Author Feature: A Day in the Life of... J. Anderson Coats

We here at Stalking the Bookshelves thought it might be fun to step behind the veil (if you will) and find out what goes on during an average day in the lives of our favorite authors. This will be a new monthly feature so stay tuned to see who else pops on by.

First up is J. Anderson Coats author of The Wicked and the Just.

A Day in the Life...

5:00 - Alarm goes off.  Regret staying up late to get that extra hundred words in.

5:05 - Shower.  Try to remember where I left off in the WIP.

5:30 - Sit down to write.  Mutter barely-coherent thanks to whoever invented the programmable coffee maker.

6:30 - Save the day’s words.  Assign a sticker to the progress log if warranted.  Crowbar surly teenager out of bed.

6:50 - Sneak in some Facebook while surly teenager reluctantly showers.

7:15 - Hold a mostly-one-sided conversation with surly teenager over toast and generic Lucky Charms.

7:30 - See surly teenager off to school.  Answer as many of All Of The Emails as possible before it’s time to punch in at the Day Job.

7:45 - Fire up the Day Job laptop.  Turn my brain over to spreadsheets and industrial supplies.

10:15 - Take a five-minute Twitter break.  Envy writers lucky enough to write full-time.

12:00 - Spend lunch at my desk answering more of All Of The Emails while nibbling on corn chips and carrot sticks.

2:10 - Tea and candy.  Pet the writing laptop as I pass it by.

4:45 - Log out of the Day Job laptop.  Sit outside for fifteen minutes doing absolutely nothing.

5:30 - Dinner with the family.  Reflect on the bright side of having only one steady income: how nice it is to eat someone else’s cooking.

6:30 - Interact with the family.  Perfect my turns in Mario Kart or soak in a little Downton Abbey.

9:00 - Enforce the unpopular doctrine of bedtime.  Smile politely at surly teenager’s mumbled accusations of fascism.

9:30 - Read a chapter of something that I haven’t written.

10:00 - Scrawl down an idea for the WIP that comes to me as I’m falling asleep.  Realize it’s a whole scene.  Get out of bed, find a notebook, scribble down just a hundred more words...

Follow J. Anderson Coats 

At her blog: http://www.jandersoncoats.com/

Or on twitter: https://twitter.com/#%21/jandersoncoats

The Wicked and the Just
Available now from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 

Thanks so much to Jillian for taking time out of her busy schedule (with a new book out) to write this post for us and for letting us get a sneak peek into her writing process. One of our favorite things about blogging is meeting new people and forming fabulous new friendships!