If there is no way out, the best course of action is to find a way further in.
I don't make my own schedule - it's constructed around my sons' school schedules.
Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously.
Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.
I'd like to write a history, maybe of the Reformation.
I tend to come up with people more than situations - most of my books start with a character.