Welp, there goes August and the summer. And here’s your last chance to talk about beach reads, assuming anybody is brave enough to go to the beach these days. I’m finishing up the rewrite on Vermillion–why, yes, it is really late to be doing that–and cannot wait to read Excellent Oddities again because I’ve forgotten so much of it. September is my favorite month, so nothing but good reads ahead.
What did you read this summer?
Okay, I know I’ve been late with the posts a lot of times this summer, but I’m fighting about six different fires here, so I’m distracted. The one I’m trying to fight today is a rewrite of One in Vermillion because I left it too late, fighting other fires. Bob is being an absolute gentleman about it, but I know he’s ready to kill me. So today I hit him with massive e-mails explaining my approach to the rewrite, and he says he’s good with it, so my work today is getting Vermillion rewritten because it’s good stuff, it just needs organized. And okay, some rewriting.
So what are you organizing or whatever this week?
Which is why this happiness post is late. Stayed up working on Vermillion and forgot it was going to be Sunday. Apologies.
What made you happy this week?
Lavender and now Pink have been fighting for supremacy on the romance mystery list at Amazon with a romance about a secret Russian baby for weeks now, and it’s making Bob insane. Er. Insaner. I wish to make it clear that neither he nor I have read this book, that this is not about the book in any sense. I’m sure the book is great. But . . .
I’ve been reading books and getting halfway through and giving up, fast forwarding to the end just to see what happens which is never a surprise. And then I hit the jackpot: Connie Willis’s new book, The Road to Roswell, is fantastic. It starts a little slow, and then it hits the ground running and it’s wonderful. A maid of honor who needs to talk her best friend out of marrying a UFO nut gets abducted by an alien who looks like a tumbleweed made of tentacles, and they start a road trip that gets more and more crowded as the alien picks up others along the way–a smart con man, an annoying UFO nut, a sweet little old lady, a cowboy–and it’s just flat out wonderful. Of course, it’s wonderful. It’s Connie Willis.
What did you read this week that was wonderful?
So I’m getting more focused in my working–finishing up the rewrite of Vermillion, getting my kitchen put away, clearing out the garage and putting things where they belong–and I decided telling all of you about that is probably boring since I’ve been whining about it for awhile.
So I’m going to start a new twelve days of the office. I’ve done those several times in several different houses so it seems right I should do one for this place, too. Also I’m putting together an office from scratch, so there’s that. I think I’ll probably start putting up those posts on Friday which should inspire me to work on the place at least once a week. While I’m finishing Rocky Start and trying to help Bob with publishing (at which I am of no use, aside from covers) and putting together bookcases and . . .
I’m sure everything will be done here by October.
What did you work on this week?
Dickens never had to do this.
Rest in Pink goes on sale today in digital and print formats. Big thanks to the people who copy edited it for us in an attempt to avoid another proofreading debacle. And also to Bob, who did all the publishing work. And Alisha at eBook Launch who did this splendid cover:
For most of the past week or so, my garage door has been open, flashing the neighborhood the chaos of the unloaded pod Stuff because some of it was blocking the door. This week, I cleared out the space under the door and closed it. It’s not as good as clearing out the chaos–I’m doing that little by little–but at least now it’s my chaos and not the neighborhood’s. It’s the little things that edge us toward happiness.
What little thing made you happy this week?
Most of July and August were a waste because I was in disorganized moving hell, and Bob was patient, thank you very much. But in the past couple of days, I’ve cleared enough space in my place and my brain and started back to work. I’m still behind on everything, like legal things and getting a doctor down here and clearing the boxes and packing stuff out of here so I can walk through the rooms, but since the copy edit had to be done on Pink NOW, that is done (and thank you to all who offered and helped), and I am now restructuring Vermillion while Bob sighs in the background and pushes for a bad title for the first Rocky Start novel, which I WILL go back to on Monday.
For example:
Continue reading