And It’s Off to Agent

Yes, INTO THE FIRE is now with Agent, and will go to Editor on Monday morning.   All the square brackets have been dealt with, all the timing issues I found have been fixed, lots of little errors have been fixed,  and the working file (with old filename…like the barn name for a show or race horse)  has been copied into the submission file (same as book title, with header changed to match.)   I have the nagging feeling I always have that I forgot something, but maybe I’ll remember tomorrow after church and fix/add it then, but if not Editor will certainly notice any lags (and I may, ten minutes after sending it off.)

It’s a lovely spring day, in the 80s, sunny with puffy clouds and a good breeze.  The moss roses I potted this week are starting to bloom in all those lovely moss rose shades.  The Cecil Brunner rose in the north horse lot is covered with fragrant flowers (several of them now in the kitchen.)   We have a mass of the native Tradescantia (spiderwort) with its beautiful royal purple flowers in the back yard, both of the native true buckeyes are blooming  (the Texas buckeye is past peak; the scarlet buckeye is at peak) and now the Mexican buckeye (not related) is starting to bloom.   R- is out cutting the backyard and orchard grass.   I have more laundry to do (I ALWAYS have more laundry to do.)   Shade is returning to the back yard as the oak leaves get big enough but all the leaves are still “spring green.”

I have the rest of the day off writing,  though not off all the other chores (SIGH.)   Laundry and shoveling  a path from the door to the desk in here.  Papers have done their best to make it a paper trail by sliding and falling off the piles that now need sorting (and throwing out.)

8 thoughts on “And It’s Off to Agent

  1. Congratulations on the delivery of “Into the Fire”. I know that has to feel good. And I am, of course, looking forward to reading it next year.

  2. if the apocalypse was upon us ,some woman, somewhere, would be thinking,I cant handle this now, I have to do a load of washing.Alas, the realities of life always seem to intrude on the important stuff. Heartfelt congratulations on finishing the book I am looking foward to reading it

    1. Much as they annoy me sometimes, the realities of life keep us grounded. Some will run in circles screaming and shouting as the sky falls–some will be ensuring that they (or someone) has the necessities for after the sky falls. My very practical mother-the-engineer, who had been through a lot even before I was born, tried to teach me her way of coping with overload and emergencies…can’t say I’m as good at it (writer-brain =/= engineer-brain) but the principles are sound. Clean something, help someone who needs it, make something beautiful/useful. Which comes first depends on what the situation offers. Person bleeding on the front porch: obviously it’s help them first. Nobody around but there’s a pile of mud in the kitchen: obviously it’s clean the mud off the floor first. Etc. As I said, with writer-brain I’m easily yanked off the straight and narrow by Story (shiny! shiny!)

      Mother knew if I disappeared partway through a cleanup, help others, make something beautiful/useful…I would be found nose-in-a-book or pencil in hand writing away. Cleaning up is hardest, because it so often involves picking up things (books, papers) with writing on them, and I cannot pick up something with words on it and not stop to read it.

  3. And it is now off to Editor, as well.

    Today we went for a long drive to look at the spectacular wildflowers central Texas produces once a year. This year it’s happening in March, not April, a full three weeks ahead of years past. Just in case anyone here hadn’t noticed that global warming has actually occurred and is continuing. The highway between Burnet and Llano was a solid blanket of color, mostly blue-and-white bluebonnets and red-with-little-white Indian paintbrush, with occasional washes of yellow from goldthreat or Texas star, and even more occasional white prickly-poppies standing even higher.

    Tomorrow, bread. And laundry. And things that will need to be done in the next couple of weeks.

  4. I am quite envious of your explosion of color. We still have snow on the ground although it is getting warmer. Good for the book – sometimes I groan along with you at the myriad things that go into a good book.

    Jonathan up here is still snow on the ground New Hampshire.

    1. Ah, but you would never be envious of our summers…long, hot, dry, extreme fire danger sometimes for more than a month at a time. It can go 100 days without any precip in the worst drought years, and even in good years a month without rain is nothing unusual.

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