This Sentence Is Wrong, Daddy! by Gary Corby

Today we welcome back an old Pens Friend, Gary Corby, whose first novel comes out on October 12. The Pericles Commission is the first in a series of historical mysteries starring Nicolaos, the ambitious son of a minor sculptor. It has already racked up great reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly!

We must say that we are very intrigued by the concept of a "man shed." And we are wondering why we don't get one.




"That sentence is wrong, Daddy. It should be like this..."

So says my 11 year old daughter, who has more literary talent than me. One
day, if she wants, she's going to make some publisher very happy. In the
meantime, she rebalances my sentences.

We have two daughters, 8 and 11, and I have an office at home where I write
books. The office used to be our garage. It was converted long ago, and
it's the perfect hidey-hole for any writer. It's detached from the house,
and it has a door I can shut.

Being a writer at home is a dream job for any parent. My commute to work is
to stumble out of bed, shamble down the corridor, out the front door, across
the courtyard and into my man shed and shut the door behind me. Works just
fine.

Having a work-at-home dad does however make for a different world view for
our girls, and a different role model. Other children have normal fathers
who work in an office and come home in time for dinner. Our girls have a
dad who hangs around the house, and it's not so exciting when he walks
through the door. On the plus side I can take the girls to school.
Sometimes I pick them up in the afternoon. I can get them to after-school
activities. If you have children, you'll be all too aware of the phenomenon
whereby two children need to be in two different places on the same
afternoon, usually at opposite ends of the earth. This can drive a solo
parent to madness, if not speeding fines. 2 Kids + 2 Parents + 2 Cars means
never being late for music lessons, ballet, sport, and debating. In short,
a writer dad can be more involved. I pay for it by working at night when
the girls are asleep, but I was going to do that anyway.

It also means I can be the Father From Hell when the boyfriends begin. Have
you seen the scene in Castle where the boyfriend rings the doorbell, and
Castle appears in the white coat with the severed head and the bloodied
knife? That'll be me.

A lot of people asked me, when I took to writing, whether I would actually
do any work. Surely the temptation to slack off would be overwhelming?

Umm, no. What's overwhelming is the temptation to work on the books every
waking moment. What's hard is to walk out of the office and pay attention
to the outside world. The girls know that when dad's in the office with the
door shut, it's like he's gone to an office somewhere else. They are
fantastically good about following this rule. In fact, working from home if
anything has made the work ethic role model more graphic than it probably is
for most kids. Plus they get a realistic view of how things really work,
since from time to time they catch me playing games or fiddling on twitter
instead of doing the work I said I was about to do. Naughty Daddy.

Two good decisions we made: I deliberately did not install wireless
internet, and we've put all our computers in that one office. When the
girls are online for homework or fun, they're right next to where I can tap
away at books. There's no such thing as unsupervised internet access in our
house. It also means the girls can peer over my shoulder to fix my
sentences.


Web/blog: http://blog.GaryCorby.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GaryCorby