Yesterday, Tuesday,\u00a0 I finished the short-short (currently titled “Point of Honor” and I don’t know when it will appear), the intro for the short-short, and about half the essay, which I then looked at with utter loathing.\u00a0 It may’ve been the headache.\u00a0\u00a0 New glasses last night make for better seeing, though not yet (thanks to many other things on the to-do list) to a lot more done on the book.\u00a0 Less squinting, though.<\/p>\n
While at the mall bookstore (a Borders) day before yesterday, after putting in my request for the new glasses at the optician’s a few stores away, the store manager had asked if I’d be willing to do a signing.\u00a0 I said sure (as in, “Does water run downhill?”)\u00a0 and she said “Let’s do it on a military payday weekend,” and I said “That makes sense.”<\/p>\n
Surely you spot the flaw in this progression…no?\u00a0\u00a0 Well both of us were supposed to have gone through layers of Corporate before we–the people most involved, who will actually be there–could even meet.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Corporate A (publisher’s publicity rep) talks to Corporate B (bookstore chain HQ) and then tells writer C\u00a0 “Be there at X.”\u00a0 Corporate B talks to store manager and says “Writer C is coming at X.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s chain of command stuff, in corporate terms.<\/p>\n
Sigh.\u00a0 This store manager and I have known each other for years–at least in the bookstore\/writer way–and we were both right there, face to face,\u00a0 arranging something convenient (and profitable) for both of us.\u00a0\u00a0 We thought. Very much sergeant from A and sergeant from B getting together and swapping out stuff they don’t need for stuff they do.\u00a0\u00a0 Illicit, complicit, and…it works.\u00a0 \u00a0 If you don’t get caught.<\/p>\n
Then I headed for the eye doctor’s, to order the other glasses (I need more than one pair–I just wanted one pair quick, before this weekend’s convention.)\u00a0\u00a0 Then on to the city to a list of\u00a0 things unobtainable elsewhere.\u00a0 Forgot cellphone.\u00a0 Stopped a friend’s house to call home and say “Not available by cellphone) and when I stepped outside it was sleeting.\u00a0 Sleeting!<\/em> It wasn’t supposed to sleet until late in the night.\u00a0 But it was, with the occasional snowflake.<\/p>\n Down to Lamme’s Candies for Valentine’s and other gift stuff.\u00a0 Across to Mission Restaurant Supply for long overdue Christmas present (large steel bowls for meat grinder to put meat into.)\u00a0\u00a0 Up to REI for new long underwear and fleece socks (for slippers.)\u00a0\u00a0 Farther north for printer ink cartridges (bought wrong kind, darn it!) and gas.\u00a0 Then home, by which time it wasn’t sleeting where I was (good!)\u00a0\u00a0 New glasses a big help–much clearer vision than before.<\/p>\n Now–at 5:30 pm–I can finally start writing, if my brain has any functional neurons left.\u00a0\u00a0 Must go to bed early, because must get up at 5 am to drive offspring 20 miles to the bus terminal (hoping it’s not sleeting\/snowing\/ice-storming on that stretch at 6 am.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, Tuesday,\u00a0 I finished the short-short (currently titled “Point of Honor” and I don’t know when it will appear), the intro for the short-short, and about half the essay, which I then looked at with utter loathing.\u00a0 It may’ve been the headache.\u00a0\u00a0 New glasses last night make for better seeing, though not yet (thanks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}