As part of Kate Forsyth’s blog tour for her book The Puzzle Ring, we offered her a slot on Chick Lit Reviews and we agreed that writing a timetable of her day would be fantastic. Enjoy!

6.30am Crawl reluctantly out of bed

Make tea & sew up hem to Ben’s school trousers

Make school lunches and ensure he has homework/diary etc

7am Ben leaves for school

Make breakfast for me and the other two kids

Clean up/pack dishwasher/make beds/load of washing on

8.15 Shower & get dressed

8.45 Take kids to school

9am Walk dog for an hour (today I walk to Manly and back along the harbour, which is really beautiful. The sun shines, the water sparkles, and I look out the Sydney Heads to the ocean)

10am I get home, hang out washing, put another load on

Eat a banana, make a cup of tea, & turn on my computer

Check my emails & answer urgent ones – save friends & fan mail for later

10.15 – open up my novel-in-progress and begin writing – manage 1,000 words in next 2 hrs

12.30 – cook scrambled eggs with mushrooms & tomatoes for lunch, & read literary magazine while I eat, then walk around my garden, pulling a few weeds and rubbing aphids off roses

1pm – I ring my agent, then finish an interview I’ve been doing with a university student studying fantasy writing for her Master of Letters at Central Queensland University

1.30pm – back to work on the novel – manage about 1,000 words in next hour and a ½

3pm – pick up kids from school/do grocery shopping

3.30pm – back at work (kids playing or doing homework – despite numerous interruptions manage another 1,000 words before time to cook dinner – takes 3 hours this time)

6.30pm – cook dinner, while sneaking back to my computer every 5 minutes

7pm – eat dinner with my husband and kids/look over homework while they clean up

7.30pm – read a bedtime story to my 5 year old and then have a cuddle and chat with my two big boys (9 and 12), hang out washing, put another load on, finish packing dishwasher

8.30pm – back at my computer. I answer emails, do an interview for a blog, write a few cheques and pay a few bills, and do some work on my newsletter which goes out every 6-8 weeks

9.30pm – Convince myself I might as well do one more hour on the novel instead of going to be and reading my book like I really want to do. The house is quiet, no interruptions – I manage another 1,000 words in the next hour – that’s 4,086 words for the day. Woo hoo!

10.30pm – crawl gratefully into bed

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