It was a little too easy to find a topic to whine about for this post. Wine itself wasn’t going to work as I don’t drink it. It hates me. Half a glass and I’m sick as a dog which is most unfair. It’s like getting the worse kind of hangover before you’ve even got drunk.

I live in New Zealand, which is where the title of this post comes from – a Canadian friend has always told me I live ‘upside down and in the future’ and it’s stuck. On top of living down under and pretty much as far away from the other side of the world as possible, I also work evenings (starting at lunchtime) and weekends. Just imagine trying to get my schedule to mesh with people living elsewhere for things such as online chats and the like?

Uh huh. It sucks. Either I have to take a day off work, which is often easier said than done with staffing levels, get up at the crack of dawn or stay up way too late. It’s usually crack of dawn which totally sucks as I’m not a morning person. One chat I had to set my alarm for 6am. The chat was worth it but by the time I got to mid-afternoon I was totally past it and needed to take a nap. Others I poke my head in for a couple of hours, if that, and then have to make my excuses so that I can go to work. Some I don’t get near at all.

Luckily my publisher, Dreamspinner Press is very understanding and works around this when they can. I did an author chat on Goodreads when my novel Shadowboxing came out and they changed the normal chat time which was a day I work to one I don’t so that I could do it.

Thank goodness for email. Those wait for me until I get home but often has exploded before I get that far. It’s a great reminder of everything I’ve missed. Although it could be worse. I figured if I worked what is considered ‘normal hours’ ie 8.30-5pm Monday to Fridays I’d probably never see a soul online and wouldn’t be able to join in any chats at all, not even to say hi and bye like I often do out of necessity now.

People at work don’t often get why I went for the hours no one else wanted in the last restructure. But then they’re not trying to keep in touch with other authors, readers, and friends on the other side of the world.

Then there’s the being so far away from anything going on. The chances of me ever getting to a convention in the States are fairly remote. I’d need to win the Lotto and so far I’m not having much luck with that one.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my country and I love living here. I just wish sometimes that it wasn’t so far away, and that there were no such things as time zones.

Time travel and teleportation have got a lot of options going for them. All I need is to find a way to get what I write about to become a part of my reality.

Meantime it’s back to a decent cuppa, setting alarms for odd hours, and spending quality time whenever I can grab it.

Anne Barwell lives in Wellington, New Zealand, sharing her home with her twin daughters, at least during the holidays, when one of them isn’t away at university. Her son has left home and started his own family, although she claims she is too young to be a grandmother already. Her three cats are convinced that the house is run to suit them; this is an ongoing “discussion,” and to date it appears as though the cats may be winning.

In 2008 she completed her conjoint BA in English Literature and Music/Bachelor of Teaching and has worked as a music teacher, a primary school teacher, and a librarian. She is a member of the Upper Hutt Science Fiction club and plays piano for her local church and violin for a local orchestra.

She is an avid reader across a wide range of genres and a watcher of far too many TV series and movies, although it can be argued that there is no such thing as “too many.” These, of course, are best enjoyed with a decent cup of tea and further the continuing argument that the concept of “spare time” is really just a myth.

Links:

http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com/

http://coffeeunicorns.wordpress.com/

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_426