I’m afraid the ducks won this round

I’d looked forward to this week as one where I could do some concentrated fiction with only minimal distraction. That’s not how it played out. It was in, short, one of those weeks where I was nibbled to death by ducks.

Monday went okay but Tuesday I had to work around some contractors doing a job upstairs. I’d also contacted a couple of companies for a small gutter-repair job and dear lord, it seems that’s one cut-throat industry around here. I received multiple calls and text from various companies besides the couple I’d actually contacted; as I was working on a stretch of Impossible Takes a Little Longer that required deep thought, the repeated distractions killed my momentum. I ended up canceling plans to go to writer’s group that night so I could relax, then  make up for lost time.

Wednesday, I had two appointments with gutter salesmen and sat through long description of why their Total Gutter Remodel (no mere repairs for me, nope!) was the best ever. Sales pitches automatically get my back up; one of them kept texting me repeatedly later to emphasize the Low, Low Options for financing or discounting the price, which didn’t put me in a better mood. Plus we had a contractor uproot and sand the stump of a holly bush out front — I thought we’d stump-sanded it when we had it chopped down a few years back, but apparently not. And we have plans for that spot.

These and similar little chores ate up the week and disrupted my ability to sit and think. I do have almost all of my promotional stuff for Questionable Minds done and Draft2Digital helped solve the formatting problems plaguing the text. However I didn’t have time to make all the adjustments; I’ll get that done Monday.

I did a big rewrite of one chapter of Impossible Takes a Little Longer and it definitely added to the tension. I’m not sure how some of the changes will play out but I’ll trust my gut on this one.

I also worked some on Obalus and made very slight progress. I know the broad outline of what Eleanor Holt has to do to redeem herself but I’m drawing a blank on the details still. In a better week I might have made more headway.

Overall, I fell well short of my goals for them month too. But November begins next week. A fresh month, a fresh chance to get it right.

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