A Day in the Life of Author Tudor Robins

I’m not
sure what it says that my first reaction is to laugh, but there you go.

There are
two kinds of days: 1) The kind of day I have planned. 2) The kind of day that
actually happens.

Most of my
days start according to plan, simply because it’s too early for anything to go
off the rails. I get out of bed at 6:00, pull on my running clothes (including
a high-visibility safety vest, and a flashing light that wraps around the heel
of my running shoe) and I run about 8K before the sun rises.

By the
time I get home, the house is stirring. My husband is up, and my kids are
either awake, or yawning out of bed. Meaning … breakfast to eat, lunches to
make, school forms to sign, assignments to print off (which should have been
printed the night before!), beds to make, etc. I usually try to get at least
something – muffins, or cookies – baking in the oven while I’m in the kitchen
because our family goes through a LOT of baked goods. And, of course, I squeeze
in my own shower.

Then the
house is empty.

Unless
somebody’s sick, or it’s a snow day, or a PD day – you guessed it – this is
where things can start to leave the planned path.

Going back
to the #1 type of day. On days like this I would go upstairs to my quiet office
and I’d spend the time until noon working on somebody’s resume (I’m a
professional resume-writer, and write over 100 resumes each year). Then I’d
have lunch while I read something captivating on my Kindle, and after lunch I’d
go back to my office and have a productive afternoon writing my work-in-progress
and maybe doing a couple of small promotion-related items on existing books.

So, what
happens on #2 types of days? Well, the basement floods. Or the power goes out.
Or I have to go to one of the boys’ schools to do one of the many volunteer
activities I’m involved in – running a Young Writers’ club, coaching the
curling team, etc. Or the boys come home for lunch, with six friends – each –
and I can’t resist saying hi, and maybe handing out some baked goods (see above
for large amount of baked goods consumed in our house). Sometimes we’re out of
an essential ingredient for dinner and I have to hop on my bike and go out to
get it. Very, very occasionally there’s a car in the driveway during the day
(this happens about six days a year) and I end up doing bigger errands or,
sometimes, even going out to the barn to visit Martin.

And the
work itself – well, that rarely goes according to plan either. I’ll need to
update the back matter of a book. Which means I need to add in a thumbnail of
my latest book cover. Which means I have to launch Gimp and resize the cover to
thumbnail. Then I have to add new links. And … well let’s just say, one thing
leads to another every single time.

I’m not
even going to get into what happens once the kids get home from school. Dinner,
homework, basketball, Scouts, riding, evening meetings, laundry, housework,
etc.

It’s busy,
but I would never trade any of it.

If I
didn’t have a million things to do with my books, it would mean I wasn’t trying
hard enough.

When I
have less to do at home, it’s usually because one of my kids is away and then
I’m sad, because they’re fun, and I miss them.

I always
think, “One day …” One day I’ll have more time to write. I’ll have more time to
work on book promotion. One day I’ll get to the bottom of my to-do list.

Maybe.

Or maybe
not.

And, even
if I did, I’m not sure I’d be any happier than I am now.