Image by Joshua Kopel , via Flickr Time was when I always met my deadlines, even when I was writing four books a year and had a part-time job. My latest 3 or 4 books have all been turned in late. My work-in-progress, the 24th Daisy Dalrymple mystery (Superfluous Women) was due June 1st. My editor will be happy if I get it to him by the end of July. We both have our fingers crossed. I have an excuse. I have multiple excuses. The most fundamental is the length of the series. After 21 books, I've run through a great many of the possible permutations of plot, character, motive, mode of death, and so on. One of the difficulties of a series such as Daisy's is finding new reasons for her to become involved in investigating murder, and ways to get her husband, DCI Alec Fletcher, on the case. The longer the series grows, the more my powers of invention and imagination are taxed. It takes time to come up with new variations. I've also slowed down for physical reasons. A ...

Image by Joshua Kopel , via Flickr We’ve all been there. You’re under contract to deliver a manuscript to your publisher in 6 months’ time. When you signed the contract, it looked like smooth sailing. Then life happens: an attack of flu, a plumbing crisis, one of your kids breaks an arm. And suddenly you find you have a hundred pages of story left to write and only 48 hours to do it in. Here’s how it goes for me. Day One: 6 am. Alarm goes off. Get up, brew large pot of double-octane coffee, fire up the laptop and get cracking. 8 am. Dog wants out. Refill coffee pot. Resume. Mid-morning: More coffee, chocolate, and a couple of Tylenol tablets. Lunchtime. Flagging. Take shower, wolf down a peanut butter sandwich, sneak a peek at e-mail, instantly abandon it, and get back to the salt mines. Mid-afternoon. Flagging again. More chocolate. Clap on headphones and dial up the Rolling Stones’ Greatest Hits on I-Pod. Crank volume to max and plunge in again. ...

10. Your normally loquacious imagination now mumbles "Umm..." 9. You've worn a path in the carpet from your pacing. 8. You notice you're typing more typos than actual words. 7. You have to describe a sunset. The only word that comes to mind is 'pretty'. 6. You're drinking cold coffee. 5. The manuscript you swore yesterday was near-to-perfect now reveals itself as riddled with errors. 4. Your knowledge of rudimentary grammar and spelling seems to have disappeared along with your typing skills. 3. Your closest relationship is with your thesaurus (see #7). 2. You're convinced this manuscript is the one that will give away that your previous success was an error and you actually have no talent at all. 1. You promise yourself to never put yourself through this again. You know you're lying. ------------------ Elspeth Antonelli Elspeth Antonelli is an author and playwright. Her twelve murder mystery games and two plays are available through ...