The end of September was not as productive as I’d hoped.
Monday through Wednesday I was busy working on my two Local Reporter articles, one on September’s big town council meeting, one a listicle of Carrboro nonprofits. It shouldn’t have taken three days but I was still tired from last week. Plus Trixie’s incontinence continued into this week, off and on. Plus I took her to a vet appointment Tuesday, then my flu and covid shots Wednesday became the excuse for a larger series of errands: library, cat food, dog drugs. Plus some paperwork that needed doing only the relevant website refused to cooperate. I have no idea if it’s malfunctioning or badly designed.
It doesn’t help that Trixie’s decided she wants to get up earlier. If she gets up just as I’m starting my day, it throws me way off. I lose the one to two dog-free hours I normally enjoy in the morning and coping with her as well as the cats makes it surprisingly hard to focus. But I’ll never say no to her.
Could you? And it’s not like it’s her fault or anything, even when snuggled next to me, she peed on my pants in her sleep.
Thursday, though, I got back in the swing of things. A lot of little tasks related to Become the Sky. Some groundwork for my next Local Reporter articles. And I began replotting Let No Man Put Asunder by thinking about the character arcs. While there’s a lot I like about the second draft, Paul and Mandy need much more emotional stress. And the whole novel needs a stronger arc: the threat level really doesn’t grow enough. It’s run-from-the-bad-guys, find temporary safety, run some more … it doesn’t ratchet up until maybe the last fifth of the book. But that’s fixable.
That’s not a lot to get done but just the fact I was really focused felt good. Especially with Trixie’s problems distracting me.
Oh, my friend and fellow Durham Writers Group member Lucy Adams has a chestnut tree and it recently shed a bunch of nuts. She gave me some and I tried roasting a few; when that proved successful I roasted more of them.
If I put a small X in the shell, the steam from roasting open up the shell, making it easy to peel. I made them into mushrooom-chestnut soup last weekend, and very tasty it was.
