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I write while my son is at school. At about 7:45 A.M., I walk him there, with the dogs, then walk them for another forty minutes or so, go home and chain myself to the desk a little before 9 A.M., and try not to be distracted until I hear my son plunge through the front door at about 3 P.M.

There'll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.

With two kids it's hard to find down time to write so I often write during their nap time.

I tend to write during the day so I can see my children at night. But if my kids aren't with me and I have a chunk of time when I'm a single woman living in my house for a miraculous week, I will get to write at different hours.

I'm usually done with work around 11am, so I have time before I pick the kids up from school.

I write in the mornings once the kids have gone to school, taking my laptop and a coffee to a little writer's room in town where I plant noise-cancelling headphones on my head and get to work.

By the time the children go to bed, I am as drained as any mother who has spent her day working, car pooling, building Lego castles and shopping for the precisely correct soccer cleat.

To be honest, after you've crossed the line at the Olympic Games, it is bedlam for the next, about, five or six hours. Media, press conference, dope control - you might get some food if you're lucky. You might see family if you're lucky.

But usually I'll wake up and start writing about nine o'clock. I'll probably write for about three hours, and I'll do that over the next month and a half.