Blog Tour: Torn - Erica O'Rourke - When I'm Not Writing

Today, Erica O'Rourke is here with a post about what she does when she's not writing, courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her up-coming release Torn. Thank you for being here, Erica! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. Craft, research, deadlines, promotion, networking, the shiny new project trying to tempt me away from my current one…always, part of my brain is thinking about writing. Or sleep. I think about sleep a lot, too. And buying an iPad. But mostly it’s writing.

At the same time, I’m hanging out with my family. We have three daughters -- the oldest is ten and the baby is almost three, so there is a lot of ferrying them back and forth to school and playdates and activities and sporting events and the library, and a lot of helping with projects and homework. The baby’s favorite game is “Fisher Price Little People Go To The Urgent Care Center,” so I spend a lot of time dispensing antibiotics and bandages to two-inch-high plastic dolls. All three girls love to play at the park, so I spend a lot of time going down slides and exclaiming over tricks on the monkey bars.

After we wrestle the girls into bed for the night, my husband and I try to spend a little time together before I head back into my office. Even if it’s only a half-hour spent watching The Daily Show, it’s one of my favorite parts of the day. We catch up, exchange stories, make plans. We have two cats, Per and Maya, that I’m highly allergic to. I can’t pet them all day, or I’d be a giant swollen asthmatic mess. But we usually let them climb up on the couch and snuggle with us. After a while, Per goes upstairs and sleeps with our oldest daughter. Maya waits until my husband goes to bed, then follows him in and sleeps on top of him. Maya is a little odd.

I like television shows more than movies (that’s a story for another post) but as my writing career has developed, I’ve had to get much more particular about what I watch. Doctor Who is essential viewing, and I am waiting impatiently for Series Two of BBC’s Sherlock. And after every episode of Doctor Who, I have to deconstruct it with my best friend. You would be alarmed at the amount of brainspace I dedicate to Doctor Who.

I love reading. Even if it’s three in the morning when I go to bed, I have to read. Sometimes it’s only a page, but I can’t fall asleep otherwise. I read in a lot of genres: Mysteries, literary fiction, paranormal, historical. Most of them are YA, but not always. I’ll also read books about writing, or research for a project, but for the most part, I prefer fiction.

I can also tell you what I’m not doing: Doing laundry. (Though I spend a lot of time staring balefully at the laundry.) Cooking balanced meals. Scrubbing floors. Vaccuming. The one benefit of being on a tight deadline is that nobody expects your house to be clean, and I take full advantage of it.

Thank you for sharing what you are up to when you're not writing, and thank you for being here today, Erica! I'm going to have to check out Doctor Who one of these days. ;)


Erica O'Rourke can be found on her website, her blog, and on twitter.

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Everyone has secrets.

Even best friends.

Swirling black descends like ravens, large enough to block the glow of the streetlights. A dull roar starts like a train on the 'L', a far-away rumbling that grows louder as it pulls closer, until it's directly overhead and you feel it in your chest, except this doesn't pass you by. Verity, white-faced and eyes blazing, shouts through the din, "Run, Mo!"

Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo—quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo—will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys—protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?

Synopsis taken from goodreads.