REWRITE TIME

Hmm! I had tentative plans to spend this two weeks that the temple is closed getting my house in shape. I had the carpets cleaned yesterday. Then I was going to call the salon where I get my hair done and arrange for Kristy to do my hair. Watching the Olympics was on my schedule too--and at least two hours a day working on my new manuscript. A little shopping was planned since I have two grandsons and a brother with birthdays during this time period. There are also four books in my "to read" stack I didn't get to in time for this month's Meridian column. Then late yesterday I got an email from my editor with a message asking why I hadn't responded to his last ten e-mails.

Yikes! What e-mails? It seems he sent instructions for some rewrites on what I hope will be my next book months ago and I never got that message. He's been patiently waiting, knowing I had a house full of company and two close family members going through cancer treatment. As near as I can tell I lost many, many emails about the time my previous computer took a nose dive and I purchased a new one. (If I've ignored any of you and the matter is still important, please email me again.) So, change of plans. I'm doing rewrites. And glad to be doing them. I'd almost given up that anything was ever going to happen with this story.

It's always a little strange going through a manuscript after being away from it for six months or more. I can see a lot of unnecessary stuff, you know, that research I worked so hard on I couldn't bear not to use it, but now I can see it just bogs the story down. Why is it so much easier to see that sort of thing in someone else's work than in our own?

My apologies, but this blog is going to be a little short this time. You see, I've got a teenage crush to nip in the bud, a few outlaws that need to be taught some manners, a few too realistic expletives to delete, some points that need to be explained better, and, well, you get the idea.