I’ve been meaning to post a writing update but it’s been crazy whacko here, what with a huge push to get my manuscript out to my beta readers so it can then go to my editor, plus some veterinary emergencies, plus some travel commitments, plus counting down to the 2024 Round Valley Quilt & Fiber Arts Show that I help to organize. Plus my brother-in-law is here and he’s going to do some work on my house. I meant to prep for that, but I didn’t have time. Yikes!
Oh, and let’s not forget that I hope to enter some fabric art in the show, but my sewing machine, my only-one-year-old machine that I got specifically so I could do free motion quilting (which is making interesting almost doodling kind of lines and shapes with thread) will NOT WORK. Packing the machine in what it originally came from and schlepping that huge and awkward box to a FedEx drop-off wasn’t great fun. And then getting FedEx to actually leave the machine where it could be found (FedEx is not the shipper of choice for out here in the middle of nowhere) while spring was deciding to still be winter (yes, snow) was time consuming. And then talking more to the tech because the machine still wouldn’t work… well, you get the picture. Actually, this is the picture, what the underside of the sewing looks like. Kind of interesting actually, but not what the machine is supposed to be doing!
All the while I was trying to finish up the rewrite of DG2, i.e. the sequel to Dark Green. I’ve received most of my feedback already. I’m delighted that my beta readers like it, because I really like it! There were some surprises that popped up as I rewrote the scenes from the first draft, dumped one character entirely, changed what another character had been doing in the first draft, and discovered that the crime I thought I had started with had changed along the way, too. A kind of magic, really.
But then just as I was about to send the MS out to my editor I realized I had forgotten some stuff that has to do with formatting. Not critical to the story, but what I send to my editor needs to be complete and professional looking,if nothing else to make it easier for him to do his own magic.
Meanwhile, spring has arrived for real. That means wind, and lots of it. It also means that critters are going crazy for the first hints of new green growth. I can’t blame them, but I do wish I could get a bit of a break. I keep thinking I should plant some kind of diversionary green stuff to feed everything from rodents on up to elk, with occasional visits from the neighbor’s cows, so that they wouldn’t find my puny gardening efforts so attractive. But I forgot my good intentions somewhere along the way.
All right, that’s just about all of the writing update I’ve got for you today. Here, have a tulip. The ground squirrels have been, why not you?
