While I'm Waiting

 I am waiting for the editorial comments on SCONED TO DEATH.  It's always a little nerve wracking wondering how the manuscript is going to be received.  Once I get it back, I will set aside working on the next Yarn Retreat book while I make whatever changes in SCONED TO DEATH.  I prefer to be be absorbed in one book at a time.

But for the moment it's all about the next book.  Even when I'm thinking about other things, the characters from KNOT A DEAD END keep taping me on the shoulder and saying look at me and listen to what we're saying.  As a result, I am starting to write little notes on any handy paper which usually turns out to be an envelope.  It's hardly orderly and usually involves  running out of space and writing in a spiral that I may or may not be able to read.  But the scene is already imprinted in my mind so even being able to just read a couple words of a note is enough to remind me.

There are just a few days left that ONE FOR THE HOOKS Kindle edition will be on sale for $2.99.  I had a lot of fun writing that book.  I did not know what the ending was going to be until I wrote it.  It just sort of tumbled off my fingers.  The story kept going on in my mind even after it was finished and haunted me. 

Meanwhile, life goes on.  Jakey loves Halloween and has decorations all over the backyard.  I always do a double take when I see the ghost  flap in the wind.  Candy has already been bought.  Hundreds and hundred of little bags of gummy bears.  It turns out that Jakey likes giving out candy more than collecting it.

As I passed crossword puzzle number 50 in the new book of them, they abruptly changed from easy to medium.  All of a sudden, they were bigger with more long words and it took longer to figure out the answers.

With the easy ones, there was a lot of repetition and once I figured out things like that any word mixed with Horn meant Lena Horn, the puzzles were quick to do.  I like that it's taking longer to do them now with the medium ones.  I like the idea of stretching my mind.  It's all about continually learning.

The new Yarn Retreat book involves a parallel retreat for aspiring travel writers.  The class I took a class a while back at the University of Iowa summer writers' festival in travel writing is coming in handy. I learned that  travel writing is a lot broader than I had thought. To refresh my mind, I'm reading a bunch of articles now to note the different kinds.

 It keeps life interesting.