Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up early and out the door by eight-thirty due to a ten o’clock eye doctor appointment. Frankly, I’m getting a little bored by these appointments and I need them to either do the operation or not. For thirty-five years I never saw a single doctor. Since November it seems like that’s all I’ve been doing, mostly for the eye thing. At this point, do it or I’ll live with it as it is because it seems to be improving anyway. They can make me a pair of glasses with a prism lens that actually works, and I’ll be fine with that. I has spoken. Yesterday was okay – got five hours of sleep, was up for an hour, then got three more hours for a total of eight. During the hour I was up, I did just a tiny bit more futzing and finessing, then sent the last batch of pages to Muse Margaret. For food, I had some spaghetti carbonara, which wasn’t quite as good as last time due to some undercooked bacon or pancetta or whatever they use. I also seemed a lot smaller. There could not have been more than three ounces of pasta. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been better. Then I kind of watched an auction on Invaluable – mostly not of interest but a couple of things I was curious about as to what they’d go for. I tried to find something to watch and failed miserably, save for a one-hour thing about the Dolly Madison murders of two decades ago. I knew nothing about it, so I found it interesting, especially the level of ineptitude of the police and their investigation. It remains unsolved. Oh, and I started to watch the horrible disaster movie called Meteor. It’s got some mighty talent involved all for naught due to cheap effects (it’s an American International movie), and a lousy script. Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Henry Fonda, and more must have gotten a very nice paycheck. And the director, Ronald Neame, who’s made many fine films, including The Poseidon Adventure, can’t do much to save Meteor. I dozed off for forty minutes. I had a grilled cheese sandwich from Mel’s Diner, but it was so bad I only ate half. The fries were fine. That was pretty much it save for the Muse Margaret phone call. I am always petrified about the last batch of pages, and especially when she’s like the book so much. I just figure I’ve totally screwed everything up. Happily, she was really happy with them and thought everything worked and believe me, I was a very happy author hearing that. In fact, in twenty-six books, this is the first time she has had not one single note about something that didn’t feel right. First time. That made my day, my evening, my week, and my year thus far.
I’ve already seen four cover options – none of them are perfect, but they’re all good and if I love one but don’t like the title font, then we can use one of the other title fonts, which is what we’ll probably end up doing. Now, I do my proofing, then it goes to the other proofers. Excited to get this out in the world.
Today, I must be up at seven-thirty and on my way at eight-thirty and please send excellent vibes and xylophones for no bad traffic. My appointment is at ten and probably will last an hour or so – I think it involves three or four different kinds of eyeball tests. Once I’m done with that, I’ll come right home, possibly grab some food, and then we have a two-thirty batch of people auditioning. Once that’s done, I’ll go home, start proofing, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have callbacks in the evening, but I don’t get to sleep in because she of the Evil Eye comes. I’ll have a light breakfast, do a few errands and whatnot, then come home and proof until callback time. Then Wednesday, we’ll do our celebration dinner for the book completion and the rest of the week is settling on our cast, prepping Drat! The Cat! and proofing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at seven-thirty, out the door by eight, have an eye doctor appointment, come home, have auditions, eat, proof, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite disaster movies and which was the first one you saw, and what disaster movies do you think are – disasters? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that Muse Margaret is happy.