 They say laughter helps everything, right? That's sort of how I feel as I look ahead to the coming week. It's not terribly busy, in terms of meetings or appointments, but it's full of unexpected and unusual activities. Let's start from the outside and work in. First, the county has finally decided to repave the 4-lane road that runs past our condo complex. They're scraping it down to the base before they start smearing tar around, so they're predicting tied-up traffic all week. Hot, noisy, and smelly is the forecast. Once inside the entrance way and away from that construction, we'll find house painters. Our building is one of the ones scheduled to have all siding and trim repainted. I'm glad to see it done, but the process is always messy and full of the need to move porch furniture, plants, etc. And then we get to have people peering in the windows. They're working on Building 4 now. We're in Building 6, so they'll be here in a couple of days. So . . safe inside the house? Nope! Our master bath needs major repair. Faulty construction has allowed the tile in the shower to shift slightly, thus causing tiny leaks, which in turn, become petri dishes for mold spores,which are now causing paint to peel and walls to blister. Fixing involves tearing out all old tile and shower pan, repairing dry wall, and replacing shower stall with an all-in-one liner. The contractor just called to say he'll be here this afternoon, with major demolition to start in the morning. How long will it take? Nobody knows until the old stuff is removed and we can see what kind of mess lies behind the wall. Sounds like I need a project to keep me busy inside my office and out of the way of the mess on the other side of the house. How about two? I've been working on the second edition of Left by the Side of the Road, which involves a new introduction, 12 new stories, and a major re-organization of older content. The first edition only appeared on Kindle Select. The second edition will come out in paper and be available on all e-book sites as well, so publishing it becomes more complicated. I've reached the point at which I start turning the manuscript over to the book designers, but that doesn't come without a lot more detail work. I need to get that underway this week. Meanwhile, Parts 1 and 2 of my new book, Damned Yankee, have been to the editor and are now back for a second pass. The good news is that she says she loves it; the bad news is that it came back marked up with over 1600 little corrections. Some of those are rather significant plot elements that need adjusting. The majority are little details, like an apostrophe that is turned the wrong way, or two spaces where I only need one. Big or small, each one needs to be addressed, so that is going to be time-consuming. In other words, I have much to keep me busy, and enough distractions to keep me from accomplishing any of it. Please wish me luck. |
