Back at Work

 The time has gone to daylight savings and my strawberry plants have hints of fruit.  We had some surprise rain the other day and everything seems to be green and blossoming.  

    The blooms on my indoor azalea plant looked a little wilted after a few days of neglect, but some spritzes of water brought them back to life. I had to put the umbrella up outside the kitchen window to keep out the direct sun.  

But instead of being outside enjoying the spring, I am hovered over my computer.  This is the last go around of DANGER LOOMS.  Its when I make sure someone's name just change in the middle and the characters start out with a hint of how they're going to end up.  It is when I am most grateful to able to move around the manuscript with ease to check things out.

It's intense work and I have to fight the urge to put working off while  got to Costco for blueberries. But eventually, I settle in and get lost in the story and forget about time (and blueberries).  

It used to be easier to do that when I was home alone, but now that there is always someone here who seems to need something, it's harder to get in the flow mood.

It's exciting to see what I have and often times distressing when I see what's missing.  And in the end, I hope I manage to keep the characters true to themselves.

But there will still be the copy edit.    

A Grand Adventure

 And March gets ready to march out.  Sorry, that's kind of corny.  I am just finishing up the rewrite of LOOMING DANGER.  So many loose ends to tie up.  Then I will go over it one more time.  But I will be setting it aside for this weekend.  My son is taking, Jakey and me on a combination spring break and my birthday road trip.  We're going to the Grand Canyon.  I've seen it from the air, made a model of it in elementary school, seen lots of pictures, but I don't think that comes close to seeing it in real life.I expect to be awed at the sight.  Jakey is into rocks and talking about being a geologist when he grows up.   What a great place to admire rocks!

My son is the planner and all I have to do is go along and enjoy.  I love looking out the car window and seeing the world go by.  Getting to smell the air and feel the weather. 

I am so looking forward to setting everything aside for a couple of days and getting lost in the wonder of , well, nature and everything. 

And then I will get back to things feeling like my mind has been aired out. 

Being the Scenery

 I am getting close to the end of the rewrite of what might be called LOOMING DANGER.  There are always surprises as I fill out the characters.  It feels like they somehow exist on their own by now and have their own thoughts. One of the characters, Doris came to the yarn retreat to get a change from watching her retired husband watch TV all day and ask what was for dinner while he had breakfast.  She is glad to be out and about and  get dressed up for the Saturday night dinner at Vista Del Mar.  She says that her husband whose attire is either sweatpants or baggy shorts with a ragged T-shirt doesn't get that he's her scenery.

Okay, I admit that while Doris said it, it is something I think about.  It's why I like graphic T-shirts with fun images.  Also why I get dressed first thing in the morning.  It makes me feel together, but also gives off a cheerful impression to everyone here that I am looking forward to my day.

I am fascinated by looking at how people dress and what it tells me about them.  We were stopped at a Starbucks on the way to Disneyland.  It was late afternoon and the local high school had let out and the kids were walking through the parking lot and some came into the Starbucks.  I was curious about their clothes and what the style was.  If it reflected how they feel, then they were a joyless bunch.  The two boys who were came into the coffee place were dressed in baggy dark clothes.  Their hair was long on top and sort of fluffy.  They had drab backpacks and a slouchy demeanor.  I watched the other kids going through the parking lot and they all looked about the same.  Even the girls wore baggy clothes the color of storm clouds. 

On the opposite end of things, seeing little girls in princess costumes at Disneyland always makes me smile and think about how I imagine they feel dressed as Belle or Cinderella. 

Hot, Hot, Hot!

             I was pretty happy moving to Los Angeles many years ago. I came from an area where winters were really winters, with cold and snow and all. Here in L.A. winter was always somewhat temperate, even though we got rain—which we needed.

But these days nearly everyone has issues with the weather wherever we live. Our temperature this week is hotter than it’s been in March for ages, maybe ever. I know it’s a whole lot better than snowstorms and tornadoes, and I’m even feeling a bit ashamed that I’m even mentioning the heat here when so many people are suffering from really bad conditions. And I still think I live in a good place for weather—although I do wish we’d get a lot more rain than the large amount we had a few weeks ago that stopped quickly. I’ve always been more of a fan of cool weather, though not necessarily freezing, instead of heat. Needless to say, I’m not exactly thrilled about our current weather. But I’m not really complaining –much. Those of you who’re reading this could have it a lot worse.

            So what do I do in the heat? I stay at my computer in the AC and, yes, write and edit. And I’m also glad we have AC for our furry pups.