Monday, July 30, 2012

A Day in the Life of Gracen Miller ( + Giveaway)



Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now, on with the show...

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Gracen Miller, author of The Devil's Den, Fairy Casanova, Elfin Blood and the Road to Hell Series. Birmingham, Alabama is where Gracen, her two boys, her superhero husband, their two dogs and two hamsters call home. 

Gracen is a hopeless daydreamer masquerading as a "normal" person in southern society. When not writing, she's a full-time basketball/football/guitar mom for her two sons and a devoted wife to her real-life hero-husband. She's addicted to writing, paranormal romance novels and movies, Alabama football and coffee…addictions are not necessarily in order of priority. She is convinced coffee is nectar from the gods and blending coffee and writing together generates the perfect creative merger. Many of her creative worlds are spawned from coffee highs.





A Day in the Life of Gracen Miller

6:15 AM:
Get woken up by the rude alarm clock. Wake children (Sons A and B) to get ready for school and prepares breakfast as they shower and get dressed.

7:10 AM:
Screams to Son B, who is still lounging on the sofa half awake without having ate breakfast: “You’ve got five minutes before we have to leave!” I scramble up the stairs to throw on semi-respectable clothing and stuff my feet into sandals.

7:15 AM:
Runs down stairs—thankful I arrive at the bottom safely because I’m a bit of a klutz on them—throwing hair into ponytail and cramming a hat on my head. Realizes Son B still hasn’t eaten breakfast and I commence preaching on how he’s going to wish he’d ate because he’ll be starving by lunch, but that we have no time for him to eat now. Son B slooooowly rolls off sofa, with bedhead thanks to a lying around with wet hair, and realizes he hasn’t put on his shoes. I say a speedy mental prayer that God gives me the strength to endure his sluggishness and disorganization!

7:16 AM:
Helps him hunt for shoes that we find stuffed beneath the sofa he was sitting on. I bite my tongue not to repeat for the millionth time that the shoebox is where they belonged and if they’d been there, we wouldn’t have been searching for them.

7:20 AM:
Encourages Son B to speed up with, “Hurry, we gotta go!”

7:25 AM:
Son B finally has his shoes on and I’m yelling as we go out the door, “Love you, have a good day” to Son A who is still upstairs primping before school. His idea of breakfast is chocolate milk, so he fends for himself and he catches the bus at the road, so he’s the easy child.

7:26 AM:
Cranks vehicle, throws it into reverse and realizes I forgot my coffee on the counter. Checks clock, calculates time until school starts and admits to self that I’ll have to forgo the nectar of gods until I return home.

7:40 AM:
Wish Son B a good day at school and drives through carpool to the too happy morning teacher waving with a smile on her face. Oh, how I hate her! I bet she’s had her coffee.

7:55 AM:
Arrives home to the excitement of my dogs as if I’ve been gone for days and days, rather than thirty minutes. Feed dogs.

7:56 AM:
Shudders at cold coffee and shoves it in the microwave for a quick nuke. Runs upstairs to throw on a load of laundry and change into work out clothes.

8:15 AM:
Checks emails and makes necessary replies. Goofs off on Facebook and posts various promotions. Hits any blogs that I follow, check out my author loops, etc. and make any essential comments.

9:30 AM:
Realizes I haven’t had my nectar of the gods and discovers it still sitting in the microwave. Cold again. Re-nukes it, this time standing in front of the microwave waiting.

9:32 AM:
Microwave bings and I indulge in my first taste of sanity. Ahh…nectar of the gods. It doesn’t get better than this.

9:35 AM:
Opens current WIP, re-read what I wrote the prior day. Stares at the blinking cursor lost in the land of—gasps, realizing I forgot the washer full of clothes. Scrambles upstairs, throws clothes in dryer and puts another load in washer.

9:45 AM -12:00 PM:
Read My Review
Goes back to WIP and settles in to write. Ignoring various telemarketer phone calls, husband calls at least once to see how my day is going and to check on the boys.

12:00 PM:
Remembers I forgot to eat breakfast, so I grab another cup of coffee and scope out the cabinets. Find nothing I want, so I sip on my nectar and return to my WIP.

2:00 PM:
Suddenly recalls I’d planned to get a workout at the gym. Too late now as Son B will be home in 45 minutes. Grumbling stomach reminds me I’ve still not eaten lunch. I grab a pack of crackers and munch on them quickly as I make another mug of coffee. Afterward, I run up the stairs to take a shower.

2:25 PM:
As I step out of shower, I’m reminding myself to remove the clothes from washer and hang clothes in dryer.
Madison's Life Lessons (The Road to Hell Series - prequel)

2:45 PM:
Greets Son B as he comes home from school. We chat about his day as he 
gets a snack.

3:15 PM:
Sits at kitchen table with Son B as he works on homework. I catch back up on emails, various author loops and goof off with any friends on Facebook, waiting to offer homework support to Son B if needed.

4:00 PM:
Off to guitar lessons with Son B.

5:00 PM:
Guitar lessons end and we drive to Son A’s school to pick him up from football/basketball practice.

5:30 PM:
Arrive home, start dinner and offer assistance to Son A with any homework he has. (Depending on the day, we may have football/basketball practice for Son B, so instead of going home to cook, Son A and I will sit together in the car or on the bleachers doing homework and chatting).

6:30 PM:
Husband arrives home and helps with any math homework or assignments that require Powerpoint.


7:00-9:00 PM:
Eat dinner, clean kitchen, check email and Facebook while watching a little TV with the family.

9:00 PM:
Tucks everyone into bed—usually including the husband.

9:05 PM:
Opens WIP, glances at what was written that day and thinks how I’m too tired to work any more. So I catch up on missed TV shows and/or chat with friends on Facebook and email.

11:00 PM:
Sets the coffee pot to automatically brew and heads off to bed.

11:30 PM:
Still listening to chatty characters and plotting out a day in the life of the Road to Hell.

Midnight:
Drifting to sleep, I bolt wide-awake, realizing I never hung the clothes in the dryer or removed the clothes from the washer. I decide it’ll wait until tomorrow.

12:30 AM:
Falls asleep to characters chatting.





Learn more about Gracen Miller and the Road to Hell Series on Facebook and on herWebsite.

Thank you for sharing your day with us, Gracen, and thank you, my dear readers, for stopping by. I hope that you've enjoyed "A Day in the Life of.."


and now for a

G  I  V  E  A  W  A  Y!




a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tune in Thursday when my featured guest will be

16 comments:

  1. Wow Gracen you have a very very busy day. But you have to remember to EAT! Not just munch on crackers lol. Wonderful interview.

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  2. Busy mama! I am always forgetting my tea in the microwave, having to reheat it at least twice before I get my act together. Great post! I love these 'Day in the life' posts, Nely! ;D

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    1. Thanks, Shanna. I hope I never run out of guests :)

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  3. thanks for the awesome giveaway can't wait to read one of these here is my katieshelby19@gmail.com

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  4. Gracen, I always do the same thing...get in bed and realize I have left clothes in the washing machine!!! Your day sound crazy just like mine...thank goodness there is nectar of the gods!!! :)

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  5. I love "A Day in the Life" Thank you Nely :) Gracen, you are one busy mom, wife, and author!!! Mama hellhound, you are truly amazing!!!

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  6. Wow!!! You are quite the busy body!! Sounds like a tiring day...

    Thanks for the awesome "A Day in life" post and giveaway!

    Good luck everyone! ^__^

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  7. Wow!!! You are so busy! And I thought that I don't have time to do what I have proposed in a day. Thank you for the post and giveaway!

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  8. LOL.....love the schedule, I am glad I don't have stairs, I would never survive

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  9. Hun, i work 12-15 hour shift and forget to eat, drink, or go to the potty. So more power to you for at least drinking something.

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  10. Blegh to the coffee! Can't stand the stuff :p

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  11. Ha I only have to worry about myself, but I get my nectar of the gods! I don't get to look at my WIP until midnight most nights :( <3 to The Road to Hell Series <3 Team NIX!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  12. Love this post. Oh the glamorous life of an author. bless you guys. I can relate to everything in Gracen's day <3 We love you for all your hard work! :)

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  13. I could see the 2 of us sitting with a cup coffee, bouncing ideas off of each other. I actually did the laundry thing last night, but with the heat, had to rewash the clothes because they an odor coming off of them.....lol

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  14. Would love to win the books! Been dying to read them :)

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