USA Today Bestselling Author Tamera Alexander Blog: Sprinting and some favorites

I'm still sprinting my way toward "The End" on rewrites of my next book, and I'm keeping some pretty late hours. I don't know why but I write best (and by that I mean I'm my most productive) between the hours of 10PM and 2AM. Maybe that's because those are the hours during which I first started writing.

I was working outside the home at the time, so I'd put the kids to bed and then write from ten to two, crash for a few hours, get up, and start all over again. Anyway… Night before last, I wrote until almost four o'clock then fell into bed. Then was promptly awakened a little after seven by this:

Sort of cute, but also a little disturbing. He was just sitting there, staring, waiting, wanting his kong.

During these long bouts of writing I take occasional breaks to fill myself back up. Those breaks include caffeine and sometimes a quick scene from a favorite movie or TV show, or a favorite song. I put my headphones on and crank up that volume, and oh…it's like a mini concert. Mandisa stopped by the other night to give me one such concert.

Listen as Mandisa describes the story behind The Truth About Me, a fabulous song on her recently released album (every song is a winner!):

I went for three mile walk the other night and actually kept going for another half mile just so I could listen to Stronger and These Days (two other songs on that same album) again. It's been a long time since I've downloaded an album that's blessed me so much.

I mentioned I watch quick snippets from favorite movies or TV shows. I love watching "reveal" scenes where a truth is finally being unearthed. I study the expressions, the non-verbal cues, the emotions that are conveyed without a single word. And the dialogue in the following scenes––fabulous! Pointed, curt, painfully honest, "custom" to the language of that relationship. Here are a couple of my favorite scenes:

From Sense and Sensibility