A year ago I patrolled the streets of the township I work for and spent my shifts going from call to call. Being on a set schedule allowed me to get some good writing time in and my stories were moving quickly.? Earlier this year, I started doing investigations part time. I’d work a major case for a few weeks, staying off the street and “worked the desk” as we call it in law enforcement. My schedule was changing on a weekly basis, some times I would go weeks working the street, then get pulled into the office to work a case. My writing time started to suffer.

Now, 11 months later, I am officially off the street (although I will be called on in emergencies) and I am now doing full time investigations. I’m very excited about this because first off, I love my job. Second off I can focus on more that needs to be done and third, I almost have my weekends back and I am hoping to get back to doing some serious writing.

I have a sign in my kitchen. I love this sign. It hangs above a clock that doesn’t run because the battery is dead. Honestly I feel that is rather fitting and one of the reasons I never changed the batteries. The sign reads, “Once Upon a Time, There was Time.”? If that isn’t the truth, I don’t know what is!

Most days I get up between 4 and 5 in the morning. It is a rare thing when I open my eyes to see a 6 on the digital screen. I spend the first few minutes going through e-mails that came in over night. I answer what needs to be answered right away, put the rest in my “to-do” box and then check out the social media scene real quick. I will scan through posts and tweets, see if I need to respond to anything and then I am off to get dressed and out the door usually within about an hour and a half of getting up.

I’ll do what work I need to do and then head back home after 9 or 10 hours at the station to answer all those other e-mails in my “to-do” box. The ones from overnight and the ones I have gotten during the day while I worked. I’ll again check my social media links, get some tweets ready to go, and finally about 8 or 9 o’clock pass out in bed. If I’m lucky I might be able to keep my eyes open thirty minutes to read, some nights there is just no way. When morning comes, I do it all again.

Now that I am starting to have some weekends off, Saturday morning is my day to sift through everything I missed during the week. Check out posts I wanted to read, but never could, answer interviews questions and write up guest posts.? In between all that, there is a husband and a child that walk through my house, sometimes I hear them and some days I even get lucky enough to talk to them.? Life is crazy… time flies by. I personally can’t believe it is almost Thanksgiving – and I have so much to be thankful for.

So, with the way things are changing, I really hope that I can start finding some time to get more words out. My newest novel, Garda wants so badly to completely come out of my mind, and book 3 of my series is begging for attention! Let’s hope that as I get use to my new schedule, I can find the time to get those two completed so I can work on the other 6 plot lines I have in mind!