A Day in the Life of... Amanda Leigh!!!

Thanks so much to +Amanda Leigh for joining me today and doing an 'A Day in the Life of' post. 

Take it away Amanda :)

 A Day in the Life of Amanda Leigh 

 

The interesting thing about writing this post is that hardly any of my days ever look exactly the same. The other interesting thing is this: you likely came to this post just looking for a day in the life of an author. What you will find is a day in the life of an author who also happens to have an extremely rare chronic condition that, as much as she would prefer that it didn’t, affects most areas of her life. But on top of those two things, I am also a fiancée, a daughter, a cook (at lunch and dinner), a pet parent/cat lover, a lover of doing art, and many other things. So let me try to give you a peek into a day in my life.

8:30 a. m.: My alarm goes off and I roll over and take my medicines. Then I usually end up going back to bed for a little while. During the night I’m up anywhere between every 1 to 2 hours.

9:30 a. m.: Ideally this is when I will wake up and get my day started. I’m usually not hungry in the morning because the night time feeding that I get through a kangaroo pump makes me nasaus. But I do often grab some chocolate milk – I love chocolate milk. 

10:00 a. m.: I get dressed, brush my hair, all of that good stuff. Sometimes I’ll also journal or read for a while before I get started with everything. I also go over my to do list for the day. (I have one for almost every day).

10:30 a. m.: On a day where things are going as planned this is when I will take all of my syringes, my liquid medicine bottle (a water bottle filled with medicine that I drink), my pill pouches (pouches that had pills in them that I had to take), and my two water containers from the night out to the kitchen. Then I start the process of cleaning and refilling these things. Ideally, I will also crush my pills for that night and measure out the liquid to fill my feeding bag then.

11:00 a. m.: I check on all of the social media that I have going on, try to reply to any comments that I’ve missed, and things like this. Every other day I try to do my 2 mile walk DVD. (Walking outside is rather difficult for me, especially during the winter. I really love swimming for exercise). If this is a day that I’m not doing that I start my other work. This goes from 11:00-12:00 and can vary from day to day. Right now I’m working on several different things. So here it goes.

11:00 a. m. – 12:00 p. m.: Check, reply and clean out e-mails. Sort it into appropriate folders. Add those new pages to my blogs. Write a character background for a minor character in my new book. In between this take my 11:30 medicines.

12:00 – 1:00 p. m.: I make and eat lunch. Sometimes I’ll do a little journaling or reading here. Or sometimes, I’ll watch a YouTube video with my lunch. Or have lunch over Skype with my fiancé.

1:00 – 2:30 p. m.: Keep working. Write that other character background for a central character in my next book. (This often takes significantly longer because these are much more in depth for me). Then I’ll go ahead and work on rewriting those five or so chapters in the new book in the Point of View that I’ve decided on. (With the help of my critique partner). (Oh, I very much enjoy listening to music while I write and I’m working on a playlist specifically for this book). If I get very into this this can easily take me to the 2:30 mark. If I’m lucky, I’ll also be done with the rewrite.

2:30 – 3:00 p. m.: Take my 2:30 medicines and give myself a little while to rest. These medicines often give me an upset stomach and make me lethargic so I give myself a little while to rest.

3:00 – 5:00 p m.: Back to work! Now, I’ll work on implementing the edits for the third draft of my romance novella. I’m almost done and just have to go over a few more things and add something in. After that, I have to send it off for some fine tune edits. If my rewrites for the first five chapters of my next book aren’t done, I’ll work on those. If they are, or when I’m done, I’ll calculate how many words per day I have to write for April Camp NaNoWriMo – which is when I’m writing the first draft of this book. Perhaps I’ll also do some research into blog designers since I’m looking to give my blog a makeover.

5:00 – 5:30 p. m.: I’ll wrap up anything that I’m doing (usually). I might check my e-mail a second time and respond to anything that needs my attention.

5:30 – 9:00 p. m.: I’ll take my 5:30 medicines, make dinner, eat dinner. Then I’ll relax. Which includes anything from reading blog posts, watching a show (Lost is my favorite), or just browsing for recipes. I try to be in my room by 9:00.

9:00 – 10:00 p. m.: I’m on Skype with my fiancé.

10:00 – 11:00 p. m.: I read or sometimes journal. I try to go to bed at 11:00 but it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I’ll do my 11:30 p.m. medicines early or go to bed early so I get more sleep before I need to do them.

Then throughout the night there are also my 2:30 a. m. medicines and numerous times when I’m up. Oh, and of course my cat, Sawyer, vies for my attention throughout the day. He’s very cuddly. Then I get up and repeat! (With other things thrown in. Doctor’s appointments, blood work, a few outings, et cetera). Though not necessarily the same thing every day. 

Amanda Leigh is a recent college graduate with a BA in English and Communications and a double minor in Psychology and Creative Writing. During college, she worked on the literary magazine and loved every minute of it. She has two poetry collections out so far with another project due out in 2014. She lives with her mom and a kitten named Sawyer – named after one of her favorite characters on Lost. She’s engaged to a man with the same rare chronic condition as her (Nephropathic Cystinosis). Amanda enjoys reading, writing avidly in a journal, writing poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, cooking and art – particularly photography. She also keeps up two blogs. On one she posts all about books and writing, http://www.girlwithapenandadream.blog... and on the other she talks about everything else (medical experiences, music, about her and her fiancé etc.),http://lifeofachronicbibliophile.blog.... Amanda is a bit of a chocoholic and is slightly obsessed with office supplies. She has many ideas for stories so keep an eye out for more work from her.

Website: http://www.authoramandaleigh.com/ 

Book/Writing Blog: http://www.girlwithapenandadream.blogspot.com/ 

Personal Blog: http://lifeofachronicbibliophile.blogspot.com/ 

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmandaLeigh 

Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/APenAndADream 

GoodReads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/AmandaLeighAuthor 

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmandaLeighYA 

Blogoversary Countdown Giveaway with Amanda Leigh!

Welcome to my Blogoversary countdown Giveaway and thank you for joining me in celebrating!

 Today Amanda Leigh is around with a giveaway for you all. She is giving away a copy of ehr book Thousands of Mornings. If you're interested, keep reading!

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Amanda Leigh. I’ve just finished college in the suburbs of New York at Pace University. I received a BA in English and Communications and I minored in Psychology and Creative Writing. While attending Pace I worked on the literary magazine on campus – Vox Arts and Literary Magazine. My first book, the book that I am giving away today, released in June of 2012. My second just released this summer. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was eight. I picked up the love of photography in college. Now that I’ve graduated I’m focusing more on my writing. I’m editing a romance novella right now as well as working on two other projects. I also do freelance writing/editing and will likely start an Etsy shop to sell my photography – the shop will share the name of my first book.

What is the name of the book you are giving away?

The name of the book I am giving away is Thousands of Mornings.

Can you show us the cover and the blurb?

A collection of original poetry and photography.

I say that this poetry is about everything. Life, love, loss, faith, hope, imagination, determination. Everything.

Is the book part of a series or do you plan for it to be part of a series?

I suppose that depends on how you look at it. It’s not technically a series but I have released another poetry collection – Holiday Hospital Stay Poetry Collection 2012 - and plan to release more in the future. I even have the name of my third poetry collection picked out already. =]

What made you come up with the idea for this story? (if you are giving away more than 1, you can either do this for all books you are giving away, or just choose one of them)

Well, this is a collection of poetry and photography. As for the poetry, I really just write about what inspires me at the time. The poems in this book cover a wide age range. I wrote them from age 12 to age 20. So they range from a poem about horses to a poem about the three different worlds that I live in. ;]

As for the photography I just photograph anything that catches my eye. Anything that I find beautiful. As I was putting the collection together I did my best to match up the photographs to the mood/tone/theme of the poem it would end up with. Although for all I know those match ups only make sense to me. =] 

Thanks for stopping by today Amanda :)

You don't have to follow my blog or anything else like that (but I wouldn't mind if you did), all you have to do to enter the giveaway is post a comment WITH your email address and a winner will be picked at random the day after the Blogoversary finishes (29th August 2013). Posting a comment will automatically enter you into the giveaway. Thank peeps and good luck!!! 

***REVIEW*** Thousands of Mornings by Amanda Leigh

Thousands of Mornings by Amanda Leigh

A collection of original photography and poetry.

I received a copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

I haven't read a poetry book in along time, I do own one which I go back to every now and again, it houses some of my favourite poems. But this one by Amanda Leigh is now going to stay on my Kindle permamently, and no doubt I will go back to this one time and time again!

All of the poems were really good, and the photographs Amanda had taken herself too were beautiful. Very simple photographs, but I really liked them.

There were 2 poems in particular that stood out to me. Here they are:
(both poems are copyright of Amanda Leigh, she has given me her permission to use them)

The Horses

Cool wind flying through your hair.
You hear the loud steps.
You run faster.
The steps get louder, you see the place you want to be.
You slow down.
The steps aren’t as loud.
The wind isn’t as cool.
You’re close.
You then slow to a stop.
The steps and the wind stop.
You are thirsty, and you see an astonishingly beautiful, clear lake.
You then go there slowly.
Bending down to take a sip, you feel the fresh cool water trickling down your dry throat.
You see another who looks thirsty.
Walking over to them, you nudge them on the back.
They look at you, and you gesture toward the lake with your head.
You and the other walk over there, and you are content and you are happy.
You are home.

I Love The Way...

I love the way we are when we’re together.
The way you hold my hand.
The way you sing me to sleep.
The way you wipe away the tears that I cry.
The way you kiss me before we say goodbye.
I know we’ll be together forever.
Our love will never die.

I thought these 2 poems were beautiful. 'The Horses' sounded just right, so natural. 'I Love The Way...' is very sweet, and I would love to think everyone gets to feel this way in their lives, I know I do.

A fantastic book of original poetry and photographs by Amanda, if you haven't read it already, grab yourself a copy!