#ADayInTheLife: Nicole Locke
PHS columnist, Nicole Locke is kicking off our new #ADayInTheLife column, as we walk a mile in her shoes and follow her to Emerald City ComicCon...
Alright, I confess, I truly was going to share an everyday day with you. But it would look something like this:
Get up, run around, and double check I’m not wearing pajamas when I leave the house. Shepherd kids in the car, and drive them to school. Drive back. Work. Drive to get first kid; drive to get second kid. And if there are after-school clubs, I’m home by 7:30pm.
How much time can I dedicate to work? Four hours in a 24-hour day. And if my brain and fingers had any kindness to me at all, they would allow me to write in those measly hours instead of letting me stare at a blank screen while they frantically pinch biscuits for me to consume.
My day isn’t much different from other people’s. Writing is a job, and can be relatable to other jobs. It’s just…, if you talk to people about your imaginary people they can no longer relate…even my relations can’t relate.
But juggling of my everyday life isn’t always easy or pleasurable (despite the biscuits), and with the scrambling of getting kids to activities, it can be downright stressful.
Thus, I need extraordinary days as well. I’m not talking about skipping out for the weekend to hit the museums. I’m talking about those serendipity moments that make it all worthwhile. I had one recently at the Emerald City Comic Con.
Have I ever been to a Comic Con before? No, but my friend was going, so I tagged along. I’m glad I did. It was heaving. Like Oxford-Circus-During-Christmas crowded with towering waves of comic memorabilia and a sea of crazy fantastic costumes to gawk at as I stood like a sardine in the aisles. All fun; all a delight.
So, what made this trip extraordinary?Well, certainly the historical romance writers’ panel, History Repeats Herself, was special. The panel had seven lively authors chatting about heroines and history, about the persistence and commonality of love no matter the century or gender.
But what made this day extraordinary was the unexpected. Like sitting in the queue waiting to go into the panel’s room, and visiting with a fellow writer next to me. She mostly wrote science fiction, and yet, we found our commonality in our craft and in Outlander.
And of course, I was lucky to meet some of the historical romance writers’ panelists like Stefanie Sloane and Elizabeth Boyle. Authors, who have been through the trenches of writing, who know the business and the imaginative side of it as well.
It’s fellow writers I find inspiring when my day is clogged with picking up soy sauce, gardening tools, and dry cleaning. When I’m schlepping around my overly literal teenage son and my exuberant daughter.
Because I want to write, I need to write and it’s exciting to meet other writers…well…writing, too. They probably can’t explain their imaginary characters to their relations either. But we can relate and inspire each other.
When I set out that day, I wasn’t looking for extraordinary or inspiration, but I found it. My goal now? To find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Currently, I’m looking for ways to make laundry exciting. Any clues?
Have you found the extraordinary in the ordinary? How does inspiration strike in your everyday life? Share your stories with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
