It was the case for a number of years that I was doing a book a year, but that was back when I was part-time teaching - and since 1991, I've been a parent, so that cuts into the time!
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For 10 or 11 years, I had my kids, I wrote four or five books, and I was working all the damn time.
I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books.
I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books. While I'm writing a book, which I probably do two out of every three years, it's like having a second job. I squeeze in the hours when I can.
For a very long time, I wrote a book a year, and was eager and willing to do it, to put bread on the table, to have my work out there. Now I must write a book every two years, and that's never enough time, either.
It usually takes me a year to do a book. A year or eighteen months.
In the middle of my fourth year teaching is when I got my book contract - in 2010. I knew the book would come out in May 2011.
My post-child period resulted in one instant change: I write shorter books for kids.
I only did about one novel a year while I was working full time, but since 1993, I've averaged two and a half books a year.
I have written more than 100 novels and novellas since 1983 - I was first published in 1985. There was an overlap of three years with my teaching career, but finally I felt good enough about my writing career to quit teaching and write full time.
I still have a full-time day job, which is why it took me five years to write An Ear to the Ground, and why I won't have another book finished by next week.