Visit with Michelle Beattie and enter to win a copy of “Her Pirate to Love!”

O The Quirky Life I Lead

I’m not going to lie.  When I imagined being a published author (with a contract and deadlines) I had a different vision of how my days were going to go.  No, I’d never envisioned writing in opulence, a feather boa around my neck and diamonds on my fingers (although I do like diamonds) but I had hoped for a little structure and hopefully less interruptions in my writing day.

Well, a girl can dream.

First of all, I live off solar power.  Yes, people can do that in Canada.  No, it’s not always cold and snowy.  Anyway, living off solar means when the sun is out, I have to take advantage of it.  So despite deadlines, when it’s sunny you can usually find me doing laundry and, if I’m really struggling with writer’s block (also known as procrastination) possibly baking.  If nothing else it’s a good excuse some days.   Sorry characters who won’t talk to me, I don’t have time for you today, it’s sunny and I have to do a load of towels!

Also, my husband has his own business and it’s on the same quarter section of land as our home.  So, much as I love him, it unfortunately means he’s home far too often during the day.  Usually I can set the clock by him.

On top of his business, my husband also has beehives.  I don’t pretend to know that much about them as this is his hobby, but apparently the bees cannot be without a queen for too long. So when one died, I was asked to go pick up a new queen (yes, they sell them separately).  So off I drove, 2 hours with a dead queen to pick up a live one. I texted my hubby, told him I had his queen, and was going for a quick coffee, then would be on my way home.  My friend and I had a lovely coffee, almost 30 minutes, and as I was walking out the coffee shop I checked my phone.  Hubby had texted back, “Hope you have her with you, if it gets too hot in the van she could die.”

WHAT???

I hurried to my vehicle, reminding myself I’d left the windows partially open and yes, she was in a brown paper bag but she came from New Zealand, she should be used to the heat!  Anyway, I got inside and breathed a sigh of relief.  She was alive!  This was good on many fronts as 1) he wouldn’t be mad at me 2) I hadn’t killed royalty and 3) I wouldn’t lose another day writing having to go get another queen.

And so, while I would love to say I spend all day, every day writing, the truth is I don’t.  I try to write from 9 am to 5pm but, as you’ve now seen, things don’t always go as planned.  Still I can say, there’s never a dull moment.  And if there is, well, there’s always Facebook.

No, don’t even get me started on that distraction!

To enter to win a copy of Her Pirate to Love, Book 1 in my Sam Steele series, just leave a comment on this post! Pre-Order In the Arms of a Pirate at your favorite online retailer below. Release day is May 17th!

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Award-winning author Michelle Beattie began writing in 1995, almost immediately after returning from her honeymoon.  It took 12 long years but she achieved her dream of seeing her name on the cover of a book when she sold her novel, What A Pirate Desires, in 2007.  Since then she’s written and published several more historical novels as well a contemporary.  Her pirate books have sold in several languages, been reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly and Romantic Times.  Two of her independent self-published works went on to win the Reader’s Choice Silken Sands Self-Published Star Contest.

When Michelle isn’t writing she enjoys playing golf, reading, walking her dog, travelling and sitting outside enjoying the peace of country life.  Michelle comes from a large family and treasures her brothers and sister as well as the dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins she’s proud to call family.  She lives outside a tiny town in east-central Alberta, Canada with her husband, two teenage daughters and their dog, Ty.