My Writer's Retreat

 I saw a post on Facebook from Mary Kay Andrews how she has gone off someplace to work on the edits of her next book.  Earlier I read about an author I know going off on a personal writers retreat to work on her next book.

The closest I'm going to come to what either of them is doing is writing about people going on a retreat.  I have been working on the KNOT A DEAD END with an eye out for the edits of SCONED TO DEATH.  I always imagine that I can work on two things at once, but it never happens.  So, when I heard from my new editor this morning that the manuscript with her comments will come to me today (she's in London so there is a big time difference), I spent my writing time today arranging everything with Casey and her crew to go on the back burner, but in such a way that I will be able to be able to pick up where I left off when I finish with SCONED TO DEATH.  

Life goes on here regardless of what I have to do.  The  Halloween decorating continues--we now have a mini graveyard in our front yard and a line of ghosts and pumpkin heads that have solar lights greet anyone coming in the back gates.  The ghost hanging from a tree finally dried out after the rain and is back to fluttering in the breeze.  

With everybody here all the time, it's a fever dream of trying to keep up with all the dishes left in the sink. Is it really such a mystery how to put dishes in the dishwasher?

But to be honest, I don't really want to go off somewhere where there is peace and quiet and control of my time.  I am fine with the noise, chaos in the kitchen, late night trips to Walmart.  Somehow we are always there just before closing, which I heard is called the zombie hour.   It is exercise walking around the huge store and the crowd is definitely interesting to look at, plus they're open when other places aren't and they have everything..

 It's quiet here in the morning most of the time and there is no one saying they're hungry or lost their keys. I have about three hours before it all starts up.

It works for me.   

 

A Little More About the Legal Stuff

             I’ve been working on the form for the settlement agreement in the pirating lawsuit that I mentioned last week, but there are still things in it that I’m not sure about. Still, theoretically at least, I should get something for each of the 45 or so books of mine on their final list. It’s changed from the first one I saw, but that’s okay. But seeing all this and doing my little part to participate makes me even happier that I was a transactional lawyer when I practiced law, and not a litigator. I enjoyed drafting and reading and negotiating contracts. But court related stuff and documentation? Not my favorite. And as I’ve always said, probably here too, contracts are just another form of fiction. And I like writing fiction!

            I’ve paused now and then in my manuscript edits for the second book in my K-9 Crime Solvers series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense while I take the time to fill out the lawsuit form. But about to concentrate on it more again!

Rain!

 

And just like that it went from summer and needing the air conditioner to winter and needing some heat to take the chill off the air.  We got rain and not just some little drizzle.  It was like a winter storm with enough wind to blow the casket that was part of Jakey's Halloween decorations into the yard.  The ghost hanging from the tree looks as if getting wet made it dis-spirited.

Suddenly the Christmas stuff at Costco doesn't t look so out of place. 

I am in a place where I am shuffling projects.  I have been working on the next Yarn Retreat book, KNOT A DEAD END and getting into the flow of the story.  Then this morning I heard from the Crochet and Crumpets series editor that I will be getting the edits of SCONED TO DEATH next week.  I expect there will be a short deadline for my revision, so Casey, Dane and the rest of the Yarn Retreat people will be left to talk among themselves until I can get back to them.

To get in the mood to work on SCONED TO DEATH, I started a crochet project that my main character, Annie Sara might make. I already made a red hen like she makes in the book and now I'm making a little white one from a kit I got at Walmart.  I already had to make changes in the pattern and rip it all out and start over.  Frustrating as that is, I think I like the challenge of figuring out how to make it all work.

Just like much as I enjoy the speed of doing easy crosswords,  it is very satisfying to figure out the  "medium" crosswords.  I like the idea of learning new things and hopefully stretching my horizons.

Legal Stuff and More

            I’m an officially inactive lawyer these days, so I didn’t pay attention initially to a class action lawsuit that was apparently settled, where many books from many authors were pirated for or by AI. Turns out I had quite a few books pirated, and the settlement appears potentially generous. But I have to send them my list of pirated books from the list they put together plus some additional information. The process will be time consuming, but hopefully worth it.     

            Meanwhile, I’m continuing to work on the manuscript edits for the second book in my K-9 Crime Solvers series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense.

            And we had a substantial rainfall yesterday, early in the day. Yes, we need rain in Southern California, so I’m not really complaining. But our dogs insisted on going for a walk anyway, rather than just going out in the covered dog run we have at the side of our house for them. Fortunately, the rain wasn’t too heavy when we walked, although it was quite heavy both before and after, for a while.