey's latest book, House of Christmas Secrets, is released in paperback and audio book on 1 November. It is available through all good book shops and online retailers or via her award winning publishers, Choc Lit - https://www.choc-lit.com/
Lynda Stacey's other Choc Lit books include House of Secrets, and Tell Me No Secrets. She also has a newly released eBook – The Fake Date – a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seats.