Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The joy of late nights at my keyboard

I'm home, fully inspired and dying to write, but unable to FOCUS given my zoo-like household. Here. Let me show you a brief snapshot from yesterday... 10:00 a.m. The treadmill repairman just left. The phone's ringing off the hook, my voicemail is full, my kids are back from Grandma's & already in a full tilt argument. The doorbell keeps going off every 15 minutes, the cats are feeling neglected and making enough noise that I'm considering re-homing them, and the dog's back from the kennel but refuses to climb into the shower.

Fast forward 30 mins: the shower door bursts open and our 170 lb Newfoundland flies out covered in soap with me hot on his heels (dressed, but as wet as he is.) Upstairs I find two of my son's friends and a Fedex guy at the door (the Fedex guy is delivering french copies of The Penny Tree.) I tell the boys to come in and I sign for the books (apologizing for the calamity and my appearance) and when I look up there's a plumber parked in the driveway (here to fix a leak before friends arrive from Winnipeg next week for a visit) and a kid selling chocolate almonds is on his way up my front steps (fundraising for diabetes.)

And I'm sharing this with you because?

Because it helps people understand why I do so much of my writing late at night between 10 pm and 2 am!

14 comments:

Nadine said...

*head shake*

I'd be miserable with all that noise and craziness! I can sure see why you write late at night but where do you find the energy?!! I'd be too tired to be happy at my keyboard.

laughingwolf said...

lol ...sorry holly, but it IS funny, happening to someone else ;)

luckily, my youngest is now 23!

ORION said...

I LOVE Holly's house. It's so cool there's something happening every second!
Actually it's a house filled with laughter- you can't help but be inspired. But yes.
When i stayed there both Holly and I were writing late at night lol!!!

Victoria said...

How did yah ever get published
at all, girl!!??

I'm so tired at night I don't
have the energy to do my laundry let alone write the way you do *sigh*

Anonymous said...

SNORT ** Glad I don't have
that sorta activity in my
humble abode.

You poor thing!

Janet said...

Ah, memories...

May they stay memories. ;o) I've done my time.

You are a hero for getting anything written at all. I certainly could not have at that stage of my life. I'm having enough difficulty now.

Anonymous said...

I'm tired simply reading your
post, living it must be quite
the nerve tingler.

Stop the madness!!!

Unknown said...

OMG! How do you get any writing done? No wonder you work late at night. I can only imagine, I only have 2 cats and I'm exhausted by the end of the day. Let alone doing anything when I get home. Sounds like an active household.

Adam said...

Dude, if you can write your
novels around that kinda household you deserve success bigtime!
Bring on that other novel.

Anonymous said...

Gah! I couldn't focus
around that kind of calamity.
No way. I'm not sure if I admire you for it or if I just think you're plain crazy putting all that stress on yourself. LOL

Dianne D

Spy Scribbler said...

I've been writing at 4am on my front porch. I love the smell of an Ohio morning. I have to take a nap at 8, but it's great.

Melissa Amateis said...

I get most of my writing done at night, too, when the house is relatively calm. Either that or I go in my bedroom, shut the door, and lock it!

Shauna Roberts said...

I got a laugh out of this because it sounds so much like my own life. You seem to manage better at getting your writing in, though. I just get exhausted and go to bed early and tell myself it can't possibly be this hectic tomorrow . . . except it often is.

Sandra Cormier said...

Holy crap, your place is Grand Central Station!

I just don't tell anyone where I live and let the house fall down around my ears.

Now that's my idea of peace. That is, until the rain starts coming through the roof.