Page 1 of To Save Him

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

AFTER MY DIVORCE, I floundered.  You don’t need the ugly, sordid details any more than I wish to share them, but let’s just suffice it to say I was pathetic—and a shitty mother during that brief dark period in my life.  I found that establishing (and maintaining) a routine was key to my sanity, and my schedule became my lifeline.

My life became boring, to be sure, but sane:

 

- Up at five AM (except weekends).

- Start coffee.

- Morning walk (if it’s snowing, use treadmill instead).

- Get kids up.

- Shower.

- Coffee and newspaper or journaling.

- See kids off to school (used to be driving them to school when they were younger).

- Yoga.

- AM writing.

- Lunch.

- PM writing.

- Time with kids/ homework.

- Dinner.

- Free time.

- Bed time.

 

I was fortunate enough to already be an established independent author when Mel left with his shiny new girlfriend.  I had to step up my game, though:  seven or more hours writing per day, writing one book a month (or more) under various pen names.  Since Mel devolved into irresponsibility after he left and seemed to have forgotten he had kids, I had to become the sole breadwinner for my family.  It involved a lot of hard work and strategy as well as discipline (also helped by my anal schedule)…but I’d done it.  Screw Mel.

No. FuckMel.

One afternoon a few years after the sleazeball had left, I was writing, going at quite a pace.  My goal was typically one thousand words an hour with a five minute break at the top of each hour, and so, at the end of my writing day, I usually had between seven and ten thousand words (unless, of course, I was in revision mode, and then all bets were off).  On this particular day, I had about forty-five minutes left before the kids got home and I’d skipped my last break, because I needed to get the words down on paper.

The blasted doorbell wasn’t helping me out.

I typed a couple of notes so I could pick up where I left off after I got rid of whoever was at the front door and clicked the save icon before rolling my chair back from the desk.  I gritted my teeth before taking a deep breath.  So big deal.  My routine had been interrupted.  I could handle this.

This was, after all, what grown people had to deal with.

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