Author Guest Post: Alice Gaines

Today I'd like to welcome Alice Gaines, author of Storm Bound, to Love To Read For Fun.


Why I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome

Someone recently asked me how I avoid carpal tunnel syndrome when I type all week at my day job and write on the weekends. The question set me back for a minute. You’d think I’d have problems with all the typing I do (like this blog). If you add e-mails into the mix, I spend all my time with my fingers flying over the keys.

Then, reality struck me. My friend had no idea what my writing process is like. She assumed that when I sit down to add pages to my latest magnum opus, the words flow like a bubbling brook, if not the great Mississippi itself. I almost laughed myself silly. My writing day looks a lot more like this:

First of all, I have to have read all my e-mails, answered all my phone calls, checked for the mail at least once and maybe multiple times. On Mondays, I have to have brought the garbage cans in from the curb. Then, I have to assemble everything I need.

In the summer, that means all my gizmos and materials have to go outside to the table in my back yard. I have to have my cell phone, my netbook, my AlphaSmart, and my Nook. I also need the cable that connects my netbook to my AlphaSmart as well as yesterday’s pages and a pen to mark them up. With all that and a cup of tea, it takes me several trips to get it all out there. Invariably once I have, the cat informs me she’s hungry, so I have to go back inside to get her food.

Now, I’m all set to go. I check the pages to see exactly where I left off the day before and turn on the AlphaSmart. And I sit and I stare, first at the keyboard and then at the fence that separates my yard from the apartment building behind me. Birds call. A butterfly flutters by. I notice flowers on the squash plants.

Darn it all, I can’t count on pollinators, so if I want fruits, I have to get up, pick the male flowers and smear the pollen over the sex parts of the female flowers. Hell and damnation, that’s what I’m supposed to be writing. I’m not supposed to be diddling a zucchini.

Back to the wip. I churn out a few paragraphs. Not bad. I sit back and enjoy my wit. I scroll back to the top of the file, trying to estimate how much of my daily quota of words I’ve written. I check the time on my cell phone to map out my progress. I’m way behind and absolutely must write faster.

So, I plunge back in. Now, I have a problem. My hero and heroine are in the middle of a huge argument, and I need a gesture to show her utter and total frustration with his thick headedness. To put myself in the scene, I imagine myself angry and flail my arms around for a while, trying to get a handle on how to describe what I’m doing. Of course, the people in the apartment building can see what I’m doing from the upstairs windows. So, I have to tone it down.

Now, I’ve awakened the cat from where she was sleeping under my chair. She complains that it’s well after noon and time for her treat from the small can of fancy cat food. I go in to get it and, while I’m there, I make another cup of tea and a sandwich. By the time I get back, the cat’s furious with me and letting the whole neighborhood hear about it. (Did I mention she’s part Siamese?) Finally placated, she eats her tuna shreds in sauce while I eat my sandwich.

Back to the writing. Now, I’m making progress, although I still stop from time to time to study some facial expression or gesture. Things go well until I notice a small miracle in my garden…one of the tomatoes is starting to turn orange. I’ll soon have ripe tomatoes to eat. This calls for a celebration. I have to get up and check it out. Then, I have to study every other little green tomato in hopes of finding more evidence of ripening.

After several hours of back and forth from distraction to writing, I think I’m done. I power up the netbook and upload all these glorious new words into it. When I check the word count, I find I’m about fifty words short. Damn. I pound on the keyboard for a few minutes more, spewing anything I hope I’ll be able to use tomorrow. Finally, I reach my goal.

Now, I have to pack everything back up and go into the house. There’s a beer waiting for me there, but only after I’ve fed the cat again.

I think you can see that I’m in no danger of getting a repetitive stress injury from my writing. My neighbors are in more danger of getting a head ache from listening to my cat.

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I have one eARC of Storm Bound to giveaway. To enter, leave a comment with your email address. Giveaway ends 7/25/12.

Synopsis:
Stranded on a steamy tropical island, these three will create their own heat…

Christie Lovejoy is normally all business. But when a hurricane bears down on the exclusive resort she's sharing with two sexy businessmen, it's time to throw caution to the tropical winds. How often do you find two gorgeous men with the hots for you…and the willingness to share?

Wolf Martin and Jon Tucker have been friends for years, and their taste in women has never overlapped…until now. Wolf, Jon, and Christie use the luxurious resort to take the kind of sensual journey that only total isolation will allow. But when the storm recedes, will they be ready to leave their island paradise?

Release Date: July 24, 2012
Published by: Avon