A Day in the Life of Kathy Fischer-Brown

photo © Janice Lang

I suppose I take after my father. He was a “night owl,” even when he owned a printing business and spent long days in the car visiting clients and providing personalized service throughout the tristate New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area, often getting home well past the time my sisters and I were in bed. Long past midnight, I’d lie in a haze of semi-consciousness, the sounds from his state-of-art stereo system drifting through the silence of the house as he unwound from his torturous commute. Strains of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Haydn often lulled me back to sleep. Even after he retired, you could find him in the wee hours at his computer, designing posters and greeting cards, or sitting in his recliner dozing off to his favorite music, an open book in his lap.

Maybe it’s in my DNA. I can’t get to bed at what most people consider a “reasonable hour,” and for the past few years I’ve even stopped resetting the clock in my office and work year round on Daylight Saving Time to get that extra hour in :-) I’m most productive and often do my best writing at night. My brain is just hardwired that way and has been since I was teen. Even then, I’d sit in my bed, pen and notebook at the ready, scribbling stories and crummy poems well into the early A.M.

These days, long since my kids have grown and my life is no longer ruled by an alarm clock and a nine-to-five job, I find myself sitting here late at night. Sometimes it has nothing to do with my muse and everything to do with aches and pains that (so far) nothing can relieve. So, instead of tossing and turning and keeping my husband awake, I research online for whatever I’m working on at the moment, or I read…or force myself to write until the pain subsides.

Aimee, aka Munch

A usual day for me starts when most people have already put in a few good hours at their jobs. I don’t caffeinate, but I do like to begin my day with a small pot of decaf coffee (which my husband thoughtfully leaves ready to switch on), a half a bagel, or a cup of yogurt and fresh berries; sometimes, in winter especially, I’ll have a cup of homemade soup or slice of a frittata I’d made the night before. This, while I catch up on the news online, check my email and Facebook. Then I let out one dog into the yard (protected by an invisible fence, or as my grandson calls it, the “magic fence”), and walk the other, our 17-year old, blind cairn terrier, around the block. When I get Aimee re-situated after she’s done her business and we’ve visited her neighborhood friends, I’ll play ball with Evie (our almost 7-year old mutant springer spaniel) until either her tongue is hanging out, or mine is after shlepping around the yard for the tennis balls she refuses to retrieve.

From that point, I usually have a few solid hours to work. Writing, editing, doing research, drinking lots of water. Often Evie gets needy, and she’ll whine or whistle at me, and I’ll have to drop what I’m doing to toss a few more balls and fetch them for her. My husband, a recently retired teacher, keeps himself busy substitute teaching a few days a week at one of the local elementary schools. When he’s home, he’ll take care of the pooches and even do the grocery shopping, which used to be my late afternoon job…that and getting supper prepared. Sometimes he does that as well, giving me more time to do what I do, especially when it’s difficult to stop in the middle of something.

After supper, my husband and I usually watch something together on TV. “Nova” or “Nature,” a few innings of a Yankees baseball game, or a show we’ve DVR’d. Then it’s off to bed for him, and back to work for me.

Evie, aka Evila Monster

I’ll write, edit, read, or research until around 10:30. Then it’s time to take Evie out for “last whiz.” (Aimee is cared for by my daughter and her boyfriend in the evenings and early mornings.) For about an hour or so after that I’ll try to complete the NY Times Crossword puzzle (which I do online), read some news (if I can bear it), some sports news (ditto), check email and Facebook. Then then it’s back to what I was working on until around 2:00-or so. 

Sometimes, when I’m on a roll and my muse is inspired, I’ll lose track of time. Before my husband retired, it was not unusual to pass him in the hallway as he began his day and I ended mine.

~*~

Kathy Fischer Brown is a BWL author of historical novels, Winter Fire, Lord Esterleigh’s Daughter, Courting the Devil, The Partisan’s Wife, and The Return of Tachlanad, her latest release, an epic fantasy adventure for young adult and adult readers. Where the River Narrows, a BWL Canadian Historical Brides book about Loyalist refugees in Quebec (with BWL author Ronald Ady Crouch), will be published in July 2018. 

Check out Kathy’s Books We Love Author page or visit her website. All BWL books are available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon, Kobo, and other online retailers.