24:7
From the minute I wake up I start working. It's the only way I can do it, because I have such - and a lot of writers say this - I have such terrible fears that this will the day when it finally runs out on me. I feel that if I start straight away it doesn't give the fear time to get a hold.
I write in bed: the minute I wake up I switch on my laptop and Tony, my husband, brings me coffee and off I go. I'm a morning person. Often I wake up thinking about something, something that I maybe would've dreamt about, and I bring it straight away to the writing.
I know it sounds like a bizarre thing to say about creativity, but I think if you train your brain that at a certain point every day it's going to have to start producing, it does oblige after a while. Writing is a craft as much as an art; there's so much workaday mundane stuff associated with writing that never really gets referred to. And I think if you're doing the same thing at the same time every day it does become routine and habit after a while.
Once I've started writing I try not to take a break, because I'm easily distracted. Tony works from home as well and occasionally I'll shout down to him and he'll bring my up something to eat - I know this sounds absolutely horrific, like I'm this little tyrant sitting in the bed shouting orders! But this is the way it works for me, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Maybe other writers can sit down and say, 'I know exactly what I want to achieve today,' but I'm not like that. I'm very random about it. That's the best way for me, because stuff comes out that I hadn't expected. I think if you keep yourself very open to the creative process, you come across gems.
I do my admin when I get out of bed, usually around 3.30. I get a lot of requests to do interviews, talks, to present prizes, and I get post from readers, which is really lovely. There's a lot of things I can't do, but if there's ever anything for charity I always try and do that. And the other things, it's just a question of what's possible with the time I have. Because - and I'm sure other writers say this too - you could spend your entire life doing interviews and promotional work, and not getting any writing done. And, like I say, I'm very prone to distraction so I have to keep a lid on it!
So that brings me up to about 6 o'clock. Then I have my tea. I can't cook, and neither can Tony, so we live on either easy-to-make things or else microwavable ready meals, which I know is absolutely disgraceful, but I think you can't be good at everything, and if I was trying to cook a dinner every evening I 'd be just so wrecked and so worried about it. We take multivitamins, just to make sure that we're getting enough! And I try to eat a lot of fresh fruit and salads to make up for the processed food. I'm mortified saying this, but that's the way it is.
We're learning salsa dancing on Tuesday nights, and on a Wednesday night I go to a writers' group - it's a support group and we do writing exercises - it's lovely. We read things that we've written, and give each other advice and feedback and encouragement. There's five of us, and it's a good number.
I'm also learning to drive, which is long overdue at my advanced age, and it's something that's giving me enormous pleasure. We go for walks - we live in Dun Laoghaire so we're near the pier. I don't do it to be thin, but for my state of mind. Because I think regular exercise for me keeps the blues away, keeps the negative thoughts at bay, and if I have knotty problems with whatever I'm working on, the regular rhythm of walking tends to sort things out, even if I'm not thinking about it.
I see my mother every Thursday, myself and Tony go over, and she makes us a dinner, a proper Irish mammy dinner with beg and it's hot and nourishing, and Tony being a man gets a plate piled up to the ceiling with spuds. I lived in England for along time so I really value being close to my family.
Most nights I would go to bed about 10:30. When I was younger I used to party more. I've the same friends that I always had; I like going out for dinner, I like spicy food, so I'd see my pals and we'd go out for something to eat rather than go to the pub or out to a club. And I love going to comedy gigs and fringe theatre.
And then I have these bursts of glamour occasionally. Like I went to LA because one of my books - Rachel's Holiday - got optioned by a Hollywood studio.
I was incredibly lucky, and people have been immensely decent to me, everyone along the way form the readers to the bookshops to the media. You can't do it on your own, I'm very aware of that. There's an awful lot of very talented writers and not everybody gets what they want. So I am very blessed and fortunate.