MamaWriters are excited to have Carrie Lofty with us today! Author of two medieval romances, her second one, Soundrel’s Kiss, just released from Kensington this month, and she’s talking about the writing of that book, and how, with her young kids newly off to school, the magical appearance of Lots Of Time didn’t appear so magically after all. Hmmm, I was certain that was part of the deal . . .?

Please help us welcome Carrie Lofty!

Scoundrel's Kiss

Many, Many Mochas

Writing SCOUNDREL’S KISS was my first experience of producing fiction under deadline. Until then, I’d worked of my own volition and with self-imposed goals. (Seeing as how my girls were not yet in preschool at the time, that was probably for the best!)

But as I sat down in the fall of 2007 to write SCOUNDREL’S KISS, something miraculous took place: my little darlings went off to school! Preschool and pre-K to be exact, and for only three hours a day, but I thought it the most wondrous three hours any day had ever seen fit to provide.

Imagine that. No interruptions. No other chores. No expectations other than producing new pages each day. Bliss.

Only…it didn’t quite work out that way.

I couldn’t seem to concentrate. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Part of me, after years of staying at home with the girls while my husband finished up his MBA, was in rebellion. I wanted to play around for a while! And to say I lacked discipline is a radical understatement. What I can now do in a day took me the whole work week back then. At such a pitiful rate, I was going to run up against my deadline. Not good!

So I started dropping off the girls and heading straight over to my local coffee shop. Some days I would cheap out and order the $1 house coffee. Other days I would splurge on a mocha. There, I was able to find my groove. All of those uninterrupted, productive three-hour blocks began to materialize as I’d hoped. Chapter after chapter clicked by.

I submitted my manuscript with a month to spare.

Not only did I get past the initial freak out of making my child-free hours productive, I learned how to apply myself toward external deadlines. The skills I’d forgotten since having my daughters came back in force. And it only took an unfathomable number of mochas.

Times have changed since that first fall as a professional writer. My girls are in kindergarten and first grade now, away from home 6+ hours a day. I have time to write, network, promote, do chores, and even sometimes exercise. (Can you tell I’m still thinking along the lines of new year’s resolutions?)

But to do so, I still have to be vigilant, lest I lose whole days to Twitter, “Doctor Who,” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Most times, I do my writing away from my desktop computer, with its super high speed internet connection and gorgeous widescreen monitor. But luckily for my bank account, I eventually learned to spend working hours in the library!

Visit Carrie and check out excerpts and reviews at http://carrielofty.com/