A Day in the Life: Kate Coursey

Kate Coursey is a 19-year-old YA writer from Salt Lake City, Utah represented by Edward Necarsulmer IV of McIntosh & Otis.

Her first novel is undergoing revisions at Scholastic Press and she runs a freelance editing service called Teen Eyes.

Kate shares a Thursday at college and reminds us that class doesn't mean the party has to end.  I miss college!

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8:00 a.m. - My alarm goes off, as does my roommate’s. We both grunt, roll over, and press snooze.

8:15 a.m - Alarm goes off a second time. Expletives follow.

8:30 a.m. - Alarm finally wins out. I’m up. I mumble something semi-incoherent to Caitlin (apparently I do this every morning, and although I rarely remember what I say she takes great pleasure in parroting it back to me hours later). I stumble into the bathroom, wash face, brush teeth, etc.

8:45 - 8:47 a.m. - Makeup. Yeah, I’m kinda lazy when it comes to makeup.

8:47 - 9:00 a.m. - Get dressed. Here’s where my girly side kicks in.....it takes me forever to pick out the perfect outfit, from dress to tights to shoes to jewelry to hair. Afterwards I eat breakfast, at which point Caitlin and I make our perfectly-timed dash to catch the shuttle right as it leaves.

9:40 - 10:30 a.m. - GYMNASTICS!!!! My favorite class in the entire world!!!! I do handsprings and cartwheels on the beam and hang out with friends.

10:45 - 11:35 a.m. - Statistics. Borriinngggg. I doze off once or twice.

12:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Gym time. I listen to bad hip hop, run on the elliptical, and do both flexibility and strength training. My arms are weak and spindly. Push-ups = fail.

1:00 p.m. - JAMBA JUICE TIME!!!

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - This is my writing period. I turn off my Internet, pull out the snacks, and hunker down to work. I try to get anywhere from 1,000-2,000 words done.

3:00 - 4:00 p.m. - My mom picks me up for our bi-weekly chiropractor appointment, to help deal with some neurological issues in my spine.

4:00 - 5:00 p.m. - My little sister convinces me to let her marble my nails, which ends up being an hour-long project. They turn out looking like this:

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. - Homework. Hindi, Statistics, Psychology, and Anthropology. I eat lots of food and snap when I’m interrupted. This period is punctuated by frequent distractions, including emails from my critique partners and my puppy:

7:00 - 9:00 p.m. - Work time. Catch up on Teen Eyes manuscripts, blogging, etc.

9:00 - 11:00 p.m. - My mom and I finally give in, and end up watching several episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Hey, it’s our guilty pleasure. Don’t judge.

11:00 p.m. - Ridley calls. What’s that? A get-together? But...but it’s Thursday, and I have class the next morning. I can’t stay out late. Wait, there’s food? Wellllll.....okay. If you insist.

11:30 p.m. - I drive to my friend John’s house, where there are quite a lot of people I don’t know:

So I find my BFF Adrianna, and we sit on the beanbag eating girl scout cookies and drinking hot chocolate. For some reason we always make hot chocolate at John’s house. Even if it’s hot outside.

Oh look, video games! Halo, to be exact. Adrianna wants to play, so she drags me over to the couch and hands me one of the controllers. I suck at video games. We play for an hour and I only manage to kill one person. Sad face :(.

2:00 a.m. - No, really, I have to go home. I have class tomorrow.

3:00 a.m. - Seriously, guys. Seriously.

3:30 a.m. - They let me go. I fall into bed, exhausted, and set my alarm for 8:00 a.m. the next morning.