Blog Tour Stop: Celia Rees--A Day in the Life.

Today I am joined by a wonderful author, who has written my absolute favourite Historical YA book ever (Witch Child, followed by the sequel Sorceress) to tell us about a typical day in the life of Celia Rees.

Celia Rees studied history at university before going on to teach English in comprehensive schools. She has used her passion for the past and her love of literature to create much-loved novels such as the highly acclaimed Witch Child and its sequel Sorceress, as well as Pirates!, Sovay and The Fool’s Girl. Her new book, This is Not Forgiveness, is published in February 2012 and is available in paperback and eBook.

7:30 – Tea in bed – brought to me by lovely husband Terry.

8:00 – 8:30 – shower, dress, breakfast – not much of a breakfast person, so just muesli or toast.

9:00 – At desk – check e mails and reply to any urgent/interesting ones. I’m not on Twitter and don’t check Facebook all that often. I’ll update my Facebook Fanpage if I’m doing anything interesting.

9:30-ish – working day begins…  This depends on what I’m doing. It could be:

·                                       Actually writing, as in a new book. If it is, I will read over what I wrote the day before, note page no. in my writing log and crack on, or not, depending on how it is going.

·                                         Editing – I’ll look through what I did the day before, find where I’m at and start going through the text with my notes and my editor’s notes.

·                                         Blogging, or writing material for other people’s blogs, like today. I have my own blog which I’m bad at keeping up, but I also contribute once a month to two other blogs - An Awfully Big Blog Adventure http://www.awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/ and The History Girls http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/ so I have to think of something to write about and post it on time. Blogging is a time consuming activity.

·                                         I also have to keep an eye on my website and anything else happening online – writing is not all about sitting at a desk and writing any more – I wish!

·                                         If I’m doing a school visit that week, or appearing somewhere, I might look out material, think about what I’m going to do and update the PowerPoint presentation I’m going to use.

11:00 – 11:30 - Break for coffee. A couple of a days a week, I’ll go into Leamington (the town where I live) and meet friends for coffee. Either Tuesday or Wednesday, I go to a Pilates class at the gym and have coffee afterwards.

1:00 – lunch – soup, or something.

2:00 – 5:00 – Check e mails again then back to work. If I’m writing, I’ll write. If I’m not writing, I’ll spend the afternoon doing research, reading at home, looking things up on the internet, or sometimes I go to Warwick University Library.

I also like to go for a walk at some point in the day, across the fields, or through the parks, or down the canal. Its good exercise and it helps if I’m stuck, or planning, or thinking ahead. I also sometimes go for a swim at the gym (swimming is good for thinking) but not often enough – that’s one of my New Year’s Resolutions.

I generally finish around five, then have an evening meal with my husband about 6ish. I like cooking, so I’ll cook something.

After that, I chill out, read, watch films or TV, or go out with friends for a meal, or to the theatre, or the cinema.

I go to bed at around 11/11:30.

It should go that way, but no day is a typical day because there are so many things a writer is required to do these days besides writing and writers are just like anybody else, with a life that involves shopping and cooking, seeing friends, entertaining, going away on holiday, visiting friends and family, doing research, etc. etc. The trick is to keep some sort of balance, so that there is time for life and time for writing. 

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And there we have it!! Thanks so much Celia, for popping by and sharing details of your day with us. To celebrate the release of Celia's novel, This Is Not Forgiveness, Bloomsbury is offering a SIGNED copy to one lucky person in the UK. Simply leave a comment with your email address to enter. 
The giveaway will open today (8/2/12) and close on the 29/02/12. Again, it is for UK residents only. 

Everyone says that Caro is bad ...but Jamie can't help himself. He thinks of her night and day and can't believe that she wants to be his girlfriend. Gorgeous, impulsive and unconventional, she is totally different to all the other girls he knows. His sister, Martha, hates her. Jamie doesn't know why, but there's no way he's going to take any notice of her warnings to stay away from Caro. But as Jamie falls deeper and deeper under her spell, he realises there is more to Caro - much more. There are the times when she disappears and doesn't get in touch, the small scars on her wrists, her talk about revolutions and taking action, not to mention the rumours he hears about the other men in her life. And then always in the background there is Rob, Jamie's older brother, back from Afghanistan and traumatised after having his leg smashed to bits there. Jamie wants to help him, but Rob seems to be living in a world of his own and is increasingly difficult to reach. With Caro, the summer should have been perfect ...but that isn't how things work out in real life, and Jamie is going to find out the hard way. This taut psychological drama is the brilliant new novel from acclaimed Celia Rees.

You can find out more about Celia Rees and This Is Not Forgiveness by visiting these links:

WEBSITE: www.celiarees.com

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/theofficialceliareesfanpage

EXTRACT: http://www.bloomsbury.com/Celia-Rees/authors/709/article/9730

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTD1w7nKYD0