There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.
I am good at down grading - I have found I can live the same lifestyle in a two-bedroom apartment as in a five-bedroom house.
I used to write my books at night when I was a freelancer with no children. I used to really work in huge spurts - I could turn around a revision in two weeks, I used to be able to write 10,000 words a day. It's like, 'Wow, what happened to that?' That's just gone.