She's Still Alive

…but I've no idea why.

Back on July 4th, several writers on one of the online groups she participates in listed out all their activities for the day. I believe the point was to illustrate just what all a writer can accomplish in a single day when one puts one's mind to it. I asked why she didn't do the same and got some odd excuse about no one caring what she does in a day.

I beg to differ. It's stunning. And so, while she's distracted, let me either prove her wrong or right. You can vote with the comment field.

This weekend, in the life of one particular writer (my fantasy author, Sandy Lender), the following tasks were accomplished. It proves that writers do more than just sit around writing all day (even if unemployed, by the way, which she's not anymore).

SATURDAY
12:01 a.m., she was still at work trying to earn money to pay the bills someone left her with
3 a.m. she got home and collapsed into bed (after removing her shoes)
5:30 a.m. she turned off the alarm because she had already requested a substitute for her sea turtle patrol because of the rest of the day's tasks
7:30 a.m. showered
made breakfast
cleaned the bird cage
did a load of laundry
did the dishes from Friday morning
wrote down the sites where she's appearing on her online book tour this week on the backs of business cards because she has no printer because the stellar-example-of-a-husband took it when he abandoned her and the house
drove up to the bank to deposit her check from the day job (her employer doesn't have direct-deposit, whatever that means)
put gas in her car
drove to Bonita to attend an FWA meeting (about an hour up the road from the house, and, yes, she jotted down notes in the car, which made other drivers steer out of her lane—she completely ignores them when they honk)
read mail from her inbasket at the office so it won't be stressing her out Monday morning
used the computer at the office to blog/take care of e-mail
read a Stargate fanfic piece by her friend Linda
hit the grocery store
put groceries away
talked to the baby bunny by the front porch
installed the modem from the phone company
typed a 2,588-word synopsis with 1,234-word character description list for Choices Made By Gods (working title) for her publisher
put away laundry from morning
collapsed into bed at 1:30 a.m.

SUNDAY
7 a.m. Blissfully well-rested! Played with pet bird
cooked eggs for this week's breakfasts
baked brownies for neighbors
raked remaining two-thirds of front yard
buried two dead baby bunnies that she found, set out food and water for the live baby bunny she scared (story above)
put salt in water system on side of house
worked out a truce with black snake on back porch
showered, cleaned bathroom (including putting liquid plumber down the drains, which I don't understand and she said I won't understand until stress causes all my hair to fall out of my head)
ate breakfast and started laundry
sat down in the living room floor with stamps, the check book, envelopes, a calculator, a pad of paper, and a stack of bills to figure out who gets paid this week
figured out that one of those bills was not the invoice she was expecting from BlueCross/BlueDeath but a note informing her that they'd received her "wish to withdraw her application" and had closed her file (imagine how pissed off she is), which prompted a remarkably calm and professional-sounding call to her insurance agent so she could get a call back from him Monday morning
wrote a letter of inquiry to the homeowner's insurance agency about the status of that policy in light of the foreclosure situation
wrote a letter to the credit card company disputing a service she had canceled
wrote a letter to Simon LeBon to go with the book his PR gal said she could send, which stressed her out for some reason
threw an idea of mine into Book II of the Choices trilogy
took the brownies over to the neighbors
scrounged around for a late lunch
took a nap but woke herself up when a demon started strangling her (yes, she's still having horrible dreams)
wrote all the blog posts for http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/ to promote the CMFG Online Book Tour this week
wrote all the Word of the Day posts for http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/ for this week
wrote tomorrow's Grammar Guide for http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/
refilled the bucket she takes Petri's food from each morning, picking out the white pellets because he doesn't like them (I swear, that bird is so spoiled)
cooked dinner
washed dishes from the weekend
put away laundry from the day
collapsed into bed at 1 a.m.

Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, writers life, Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Made by Gods