#A DayInTheLife: Alanna Lucas

We spend #ADayInTheLife with Alanna Lucas as she walks us though everything from homeschooling, to deadlines, to dinner and more!

My everyday life is not very exciting. On a normal day, I’m up around 6:30 am and head straight to the kitchen for coffee. While enjoying my coffee (milk, no sugar), I tackle emails and social media (I try and limit my time on social media— it would be far too easy to put everything else aside and spend hours scrolling through the feed).

The fun begins once the kids get up. Since I homeschool my two kids, the mornings are occupied with lesson planning, setting up work for the day, and grading. Before I know it, it’s lunchtime. After lunch, I write for an hour before getting on the treadmill. I tried reading on the treadmill once and failed miserably— who knew you could get motion sick while reading a book and walking ;-)

After a quick shower, it’s back to my computer for another round of checking emails before I get some more words in for the day. If I’m on a deadline, I set a higher daily word count goal— usually around 2k words per day.

If I’m not on a deadline, I give my muse free rein. I do tend to spend a lot of time researching— or rather, getting distracted by weird and interesting facts that I can only hope squeeze their way into my story— making notes, and sorting through Pinterest for inspiration.

The evening is reserved for family time. Dinner followed by a game (the current favorite is Ticket to Ride) is the standard routine. An hour before bedtime, everyone retreats to their own quiet corner of the house and reads— or in my case, writes.

Now, having said all that, my current routine is quite different than the normal routine. My family and I are in the process of selling one house, trying to find another, and packing up seventeen years worth of stuff. Most days, blocks of writing and researching are sacrificed to packing and sorting through things. Although the house is consumed with boxes and may look like we’re ready to move, there is still so much to do!

Despite everything going on, I am constantly jotting down notes, scene ideas, or character descriptions. The characters in my head are always revealing things, so a pen and paper are always close at hand.

I told you, not very exciting.

However, life does get exciting when I get to travel (I love to go places!).

This past spring, my daughter and I traveled to New York City for some special mother-daughter time. We walked all over the city, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, and had a little photo shoot with Captain America—Pop! Vinyl’s count ;-). One of the highlights was seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway with my daughter. We both love the book and although I had seen the play many times when it first came to Los Angeles many years ago, sharing the experience with my daughter is a treasured experience.

Your turn, what are some of your treasured experiences?

Alanna's latest release, Only A Hero Will Do, is out now. To find out more about her books, her writing and what she's up to, you can visit her website or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.