Which all sounds crazy and weird and mystical, but writing is a bit of all of those things.  It's the ability to crawl so completely into another person's head that you can make a third person believe that character exists.  It's the ultimate acting role, and I love it.

I'm not the kind of writer who hates the process.  I can't imagine working at a job I hate, even though I've had to at various times in my life to survive.  My adult family thinks the Crocodile Hunter is a lunatic.  My kids love him.  I think he's a very lucky man who loves his job about as much as I do.  I just don't do mine on television.  I want kids to know, though, that it's okay to like what you do and do what you like.  A career doesn't have to be about the money, because I certainly don't write for money, because I don't make much.  It's about what you want your life to be about.  What do you want to look back and see when you're ninety?  Do you want to see decade after decade of drudgery or do you want to be throwing yourself down a sand dune after a lizard, screaming, "Crikey, she's a beaut!"  I choose to follow my own lizards, and they've led me on some fun trips.

I start most days with e-mail.  I wear what I want, which is sweats or PJs and a robe.  My cats come to work with me.  Scarlett sits next to my computer and keeps me on task or just sheds on my screen, depending on her mood.  I don't have a boss, so I never have to call in sick.  I don't have to ask for time off, and I take my lunch hour, or not, depending on how much I've written that day or how loud the voice is yelling.  The only interruptions I allow are kid things (doctor's appointments, lessons for my eldest son who's being home- schooled, or any of a billion other distractions kids invent for parents).  Occasionally, I meet some writer friends for lunch and a critique session.  Sometimes I do a school visit.

I don't have a word or page limit.  I write until the voice stops talking, my kids get out of school, or my hands hurt too much to keep going, whichever comes first.

I edit as I write a novel.  I usually start a writing session by reading what I wrote the day before and fixing blatant errors, such as spelling and grammar.  When I'm stuck or know I've written in an inconsistency, I'll revise.  I revise a lot.  I have a list of words I search for and delete when a draft is complete.  My son made me a tombstone with "RIP Dead Verbs" on it, as well as some of the dead words.  They include get, be, grow, begin, start, appear, think, thought, feel, smell, sound, look, turn, just, hold, and become. Unfortunately, there's no word program that does all the tenses of these words, so I end up having to do multiple searches for each word. If you rewrite to avoid these words your writing will be livelier and more interesting.

I do have an agent, and she usually sees my work before it goes to my editor.  My editor at Dutton is great and gives me lots of good feedback.  This doesn't mean I agree with everything she says or that I like to hear it.  Writers tend to think their writing is perfect, but as with everything else, it never is.  We all need coaches to make us strive for that perfect performance, book, or song.  I think of my editor as my coach.  She's there to make me write better .

I don't outline my books, but the book I'm working on now has a very rigid structure.  Even still, I don't necessarily know what is going to happen for each of the 46 scenes/chapters I'm allowing myself to tell this story.  Sometimes I have to trust my characters when they go off on a tangent and follow them.  Sometimes I have to say, "Enough! This doesn't have anything to do with the story you asked me to tell."

I do have my own office, which is important to my way of working.  I need privacy to work well.  I can't have someone looking over my shoulder commenting on what I've written (other than the cat).  It makes the voices of the characters go away or drowns them out.  I've always wanted to write, just as I've always loved to read.  It's so great to do what I've dreamed of doing.  It's what I wish for my own kids, and it's what I wish for all kids.

Do what you love.  The money will follow.