The Writer’s Life with Children’s Author Nancy I. Sanders
D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet
Author: Nancy I. Sanders
Illustrator: E. B. Lewis
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Book’s Website: www.DrinkingGourdAlphabet.wordpress.comMini Interview
Q. What is a typical writing day like for you?
A. Over the years, my writing schedule has reflected the seasons in my life. When I first started writing, I had a newborn and a two-year old. When I was busy caring for the boys during the day, I was constantly brainstorming ideas. When I put them down for their naps, I’d sit down to write.
Now I have the luxury of writing from the moment I get up until my husband, Jeff, comes home from teaching fourth grade in a public elementary school. Both our sons are grown and gone and live nearby. So I can be found writing some days from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. It’s a writer’s dream come true! I keep pinching myself to make sure it’s real, but know as new phases and stages of life come by, new writing schedules will appear.
Every other week or so I have writing groups that meet in my home, so I’m usually writing four full days a week. Before breakfast, I work on little projects such as submitting my current book for state reading lists and awards. After breakfast, I work all morning on my current major project, which over the years has usually been a book deadline. After lunch, I work on short writing projects such as magazine articles, social networking, marketing, new book proposals, and writing for my church.
Q. Where do you write?
A. Now that our sons are grown, I have the luxury of writing all over the house! I remember those early years of writing on a card table on our porch or on a desk squeezed in the corner of our bedroom. I guess those memories help me appreciate all the space I can write in today!
In our office, there are three desks. Two of them are my writing desks. One desk is where my desktop is. The other desk is where my laptop is. Each desk has research books, file folders, and notes on a major writing project I’m currently working on.
I split half my computer time between my desktop and my laptop. Alternating between the two helps keep my eyestrain and wrist strain to a minimum. Also, I carry my laptop out to my couch/recliner where I can type with our two writing buddies, our kittens Sandman and Pitterpat, napping next to me. And when I want a change of scenery I write in our living room looking out the window at our birdfeeders.
Depending on my writing projects, I also spread out my research and notes and manuscript files either on our dining room table or on a 6-foot folding table in the former-boys-bedroom-turned-library. I find I work best if I can keep a project spread out on a single large table and not have to put it away every night. It keeps the flow going smoothly from one day to the next and one chapter to the next.
Website: www.nancyisanders.com
Be sure to follow Nancy's virtual book tour! A complete schedule can be found HERE.
Comments
It's a pleasure having you on my blog today. From from post, I can tell you're living the writer's dream! :-)
Question: you say you work on your desktop and also on your laptop. Do you carry an ISB stick with you where all of your work is contained or--?? I always find working in alternating computers a little confusing because I may not remember later where my 'latest' version of something is located. How do you deal with this?
Wow, from 6am to 6pm! I assume you take short breaks to stretch or do other stuff? Do you have any secrets to keep your eyes from getting too tired? Mine hurt so much at the end of the day.
Thanks, Nancy!
Thanks for sharing.
Linda Della Donna
www.bookorbust.blogspot.com
www.griefcase.net
Thank-you so much for sharing a bit of your world!
Kathy
http://kathleenmoulton.com
I'm not an envious person, but I do envy you having all that time to write. Not that I could ever write from 6.00a.m to 6.00 p.m., but it would be nice to have that much time available. All the best with your tour and other projects.
Your writing schedule obviously works well for you. Glad you have various spots you work in. Once I finally got into gear and started writing first thing my day flowed much smoother.
I always enjoy learning more about you. Great pics!
Best regards,
Donna
The Golden Pathway Story book Blog
And yes, Mayra, it can get confusing working on 2 different computers. I used to carry an ISB or flash drive stick back and forth. But now we have wi-fi so I just e-mail my projects back and forth. I always number or date my manuscripts so I can keep track of which is the most current. But even easier than that is that I try to keep each project on its own computer. So if I'm working on the actual manuscript, say it's on my desktop. But the research is on my laptop. And shorter projects like magazine articles and picture books tend to be on the laptop. I e-mail everything to an online e-mail account every day as backup so I can also retrieve any project from anywhere.
And yes, Mayra, it can get confusing working on 2 different computers. I used to carry an ISB or flash drive stick back and forth. But now we have wi-fi so I just e-mail my projects back and forth. I always number or date my manuscripts so I can keep track of which is the most current. But even easier than that is that I try to keep each project on its own computer. So if I'm working on the actual manuscript, say it's on my desktop. But the research is on my laptop. And shorter projects like magazine articles and picture books tend to be on the laptop. I e-mail everything to an online e-mail account every day as backup so I can also retrieve any project from anywhere.
And may all your writing dreams come true!
Best of luck with the rest of your tour! Your book looks awesome!
I also have a zip drive, but with Dropbox I don't use it as much.
I am wondering what a drop box is. That's a term I haven't heard before.
Marge
Marge, Drop Box is a website to which you can upload files for safekeeping, share them, encrypt them for transfer or keep them private. Someone else may well have a better explanation. I am with Box.net which is also cloud computing, and I back up my important files there weekly. People use these instead of Google docs as some say Google may index the docs on its search engines.
Monti
Mary Montague Sikes
I used to have a nice couch similar to the one in the picture, but the dog before the latest ruined it. Now I have a plain blue one, and Rascal, whom we've had for about 6 years now, doesn't get to sleep on it.
Morgan Mandel
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel