Coffe Break: Deliverance

OK I'm on a deadline so grab some coffee from the machine and lets get down to it. My delivery deadline for my new novel is Tuesday and I think with a little bit of luck and a hell of a lot of graft I'm going to make it which is something of a minor miracle as my personal life is going through quite some serious upheaval at the moment (I'm not going to detail it here, we haven't got all day) PLUS its the summer holidays. Hours in the day to write constitute basically none and yet the book still must get done, because writing - apart from being my joy and my dream - is also my job. I have a fantastic publisher I don't want to let down, fantastic readers who so sweetly write and tell me they can't wait for the next book and when it comes right down to it bills to pay. And life becomes, rather along the theatrical lines, all about the show and how it simply must go on.

Traditionally of course writers embrace upheaval, some even seek it out to feed their creative urges. You'd never see Hemingway looking for a quiet night in and a nice cup of tea or find any of the Miss Brontes deciding to arrange flowers instead of committing their passions to paper. For the most part we consume life, good and bad and absorb it all, ready for that moment when all we feel and fight for comes back to us in the form of fiction.

Many of you are going through difficult times now, and I'm sure that all of you have had your ups and downs - even if at present you are sailing on a calm sea there are bound to be stormy wates ahead somewhere. So my question for you is how do you write when everything around you is going to hell in a hand basket? How do you focus your mind and carry on regardless or do you stick your head under the pillow and hang it all?