![\"\"](\"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Thicketing-plums-quart-06-29-17.jpg\")
\u00a0 These are tiny, as you can see.\u00a0 But they turned into this:<\/p>\nThe previous post was a wee tad premature, since I found a Problem\u00a0 (having two files with very similar names.\u00a0 Opening said files (but only one at a time) while extremely tired and migrainous.\u00a0 No guesses who made some changes in one, and some in the other.)\u00a0\u00a0 So two more days were spent calmly (!) displaying both of them side by side in Word, and comparing them to Editor’s notes, to be sure that the final file really was the one with ALL the changes.\u00a0 Including the changes made while transferring changes because there’s always something.<\/p>\n
However, today very early the final file and its cover letter went off to Editor, cc’d to Agent as usual,\u00a0 as the morning progressed from wake-up before five by some animal in the walls,\u00a0 spilling cereal and milk on my desk (not then, but later) and the arrival of the HVAC guy to see why our AC was misbehaving.\u00a0 Sent it off, went off on my morning bike ride into very warm, very still, very humid air.\u00a0 Forgot my helmet (realized before the end of the street.\u00a0 Left bike propped on a tree and walked back.\u00a0 Rode off.\u00a0 Realized I hadn’t brought my water bottle.\u00a0 WAY too hot to ride far without a water bottle.\u00a0 Came home after first mile to get it.\u00a0 Did make 5.25 miles, eventually, with some other interruptions.\u00a0 HVAC guy was also checking the old AC in Derelict House (the “barn name” for the house next door that we bought to keep it from further harm to us and the neighborhood.)\u00a0\u00a0 The old AC turned out to have been installed in 1973.\u00a0 Six years before we moved to the house we’re in.\u00a0 And the house has been empty for at least 10 years.\u00a0 So…it’s REALLY dead, Jim.<\/p>\n
Ours, on the other hand, is working better, though it, too, is beyond its predicted lifespan.\u00a0 But still alive.\u00a0 Yay for that.<\/p>\n
Following all that, there was laundry going on,\u00a0 something else I forget, and there was a long phone chat with Agent, in which we realized early on that some crossed signals had occurred and agreed not to let that happen again.\u00a0 All is fine in that department; I realized again that however skilled a writer may be,\u00a0 that doesn’t mean a writer is always communicating well with someone else.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (And health issues can cloud the matter, too.\u00a0 If you’re in survival mode, just putting one foot in front of the other with effort, noticing the scenery or someone else’s state of mind, may not happen.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then I struggled for awhile with an online business’s website, trying to get things done (having been told they could only be done from the website or the smartphone of a type I don’t have.)\u00a0 Gave up and decided to take a nap.\u00a0 Good decision.\u00a0\u00a0 That project was accomplished this evening, clearer-headed, and I also managed a trip to the local small grocery to pick up some (but not all) of the things I was low on or out of.\u00a0 Yeast and shortening have been achieved–I forgot I was also low on brown sugar, even though I found myself staring at a sack of Mexican sugar (which is good stuff–not white, but lighter than our “light brown.”)\u00a0 But I need DARK brown.<\/p>\n
The plan is to start digging out of all the stuff left undone for..um…too many books…get more sleep, eat better, exercise, that kind of thing.\u00a0 Visiting friends I haven’t seen for months and used to see weekly.\u00a0 Putting in a fall garden (in aid of eating better.\u00a0 My two-pot herb garden is already helping some.)\u00a0\u00a0 We have the raised beds, but they’ve gone to weeds mostly.\u00a0 Got a few tomatoes this year, but tomatoes don’t make it through the summer here anymore.<\/p>\n
I made wild plum jam for the first time (the first time we’ve collected enough wild plums before the critters got them.\u00a0 It’s a lovely color and great on the homemade bread.\u00a0 The plums look almost like cherries, but they’re plums, all right.\u00a0 Very very sour and somewhat bitter (some more than others) and grow in little thickets, to about head high.\u00a0 The yield was a pint and a bit (quarter cup?\u00a0 Maybe?)<\/p>\n
\u00a0 These are tiny, as you can see.\u00a0 But they turned into this:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Wild-plum-jam.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
They’re rather dry and hard-fleshed, so I didn’t try to make jelly, but cooked them down with sugar until the juice and pulp would go through the holes of that colander, and the seeds and skins stayed behind.<\/p>\n
So this is what writers do when the writing is all done and sent away.\u00a0 Everything else.\u00a0 Laundry, folding laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, sorting, packing, talking to friends on the phone or in person,\u00a0 talking to contractors about proposed work on a house,\u00a0 exercising, driving,\u00a0 trimming bushes or trees, pulling weeds, taking care of business that isn’t writing, taking naps, and (this is about to happen) going to bed on time, guilt-free.<\/p>\n
I’ll be back in not-too-long to deal with those Vatta twins loose on Huygens Station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The previous post was a wee tad premature, since I found a Problem\u00a0 (having two files with very similar names.\u00a0 Opening said files (but only one at a time) while extremely tired and migrainous.\u00a0 No guesses who made some changes in one, and some in the other.)\u00a0\u00a0 So two more days were spent calmly (!) Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10],"tags":[17,7],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","category-the-writing-life","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}