Pitch and Toss

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

I’ve been fired.   That is, my publisher has decided not to offer me any more contracts to write mysteries for them.  This came out of the blue, and I’m still trembling from the shock.  So what do I do?  Fortunately my agent hasn’t abandoned me and we had an hour-long talk on Thursday regarding my choices.  Knit Your Own Murder will come out as scheduled in August – that’s the third book in the three-book contract.  I want the next book to be set in the month of June, when Godwin and Rafael get married.  I had planned a book about sailor’s knot work, but it’s not exactly the same as needlework and because I’ll be approaching a new publisher (probably) I need to “stick to my last” and do needlework.  I thought about turkey work, but that would make a gangbuster Thanksgiving-themed novel, so not turkey work.  But I need something new fast, my agent wants three chapters and a synopsis asap.

One more thing:  Pitch and Toss, the game Kipling names in his famous poem, is played by a group of gamblers.  A coin or other target is placed at a distance and each player pitches a coin toward it.  The one whose coin lands nearest the target picks up all the coins and tosses them in the air.  Those that land heads up are his.  I suppose the way to lose all your money on one game of pitch and would be to make a side bet.