Romy Sommer

I've been in television advertising nearly twelve years and I've never known a year like this one. I've already had more shoot days than I get in the average year and it's barely April. On the plus side, it means good money (as and when I start to see any of it) but on the down side, my writing is taking a beating. I'm either too busy, too tired or too braindead to write. I suspect that my day job is soaring thanks to a combination of the tail end of the recession and the uncertainty of the imminent football world cup. While many industries are gearing for peak business during the mad month of the world cup, mine is expecting a virtual shutdown - or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. I'm praying for a quiet winter so I can get some serious down time (aka writing time). There are just so many stories in my head all waiting to be told, and if I don't get to write them all, my head might just explode ...

The Playboy Duke's Reluctant Bride is now printed, packaged and sealed into its padded envelope, ready to be sent first thing in the morning. It's such a relief to have it done as I feel like I've edited this manuscript to death. Now I've just got to hope that the South African post office doesn't stuff up and mangle or lose the parcel. There are just 18 days left to the deadline, so I really don't want to find out a week or more from now that it's gone astray! The timing is just right as I had a job confirm at the office today, so after more than a month sitting around, the day job will be swinging back into action and I need to give it at least a little attention. (Also, I really need the commission!). This is a two day shoot for BP and wouldn't you know it, the shoot overlaps with my planned holiday to Greece. Lucky I haven't confirmed those flights yet!

We had a public holiday in South Africa today and I spent it as I wish I could spend every day. In the morning I met with my local writing group for breakfast and a writing session, I spent the afternoon with my daughters and the evening after the girls fell asleep editing an earlier chapter. Unfortunately it was just one day. Tomorrow it's back to the grind stone and the day job is becoming a little more demanding of my time as I have a shoot at the end of next week. At least this one is local. The progress has been slow but I'm finally within sight of the end. Chapters Eleven and Thirteen still need tweaking and in the meantime I'm sending the completed chapters out to my online crit group. That RNA deadline is looming and I plan to beat it.

Today is the first day since I arrived in Cape Town that I haven't worked a full day. I managed to sit out for an hour or so this evening on my balcony overlooking the marina and watch the sunset as I hammered away at the keyboard. And the words just flowed! 1,256 words in just a little over an hour. I sincerely hope that means the drought is over and my creative juices are flowing again. I feel pumped enough to keep going but unfortunately I'm expected to do dinner out with the clients tonight. Please keep all fingers and toes crossed that the words keep flowing all week. I just might crack the end of this first draft if I can keep it up until then. And I'm sending an even bigger prayer skywards that this ad shoot runs without a glitch so that I can turn my attention to James and Ally's Happy Ever After.

The powers-that-be at my day job have decided that I'm not worth a new computer, so I've been given a seond hand Macbook to use. Having never used a Mac before, my productivity has dropped dramatically. As this is entirely a work computer, I've decided to keep it at the office and not to use it for my personal stuff, so my word counts are also going to drop until I can afford a new computer of my own. And the new one is going to stay my own . No more being carted to and from the office every day. No more being lugged onto film sets to get scratched and bumped and jolted around and powered by dodgy generators. And it's going to be hot pink. (Rachael - thanks for the idea!) At least I'm back in business and in touch with the outside world. The writing will follow soon enough because I firmly believe that where there's a will, there's a way. Happy writing to all of you out there and may your technology never fail you.

The bad news is ... a cold front has descended on Cape Town and it was seriously cold on set today (out in the open air in a park). The good news is ... I don't have time to pine for my girls as I'm too busy to think. After a couple of 15 hour working days I'm so tired I fall into bed. At least I don't lie awake missing them. The tragic news is ... my laptop hard drive crashed on the weekend. I'm working on a borrowed machine at the moment but everything takes twice as long, as I'm not used to how this one works and keep hitting all the wrong buttons. No idea what I'm going to do for a replacement when I get home to Johannesburg, but I guess I'll leave that to the big boss to decide. The company can either buy me a new one, or save a few pennies and pay me to sit and stare at the walls all day. The really awesome news is ... my baby is actually talking to me on the phone. It's not intelligible talk, but she responds when I call to say goodnight. And ...