Other Women's Jobs // A Day In The Life & Career Of Annabel Kantaria

NAME: Annabel Kantaria   

AGE: 54

INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @theannabelkantaria

JOB TITLE:   Author

MOVED TO THE UAE IN: 1998

Annabel Kantaria is the author of six psychological suspense novels published by Harper Collins UK. She moved to Dubai back when people said ‘Eh? Where’s that?’ and the Emirates Towers were just being built, which, for sticklers for detail, was 1998.

Having trained and worked as a book editor and a journalist in London, she worked as the editor of Emirates Woman magazine for several years; then she ran a small publishing company in Dubai Media City. When her daughter was two, she stepped back from that and got a job writing the Dubai Expat blog for the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. Annabel did that for seven years before winning the inaugural Montegrappa Writing Prize at the Emirates Airline Literature Festival – that got her a literary agent and catapulted her into the world of fiction-writing, which is what she always really wanted to do.

Annabel's first novel, Coming Home, was part of a three-book contract, which was then renewed for another three novels. She writes psychological suspense books – stories about families and relationships where things are much darker than they appear on the surface. Hidden secrets, unresolved issues, moral dilemmas and so on. Readers of this genre are very smart and it’s a challenge to stay a step or two in front of them in terms of planting red herrings and introducing the twists and reveals that make a really good psychological drama.

Her sixth novel, You Lied First, was published in July. Featuring two families on a disastrous holiday in Oman, it asks the question: how far would you go to protect your family?

Today Annabel also coaches clients who want to write a novel, and she's the resident writing mentor for the Emirates Literature Foundation Seddiqi First Chapter Fellowship, which is a year-long programme for upcoming fiction authors based in the UAE. She loves encouraging and guiding new writers so it brings her great joy to be able to help them take their first steps into the publishing world.

So, what does a writer do all day?

8AM: 

Coffee, reading the news, catching up on social media

When the children were at school in Dubai, I’d be at my desk by 7:30am at the latest but now they’re grown and largely flown, I enjoy not having to be up so early. It’s important to know what’s going on in the world and what people are talking about, so I take time to read a variety of different international media.

9AM:

At my desk

I dress in my work-out gear because if I don’t, I’m tempted to skip my exercise sessions. Working from home every day with no boss, no colleagues and no structure means you have to be disciplined. When I’m in contract with a book, all I’m given is a delivery date that might be one year away, and it’s up to me to manage myself to get the final polished, edited manuscript to the editor on time.

I always have life admin to do (is that a Dubai thing?!) and I try to cross off the most immediate things and respond to urgent emails so my head is clear before I begin work on my novel.

I’ll start writing by about 9:30am and go straight through to about 1pm, eating a late breakfast at my desk. When I say ‘writing’, that could be anything from enthusiastically bashing out words (rare), to staring into space, thinking, planning, drawing messy plot diagrams, or even reading sections of other books and staring into space a lot more. Sometimes it might involve walking around Dubai Hills Mall, absently browsing the shops while I’m mentally miles away, wrestling with bits of plot.

1pm:   

Weight-lifting

I train myself at home for about 30 minutes a day because I can be consistent doing that. I tell myself I’m not allowed to eat lunch until my workout is done and it usually works. I used to dread going to the gym but now I love putting on some music and doing my weights supersets. I stick to a fairly simple routine and increase the weights every couple of weeks or lift them slower to increase time under pressure. The consistency means I’m getting better results than I did going to group classes or even using a PT, and I don’t mind the solitude. For a change, sometimes I’ll do an online workout from The Body Project – maybe pilates or cardio.

After my session, it’s time for a shower and lunch, which I usually make myself – it’ll be boringly healthy involving some sort of protein and vegetables.

2:30PM:

Work

Back to work at my desk. If I’m not writing, I’ll be doing admin, dealing with emails, working on marketing, responding to requests from book clubs, assessing other people’s manuscripts, meeting clients I’m coaching, or preparing workshops for the upcoming writers I mentor as part of the ELF Seddiqi First Chapter Fellowship.

4:30PM:

Writing

I’ll stop for a cup of tea and a Sudoku, then it’s time to write again. For variety, I might use my standing desk, or work sitting on the sofa in the living room, or I might sit in the kitchen or at the dining table. A different view sometimes unlocks a different energy flow.

6PM:

Daily walk

I put on a podcast, usually about publishing or writing, and walk for about an hour. I absolutely love being outdoors and I walk in a variety of different communities, enjoying the plants, flowers and lakes and cooing over other peoples’ dogs, but if it’s really too hot and humid, I’ll walk on the treadmill instead.

8PM:

Dinner with my husband

I make fresh soup for dinner every day, and we catch up on our days, make plans, and watch a bit of TV. If the kids are home, I’ll make a more substantial family dinner and we’ll try to eat together.

10:30PM:

Reading

I’m pretty consistent about bedtime. I always read in bed or in the bath, then it’s lights-out any time from about 11pm to 11:30pm depending on how good the book is. My current read is You Are Here by David Nicholls. I tend to fall asleep really quickly; the trick is to stay asleep all night – that’s a work in progress!