Endings and Beginnings

 I am literally on the last page of the rewrite of the rewrite of DANGER LOOMS.  As usual, I have all kinds of emotions.  There's relief that I actually finished it.  And then a loose ends feeling since, it's been my main focus for quite a while.  It took precedence and everything else got pushed to the back burner.

Now I have to deal with all of that which includes a lot of chores I chose to ignore.  SCONED TO DEATH  comes out in a little over a month and I have a guest blog, an author takeover and a blog tour coming up that should help get the word out.  But I have to write all those blog and author posts.  They have to be different and interesting which is quite a challenge.

Dancing around the edge of my mind is the next Crochet and Crumpet book.  The deadline that seemed so far in the future keeps getting closer. I need to start focusing on it.  

What's hard about all of this is that, at least for me, I can't grit my teeth. knuckle down, or spend hours at my computer (which thankfully keeps working) to make it happen.  If I do that, it never turns out.  I have to let it happen.  Let ideas slip into my thoughts until they take off.  That's not to say that I won't push my thoughts toward a plot, who dies, who did it, etc, but after that, something has to happen to make it all come alive.

In the meantime, Jakey told me I should make a character based on him in a future book because, as he put it, he's interesting.  

Sorry About Last Week

             In case you couldn’t tell, I waited too long last week to write my post. Hence, the short, late blog. I’m not proud of it—but I’m also disappointed that no one responded by posting possible topics for me to address in the future. So, consider doing it now!

            Meantime, I’ve completed the next draft of the manuscript I’ve been working on. It’s out being read by experienced readers before I finalize this version and send it along. Meanwhile, I’m starting to plot the third book in this series. And also ponder what comes next. Can you believe next week will be May already?

            I hope your April is going great, and that your May will be even better!

Juggling Computers

 There is a lot going on as I am still going through DANGER LOOMS and looking ahead to the release of SCONED TO DEATH in June.  

And just when I didn't need it, as if there is ever a good time, my computer crashed.  It was like hitting a wall and  I stopped everything.  It was not the disaster I had in the past when I lost all kinds of files ad found out that thumb drives don't work forever.  After that, I made sure my files were kept outside my computer. 

But even not losing any files, didn't keep me from feeling out of sorts.  I started using my ancient Apple laptop to continue on with DANGER LOOMS.  My desktop is PC and there is always an adjustment to dealing with the different systems and the small screen, along with the small keyboard and touch screen that doesn't always cooperate.  There are differences in navigating Word on an apple computer that I had to deal with. 

At the same time I have been dealing with putting things together for a blog tour around the release of SCONED TO DEATH.  

The computer crashed on Sunday and I started using the laptop on Monday.  Tuesday morning, even though I was sure it was pointless, I decided to turn on my desktop to see what happened.  I expected to get the last screen I had seen that basically said there was something wrong that could not be repaired.

I barely wanted to look at the screen as it flashed on...and then miracle of miracles, it went to the usual screen of asking for my code and then went to Microsoft trying to sell me something and finally to my screensaver of the Pacific Grove beach.  I kept waiting for something bad to happen, but everything seemed to work.

 I'm not sure how it happened and I'm not asking any questions.  I am soooo happy to have my PC up and functioning.  I did not like dealing with the small screen on the laptop.  Suddenly, my whole world seemed easier.

There was some good that came out of it, too.  I have a newer Apple laptop that I haven't been using.  I went through a whole production of setting it up and downloading a copy of Word and some other things I use, but I couldn't get access to all my files.  When it seemed that I would need to rely on that laptop, I finally got that worked out, so the newer laptop is completely functional now.  I also learned that the PC tower I have is old news.  Now, instead of having a desktop, you just plug in a screen and keyboard into a laptop.  Laptop is probably the wrong term and I should call it my Macbook.

In the process of dealing with all the computer stuff, I realized that DANGER LOOMS needs more tweaking than I had thought, but at least I get to work on the  more comfortable set up of the PC.

Sometimes you need to hit a bump in the road to appreciate what you have. 

 

 

 

Guess What I'm Thinking

          

            I don’t have much time to write this post because of a family get-together about to occur. Sorry!

But feel free to post here anything you think I should talk about or blog about in the future. I don’t promise to. But it'll be fun to hear what you say!