I have several writing rituals that help me stay focused, or stimulate my creativity, or write better — at least, I hope I’m continuing to improve!

Sunlight is absolutely disastrous to my creativity. Not for the reason you’d think, though. I find I can concentrate better if I’m not aware of the passage of time. I’m a bit of a vampire at the best of times, and I was happiest writing in my old office in our basement apartment. It had NO windows. It was like a cave!

So, naturally, we moved to Florida, the state of no basements. I keep the blinds closed all the time, now. The cats, I think, are blissfully unaware that they live in a place called the Sunshine State. If cats needed sunlight to make vitamin D, ours would have rickets 😉

I also love writing during my lunch hour. It breaks up my work day, and the dryness of my day job means that there are TONS of creative juices dying to splurt out on the page.

Editing takes almost as long (for me) as writing does. I have several stages that I complete before I feel I’ve got a finished manuscript. The final one, however, is to read it aloud. Helps me check for flow, awkward phrasing or sentences that are too long.

If you’ve read my book, though, you can probably understand why I may not want an audience! Naturally, this editing phase is NEVER conducted in public. Not even in front of my husband, who is extremely supportive.

The cats, on the other hand, make an attentive and (mostly) non-judgmental audience. I’ve been entertaining them almost daily for the past week with my current work in progress. They do enjoy a good story involving cocks and balls… chickens and rubber bouncy balls, of course – wink, wink.