Friday, May 23, 2014

Knot Guilty




It seems we were just roasting from the heat the other day and now it is actually chilly. Last Friday I got the edits for KNOT GUILTY. It’s the ninth crochet mystery and coming out in November. It is also the last on my current contract, but I’m happy to report my publisher wants at least two more crochet mysteries after that.

In case you don’t know “edits” means that I have gotten back my manuscript with a letter from my editor. My editor is wonderful and always starts out telling me everything she likes, then she tells me any problems she has with the story in the nicest of ways. It is up to me if I want to take her advice and make changes. I always have because it seems like she is always right.

This time the good part of the letter was long and the problems short, which is good because I was given a little over a week to make any changes. Even thought her suggestion were really only about a couple of later chapters, I always go through the whole manuscript. Since I haven’t seen the manuscript since January when I turned it in, it is fresh to me now and I find little needed tweaks and typos.

And since I always include patterns and recipes, this is the time I go over those. My family was thrilled when I baked a batch of the Linzer Cookie Bars. I was going to use my food processor, but when I tried to turn it on, a light would come on, but the motor wouldn’t go.

I hadn’t used it in a long time and it seemed odd that the motor would have died, but no matter how many times I unlocked and locked the bowl and unlocked and locked the lid, it seemed dead. It was late and I finally gave up and mixed the butter with the dry ingredients the old fashioned way, with a pastry cutter.

The next day, I tried the food processor again and got the same response. I looked at the book that came with it and there wasn’t even a trouble shooting section. I carefully read over the instructions and then I saw the problem. There is a piece that fits into the lid that can be left open to add ingredients and I had put it on backwards. As soon as I turned it around and clicked it into place my dead food processor came back to life.

Didn’t I feel silly.

It’s like when I came back from Chicago the last time. I decided to try taking the train to the airport - actually two trains. I have mastered getting a ticket on the Metra system, but when I tried to buy a ticket from a machine for the CTA train I had nothing but trouble. First I tried the cash machine and it wouldn’t take my money. I went to the attendant and he told me the cash machine was retired forever and to use the credit card machine. I went through all the choices and swiped my credit card and it said there was an error and to try again, which I did. Same outcome. After the third try, I went to the same attendant. Of course, I told him the machine was broken. And of course, it wasn’t. He watched me go through the choices and stopped me when I got to the credit card part and showed me I was putting it in upside down (at least for that machine. Every machine seems to want the credit cards a different way) The transaction was completed and my ticket dispensed. I still can’t get over that you can’t buy a ticket with cash money anymore.

Along with checking over the recipes, I also go through the pattern again. My friend Linda graciously not only reads them over, but actually tries making them from my instructions and then offers suggestions for changes.

I have a few days left to work on the edits, but so far I’m on schedule and will be able to hit send Monday night, so my editor will have the manuscript waiting when she comes back from her holiday weekend.

And then I’ll take a day to clear my head before starting to write the third Yarn Retreat mystery just as I’m figuring out how to update my website, write a bunch of guest blogs and maybe a newsletter to promote the second Yarn Retreat mystery, Silence of the Lamb’s Wool, that comes out July 1.

Never a dull moment in my head!

4 comments:

Planner said...

My goodness, you're busy as usual, Betty! I'm glad you were able to revive your food processor with a little detective work. Good job!

Good luck with meeting your deadline, and enjoy editing and baking!

Linda O. Johnston said...

Congrats on adding two more crochet mysteries, Betty! And I'm sure you'll do fine with the edits. That part of the process is always fun but a challenge, too.

Betty Hechtman said...

Planner, what a relief that the food processor wasn't broken!

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, you are right. The editing is exciting. Though I did hover over some sentences for a long time trying to figure out how to change them.