Uh-oh!

Any day that begins with a broken coffee machine has got disaster written all over it.

Fortunately yesterday's work on Chrissie went pretty well. Because even though the sun is shining, there's not a cloud, it's a beautiful bright island day, I somehow sense gloom and foreboding. I don't know about any other writers out there, but this one is caffeine powered.

Update: Just minutes after posting this, I started hearing a big truck engine outside. This is a one-way street, and very narrow, maybe half the width of a normal residential street in the states. The rumbling persisted, so I finally went out to look. WAPA is replacing all the power poles on the street. I suppose that's a good thing, but what a mess this day is going to be.

See? I told you.

Someone a Lot Smarter Than Me (18)

You can't fix a blank page -- Nora Roberts

That's way more eloquent than I usually say it, but it means the same thing. Don't sit there kvetching. Write something down. Write something great. Write something crappy. But write it down. You can fix it later. But as Ms. Roberts reminds us, you can't fix it you haven't written it.

For my own update, I've been buried all week in the latest revision notes from Eddie the Agent. He thinks it'll probably be the last, and then it's ready to start showing. The work is going very well. And then this happened.

Tori is off island, chaperoning the high school seniors on their senior trip, a cruise to Barbados. (Yeah, tell me about it.) Well, I don't sleep well when Tori's gone, never have, never will. So I was laying in bed trying to get some sleep because I had a meeting to cover this morning. And suddenly I was sitting bolt upright - literally. I had one of those blinding stabs when I realized what I need to do. It had to do with the number of trips into town when the boat is docked at Nevis. Since the day I wrote this section two years ago it's always been two trips into town and the various adventures that befall them, including a run in with pirates.

Last night I suddenly realized how stupid that was. Or, to be completely honest, I realized how stupid I am.

There's no reason - no reason at all - it can't happen in one trip. I just have to reorganize a couple of things, and then it becomes a much more exciting event. Really picks up the pace. So I've been waiting all day to finish with this news story so I can get to work. I'm now waiting for the e-mail that tells me tonight's editor has no questions and I'm all done.

It's a great idea. I just wish I'd had it two years ago. As the old Mennonite is sometimes alleged to say: "Ve are too soon old, und too late schmart."

It's Hilarious

OK, I was wrong about rhyming books when I said the only successful author of a rhyming book was Dr. Seuss.

It turns out Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, while not technically a kids book, is hilarious. HILARIOUS!

But don't buy the book. Seriously, don't buy the book. You want the audio version because it's read by Samuel L. Jackson. Ohmidog! It's as funny as anything I've ever heard. Seriously. "No you can't go to the bathroom. You know where you can go? THE FUCK TO SLEEP!"

In other news, I have the final revision notes on Chrissie Warren: Pirate Hunter from Eddie the Agent, who is exuding confidence. He's off to Italy next week for the Bologna Book Fair (My book fair has a first name ...) and when he comes back I want it to be done and waiting for him. I'll have plenty of time because next week is spring break and Tori has been invited to chaperone the senior trip. They're taking a cruise that includes stops in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Martin. The seniors picked her because of their experience working with her on A Midsummer Night's Dream a year and a half ago. Her ticket is paid for by the senior class.

Everyone sing along with me: Nice work if you can get it.

Anyway, the notes aren't very extensive this time, mostly line notes and an admonition to tighten up a couple of spots. Almost there! There were other conversations with Eddie the last two weeks, but I'll save them for another time.

Meanwhile, still splitting time between work and Scurvy Dogs! and between them I'm not getting much sleep. Gotta get to work right now!

A Slow Week for Scurvy Dogs

Just an update on progress. Damn little.

Wrote a thousand words yesterday and a thousand the day before, but that was news writing for work. Good stories, big news. The hospital laid off 85 LPNs ands nursing assistants and people are understandably upset. But when your hospital is $28 million in debt and the new management has been saying for a year that if something doesn't change (a big infusion of cash from the government) we're going to have to lay off a hundred people, well that's what happens. It almost doesn't qualify as news. "Hospital Does What It's Been Saying It Will Do."

Busy morning. I really want to read a chapter to the kids today, but that means I've got a morning to knock out most of it. So I need to stop this and get to work!