Blank.

Song of the day: “Open road” by Bryan Adams. Not strange that this one tumbles through my head, considering it’s grand.

Another scorcher past by, ending in a similarly hot evening. There was an odd kind of light; it literally assaulted the eyes whenever we ventured outside. It was strange. At first, it seemed as if it was because of the sparse clouds dotting the sky, but then, after they disappeared, the light remained. It was as if there was some sort of filter over the sun, which literally deepened the colors and contrasts until they almost hurt the eyes.

There was lots of swimming today. A necessary thing what with temperatures hitting close to the forties and a hot breeze making things worse. At times, it felt as if I was moving through thick molasses. Slow motion movements were definitely the main theme today, for man and dog alike. Hah.

I hit the laundry early, seeing as the day started out heating up fast, and then big brother and I decided to circumvent edits for a bit, in favor of focusing on preparing a couple more packages to send out to publishers next week. We printed stuff out like fiends, checking addresses, names and going over the material for a final time, so if the publisher who’s looking at our material say no, and sends the dreaded rejection, we’ll be able to plunge head first into the mailing spree once more.

It is a rather annoying venture, what with our market being U.S. based on the most part. You see, according to a massive amount of research, a manuscript can be rejected on the basis of a wrong paper size…I kid you not. Apparently, it is not enough to have a good story, an excellent query letter and synopsis; nope the paper has to be U.S. letter sized come hell or high water. Aaargh.

Now, I wouldn’t care one way or other…if we could actually get it around here, but since we can’t this means that we have to cut A5 paper into the required size for the entire friggin’ manuscript, just to be able to send it out. In light of this particular problem, I’m pleased every time we find a particular publisher that is based in the U.K., where our standard A4 is preferred.

Sure, I get it, it’s annoying to have to adjust to different sizes if you have to pour over miles of papers during the course of any given day, but come on. It makes things ridiculously hard for us poor Europeans who are eager to venture across the ocean, doesn’t it. Ah well, at least we’ve got it all figured out now, leaving us with two packets, each of the required sizes.

Another edit follows the mailing preparations, but when it turns out that it is still going as slow and annoying as yesterday, I give up and focus on preparing dinner instead.

Quiche. I’ve been thinking about it for quite a bit now, wanting to try out the recipe in my head so I can, one day add it to the veggie cooking book, and am most curious as to the result.
It takes about two hours to prepare. A crust needs to be made, albeit a basic one. Veggies get sliced and diced and herbs picked. Once a nice mix is created and the crust has baked for 7 minutes (to prevent stickiness) I stir up an egg, milk and cheese mix as the topping.

Dinner is served right on the dot and it was a raving success: Very different, hardy and delicious. Can’t get any better than that, I guess.

A quick dip in the pool is required after the rather lengthy cook/bake but afterwards I can fully enjoy the meal before big brother and I resume our edit…where the same problem continues on until I feel like I want to scream. Finally we just decide to let the scene lie as it is and return to the sections that were dealt with in the past few days.

We are most pleased to not that even though it doesn’t feel that way the efforts of the past week were not for nothing. The changes are good, and with the last remaining semantics and details dealt with the scene flows perfectly and leaves us content when it’s time to retire for the night.

I have another swim and then head for my cabin, the dogs breathing heavy and sluggishly making their way up the mountain when the night persists to be warmer than expected.
The night is going to be mighty interesting, that’s a fact. I’ll let you know whether or not my brain has melted, come morning. Hah.

Sticky and hot...Hmmmm.

Song of the day: “Poison Prince” by Amy McDonald. Strange how the chorus keeps going through my brain…due to the fact that I don’t actually know the rest of it, hah.

Well, today was a scorcher that’s a fact, even now the temperature is 30 degrees and it’s…oppressive to say the least. There’s not a single breeze outside, the fan’s air is maybe one degree cooler and I really should take a dip in the pool, but I’m feeling to lazy to make the effort.

Let’s see what happened today. There was a disastrous edit - only three pages - partly due to the heat, which was messing up my “cool” (pardon the pun, but it suited) and allowed only three pages during two sessions, both in the morning and evening.

Though, admittedly the morning session was mostly blamed on the fact that we spend a couple of hours on Google Earth to find the location in which the scene starts. Seeing as this part of the story is set in Miami, we want to get a general area down at the very least…and ended up finding the exact scene I described in Bal Harbour. Now what are the chances of that, I ask you? It stunned me, really. There I was staring at a 360 picture of a place I had, until that moment, only seen in my head. Hah.

Once the morning session came to an end we headed out in the blistering sun, so we could take supplies and tools down to the small apartment of our tenant’s caretaker. She’s been having some trouble getting to her place during the night, what with the path being so steep and uneven, that we decided to head over there and build a proper stairs for her.

Even the dogs are hot when we start. While we were working in the full sun, they were all crowding together in the shade of the large mimosa and some eucalypti, desperately keeping every single part of them in the relative cool, while keeping a wary eye on our progress. I think this is the first time ever that we weren’t working with at least a dozen dogs milling around our feet. But they were smart! Very smart, ‘cause it was pretty darn HOT. Heck, Knight II didn’t even look at my balefully when I led him into the pool. I think he was actually relieved.

Oh My God. The first thirty minutes weren’t all that bad since I kept the pace low, but then as the sun started to go down pounding on us at an angle; it became more than a little uncomfortable. The heat was so severe that the pouring perspiration dried up as soon as it sheened. Yikes. Talk about tight skin afterwards…but anyway, the ten steps or so got chopped out, laid and set in clay and cement, so now passage should be very easy.

Sundown was still two hours away when we were done, and gratefully headed for the pool to have a good soaking. Seriously, the tepid water felt cold on my head. Hah. No sunstroke, though, so that’s a good thing.

Dinner mom made got consumed record time, laundry hung and folded, and by the time we decided to attempt the last disastrous edit session the atmosphere didn’t give a single indication of cooling down any time soon.

It’s a good thing I’ve been looking forward to summer all winter, ‘cause otherwise I’d seriously be freaking out right now. Hah.

Back to the grind. :-)

Song of the day: “These words” by Natasha Beddingfield. I love a lot of her work, so it was no big surprise that it was haunting me after hearing it on my MP3 last night.

I am late this morning, finding myself incapable of getting my butt out of bed, and snoozing off for another twenty minutes or so, before I finally manage the task.
Oversleeping: On the one hand, it is a pleasant thing to do, but on the other, it always annoys me. I can’t say why, really, it just does. Somehow, it always disrupts the pattern of a day, making it seem slightly out of whack, if that makes any sense?

But let’s try to keep today’s sum up short, shall we. It wasn’t a stellar day activity wise, so there isn’t all that much to tell anyway.

The day starts bright and early with a big load of laundry that needs to be folded, after the new is hung, and several others follow this particular chore before we can start on the day’s editing session…an hour after the one we had agreed on. No matter, though, it’s not like we had other plans today that depend on a tight schedule.

I take a quick dip in the pool, Knight II too. He’s a good swimmer, I’ll admit, but he’s never going to love it, I’m thinking. He took one trip through the small pool and then made a beeline for the exit, throwing me a rather baleful look over the shoulder, since I led him into the water by his collar.

No work on “Hunters” today, since we dive into “Commanding Morgan” immediately, but it goes well, we make a lot of progress in the three hours that follow and that always bolsters the spirits.

The day isn’t too hot today, and that’s good too; it’s a nice 33 degrees, with the sun shining brightly overhead. We don’t really notice, what with our decision to work inside, but what the hey.
Rather than working on the usual projects, we head up to big brother’s quarters. For several weeks now we’ve been intending to hang up three small dressers for his clothes, which he, up until now kept in plastic bags, and today is elected for this particular chore.

It’s a mess up there, what with big brother considering housework to be frivolous and unnecessary, so while I jump in every once in a while, to help out, I’m using the duster to remove many, many curtain-tick spider webs that cling to the walls and ceiling. (According to big brother they’re natural mosquito catchers, aaaargh.)

It takes a couple of hours, but in the end his room is relatively clean…and I use that word in the freest of forms, hah…and we head outside for a quick dip in the pool. Afterwards there’s the meal little sister prepared - fried couscous with veggies on the side along with yesterday’s pasta salad, yum - but I postpone eating it, since I promised our friend Danni to give her a haircut.

She’s just arrived and for the next half hour or so, I play hairdresser for her. Dinner consumed at last, big brother and I head to the back of the house where we attach the fence to the wall and pole we placed yesterday, and finally have the property fence complete again.

Since it is still hot, even with dusk rapidly approaching, we settle in the niche of the courtyard with the computer and do another edit; which brings today’s pages up to an even ten pages. Yay.

We work steady to midnight, and then it’s time to retire. I take the dogs up to my cabin, feed them, go through the evening rituals and then settle behind the computer for this poor excuse for a blog with my eyes dropping shut every paragraph, or so.

A good day, albeit a tad off, for some peculiar reason. Guess the past couple of weeks threw me off balance, ‘cause I’m tired enough to let this sum up stand as a blog. Hah.

To wilt or not to wilt.

Song of the day: “Right back where I started” by Bryan Adams. How very apropos. For all intents and purposes it does seem that way now that the excitement is over and done with, and we’re back to waiting. Hah.

After waking up, right on the dot, (the alarm went off after all) on this rather humid morning, I hurry through the morning rituals just so I’ll be able to head for the house where it should be a few degrees cooler than in my cabin. The dogs are acting insane this morning, which isn’t odd considering that big brother took the car, and is over at the shop while I enter the house. I turn on the radio, turn up the volume and set to work on the morning chores.

I take my time today - speed is never a good thing during the summer months - hanging and folding laundry and then have a bit of breakfast as I start pouring coffee down my throat. Waking up is not the best part of the day, I’ll admit, especially not with these temperatures. Still takes some getting used to after a cool winter, I guess.

Since big brother is likely to take a while yet, I get started on the edit for “Hunters” going through the basic spelling and grammar, since that will only keep us up during the rewrite edit. It is slow going, but luckily, Word does have that wonderfully useful program where all the wrong parts of a sentence are displayed. It is put to excellent use for a change.

Going through the pages that haven’t been looked at for at least eight years, I once again see the proof of my improvement in the English language. So many errors, and though most of the words are correct, their spelling is iffy at best. Hah. I’ve a feeling that most of them are written phonetically, more than anything. Yes, it’s going to be quite a bit of work, but it will be worth it in the end, I think.

By the time big brother returns home, I’ve got water boiling for macaroni, which I intend to use for a pasta salad later today, and we switch over to the prequel of “Saving Nina”, titled: “Commanding Morgan”.

It is a fascinating story, really, based on two characters featured in SN, who were just so great that I had to write about them as well. This story, belonging to the “No Escape From Rising Sun” series is an emotional trap for the unsuspecting reader, making it a clear contrast to Nina’s psychological maze that is puzzling at the best of times.

CM is less “out of the box”, true, but no less interesting in my opinion. I loved writing this story as much - and in some ways even more - as Saving Nina, simply because the main character is so emotionally scarred and fighting so hard not to show it, while her innocence is still intact. It not an easy ting to achieve, but it was a successful endeavor, I think.
A story about love conquering all, in a world riddled with dangers that lurk around every corner. What is better than that, I ask you. Hah.

I was excited during the writing, endeared, fascinated and at the same time cried buckets during the touchy scenes. Yes, I assure you, I got plenty of exasperated glances during the course of putting the manuscript together. “Sam, they’re just words. You’re writing it for crying out loud. If it’s so sad, change it. Jeez!” I heard these words a lot. My answer: “I can’t. This is what it’s supposed to be like…and besides, it’s so beeeahuhuhutiful.” *sob, sob, sob, sniff*

Ah yes, the turmoil of an author with tortured characters. I’ve said it before and I will again, no doubt; the things we put our characters through will make is burn in hell for sure. Hah.

But anyways, during the course of the morning (after a quick dip in the pool to fight the stickiness) we go through the first ten pages of the manuscript, pleased that compared to Saving Nina it is going to need some fine-tuning at most. This isn’t a big surprise, considering I’ve edited Commanding Morgan twice as many times, as I did SN. I am glad to see that the effort paid off, however.

By the time our usual working hours draw to an end, the outside temperatures have turned from warm to hot, but since things have been going a tad slow for the past few days, we are determined to head on outside to do some manual labor anyway. Rather than work in the hot sun, we decide to make some cement by hand, and take the full wheelbarrow to the back of the house where a section of the fence needs to be set up again, just as soon as we’ve finished a small wall.

The chore has been waiting for several months now, and since the weather won’t permit anything more taxing, we figure we might as well get to it. Building up the 3’ by 5’ wall takes only little time, and by the time the pole has been set in it, this particular task is over and done with in little under two hours.

While we were working on this particular section, the younger sibs made dinner…leaving a modest amount for my salad, of course…but rather than have dinner, big brother and I decide to head out for a nice relaxing jog, even though the temperatures are still a tad high.

We’ve just arrived at our usual spot and are about to head out when a Guardia Civil (state police) comes driving up, informing us that this path is no longer admissible during the hot summer months. It has something to do with it being a fire hazard, and so, we are forced to return to the beginning of the path. Instead of our usual course, we are now forced to take a section of the path that is a little less level, but all in all, it doesn’t go bad at all. I actually manage to keep up the pace for longer sections than I thought I would. Hah.

It is dreadfully warm, however. So by the end of the run, I’m glowing, and wouldn’t have been one bit surprised if steam would have come off me. Rather than doing the stationary exercises by the side of the rather busy road (all traffic is still diverted to this part of the mountain due to construction) I postpone it until we arrive home.

Feeling remarkably revived after the entire thing, I take a few minutes to soak in the pool and then it’s back inside to have dinner.

We remove the stitches from Amri’s chest…way too late, but it’s looking good and the removing part was less of a hassle than I thought it would be. We have to put him in a headlock, but it goes without a hitch. Next we want to do Clue’s as well, but the pointer has caught onto our scheme and has miraculously disappeared into thin air, in the three seconds it took us to locate his last location. We look everywhere, but he’s gone without a trace. Smart dog. Hah. Ah well, tomorrow’s another day.

The rest of the evening is spent with another page or two of edits, but since we’re both tired, big brother and I decide to call it an early night and head to our respective quarters in hopes of a good night’s rest instead.

The evening is still hot by the time I arrive at my cabin and feed the dogs, so the first thing I do is stick my head in a tub of water before I set up the computer for a quick recount of the day, still dripping and fully enjoying the whirring fan beside my bed.
According to the weather, it will be hotter yet tomorrow. *sigh* The pleasures of Southern Spain, ya gotta love it…and luckily, I do.

#2 got in. Yay!!!

Hmmm. I have very little to report today - activity wise - simply because it is a hot day and moving about needs to be done at an infinitely slow pace, lest you end up drowning in sweat. Hah. It starts out early, the temperature already rising when I open my eyes and stare up at the ceiling and feel it pounding at the cabin.

There is a bit of good news though; grandpa phoned just as soon as I let the dogs out, with the news that a letter from New York arrived this morning, and that he would bring it to me immediately. Oh goody. Actual, old-fashioned snail mail: it’s a rare treat these days.

Okay, I don’t want to get my hopes up…and at the moment getting a letter such as this really isn’t a good time, what with all of us still waiting for the first publisher to give a verdict…but I slowly open the envelope and squint at the letter it contains. It’s a weird one, I immediately see: Apparently they like the idea of “Saving Nina” and checked a box where they request to see the first three chapters.

Talk about mass productivity. I could never get away with that, but what the hey, if they want it, I’ll gladly accept such an off-the-rack letter any day. Hah. Besides, as I understand it those folks over there are way busy with…ehm, lotsa stuff.

I am thrilled, I really am; since it is definite proof that the first response to the query letter was not a fluke and that we did a good job of putting together a tempting proposal. Yay!
So anyway, the first one from last week hasn’t given a response yet, and the second doesn’t actually have it yet but still, there’s a good chance at the very least. Now it’s up to waiting for what’s going to happen next with that. The suspense is sorta like watching an action flick: “What’s next? What’s next?”…since I thoroughly enjoy spoilers, you can imagine my chagrin.

Oh wait, Song of the day: “Lip service” by Wet Wet Wet. Such a fun song.

The heat makes it a little difficult to focus this morning, and by the time I finish with the laundry…a nice big batch that keeps me occupied for at least forty minutes…I settle behind the computer and spend a few hours rearranging sentences for “Hunters”, the latest project.

So let’s talk about the new project for a bit, shall we. Otherwise this particular blog is going to be dreadfully boring.
What is it about, really?
Well, it is a very basic story, really: Daughter or a renowned mobster, Lilly Howell fled the country five years ago with her husband (of a day), to start a new life on his island of birth, located in Micronesia. On the island they’ve led a quiet life as the physicians they had studied to be during their time of courtship. A year ago, when Lilly got pregnant, her husband died in a disastrous typhoon that killed a large number of the islanders, who were at that time out on the ocean, fishing.
Now, Lilly’s brother Lee and his mobster boss have arrived, (Lee’s a weird one, and doesn’t care much about anything or anyone, including his sister) to hide from the DEA who want to prosecute them for their crimes.
This is when the fun starts; the mobsters, looking for food in the native village, cause the death of a villager and this makes Lilly take steps to contact the DEA to let them know where to find her brother and his cronies. This is the night on which her brother (her twin) is ordered to shoot her, and does. (So sad)
Several days later, having received an anonymous tip that has sent them on a semi-official trip to Micronesia, three DEA agents arrive on the utopian island.

It’s going to be an action adventure/drama/romance, and I’m looking forward to the day when the muses hit me with a new scene to bite into. Hah. One is lurking in the shadows, I know it, but today it hasn’t reared its little head as of yet.

But anyway, since the creative juices refuse to jumpstart today, big brother and I decide to knock off early for a change and head out into the hot afternoon sun so we can do some busywork on the car instead.
Middle sister, who’s got ridiculously long, not to mention thick hair, wanted to have trim, so rather than starting immediately we settle at the top of the mountain in the shade of a eucalyptus and remove a solid five inches before I start thinning the thick mass out. We’re both pretty satisfied with the end result that is cooler at the very least, and becoming on her.

There really isn’t much that I can do with the car except remove the texts the previous owner had printed on the doors. It isn’t a bad thing, since the temperatures are somewhat sweltering. Hah.

I don’t like the inactivity though, and decide to do some cleaning in the kitchen, right after hanging another batch of laundry. The outside of the drawers are a mess, and so are the panels, the fridge doors and cabinets. Once they’re all sparkling, I settle down for the meal mom has prepared and watch an episode of “Bones” before taking out the computer and work on the project a bit more. The muses are still not cooperation, so in the end I put it aside as big brother and I start to prepare the package for today’s publisher.

Since the one that’s already looking at the manuscript has an “exclusive reads only” clause on their site, we’re going to have to wait until we hear from them, before we can send it out, but it never hurts to be prepared in such matters. Better do too much than to little, I always figure. Hah.

With paper set aside, the cover letter set up, and the synopsis read through one last time (it’s still good and to the point) the evening comes to an end and it’s time for me to retire.

Once I head outside I’m welcomed by a wonderfully cool wind that does an excellent job of cooling my skin, which feels as if it has steadily been overheating during the course of the day. I really oughta do the blog on my porch, but since my seating arrangement has been set away while some cabinets are stored there, it really isn’t an option. Ah well, maybe I’ll remember to set something up tomorrow.

Back to normal at last. *sigh*

Song of the day: “Que sera sera” by Doris Day…again. WTH? It’s a fun song and all, but seriously. Never thought I knew it well enough for actual singer, but there it was, all proper and complete. Ah well, guess the brain stores more than I ever give it credit for.

The day starts bright and early and I’m sore all over from yesterday’s somewhat enthusiastic exercise session. Hah. I don’t mind, all those aches and cramps tell me I did an excellent job with the routines. Once I’ve rolled out of bed, let loose the dogs and finish up with the morning rituals, I’m heading down the mountain as usual…feinting Trin Trin’s enthusiastic attacks with the tube and jumping aside in the nick of time when Knight II threatens to bowl me over: the idiot still hasn’t learned any manners regarding entrances.

Waking fully and coherently appears to be somewhat of a problem today…don’t ask me why, but for the majority of the wonderfully warm morning my eyes refuse to open properly. It takes three coffees, (black, no sugar and stiff…seriously, I’m getting worse) and a long debated decision as to which project we’re going to submerge into now that the edit is over and done with.

The lists get a thorough examination; the shorter sections of a variety of books get dismissed in regard to time playing a big part of the decision. Ten books with over 20.000 words get cut down to those over 30.000 leaving us with a wonderful number of five. This is when it comes down to seven stories. No simple romances for now, since it’ll limit the publishers to Silhouette and the likes. The Western, which is slightly ahead of the others with close to 40K, gets put aside as well; it’s too much work and a prequel to another book to boot.
This leaves four: “Gifted” a paranormal thriller; “Hunters” a romantic thriller; “Benefit of a Doubt” a police “the Fugitive” style story and “Calamity’s Luck” which is basically a romantic comedy.

All of them too close to my heart for me to make a choice, so at last we decide to flip the proverbial coin and settle on “Hunters”. Now, this means that for the next few weeks we’re going to have to edit the fifty or so pages I wrote for it…very sporadically…since I started with it in ’98, and then start adding scenes to it once the story has surfaced from the far recesses in my brain. Who ever knew I even had those, hah.

Honestly, I can hardly remember the beginning. Except for the broad strokes the main character, the basic plot, it’s all a blur. If anyone had told me ten years ago that there would be a time when I wouldn’t be able to remember every single detail of one of my manuscripts, I would have laughed and scoffed the idea, but there you have it. 102 stories later (finished ones, projects in the making and fun ideas that I wrote down for the heck of it), I am starting on a journey of discovery in a story that comes from my head. Talk about unraveling.

It is actually not half bad…the first five pages, that is…I can see that my style has improved over the years. I need less words to “say” something in a way that a reader can understand it, and yet my writing has become more detailed and accurate. It is a nice realization to have, really. It means that I have vastly improved on my skill and that the few spelling errors I made back then, because I was still learning the complexities of the English language, no longer happen. Ah, improvement is a wonderful thing to notice.

But anyways, during the course of the morning, we go through the prologue until six hours after waking up it is time for some activity. The continuous sitting during the “edit from hell” has made me itchy, so after tackling a third batch of laundry, I get out the cleaning supplies. Armed with those, I head outside to mount the narrow ledge running along the length of the veranda.

At first, my intention is to go through the pantry, but before I can do that, I need to attach a lock on the pantry door (on the inside) so the dogs won’t be able to follow me. I’ve just finished putting it up, when I realize that what with the construction we started with several months ago, the fence is now temporarily obstructing passage to the front of the house. Drat.
Well, at least the lock is in place.

Time to think of another way to get to the front of the veranda then, because I really want the glass clean.
For the past few weeks we have been unable to see whether it is sunny or cloudy outside, that is how dirty the windows are, so now, with this waiting period ahead of us, I am determined to do some of the very necessary chores all ‘round. The windows are part of that, just so we’ll be able to enjoy the view for a change.

It is not an easy task. The first problem that I encounter is that, through the side door, I can’t get on the ledge (it’s about twelve feet from the ground and I don’t particularly like heights) due to a thick pillar that obstructs the way. Next, I try the terrace door, of which one of the locks has rusted enough to require big brother’s strength for opening.

Then, when I’m finally on the ledge, comes the fun part. I’ve got two feet of ledge to stand on while tackling the dirty windows, and it is by no means pleasant. I manage in the end, however, and soon, with the help of the sibs, we have the inside clean as well. Green. The reed, fig tree and eucalypti are actually green there. Wow! We can see green through the glass. The thought alone still makes me marvel.

That done, and having treated the washing machine to a proper cleaning as well, I head outside to move rocks away from under the carport, (during the rock hauling days, it seems ages ago, all the big ones got dumped there) so the Defender will be able to fit there…right after we’ve removed sand and rock from the ground.

There are some massive stones to move, but I manage…even though muscles that have been immobile for several weeks (and are sore from yesterday’s workout) are screaming, “Nononononono!” and, “Don’t do that, no it’s too heavy” when they really aren’t…such whiners, muscles. Hah.

The dogs love this particular chore, of course. There is nothing they like better than get in the way while you’re hauling massive amounts of rock and need to navigate your way around, over and past the them. They seem to get a huge kick out of the fact that your back complains, and that they get nudged aside every time they’re in the way. Bunch of idiots.

Once the rocks are removed, and with big brother there to get the heaviest that really are too heavy, we shovel up the sand and then start to dismantle the lower part of the roof as well, because the front of the car won’t fit there either. The adjustment, consistent of raising the roof four inches, the Land Rover fits and we can head out for a fun little trip across bumpy country roads just as soon as we’ve caught our breaths.

This is actually the first time, since buying the vehicle that I get to drive it, so I’m possibly thrilled when it’s my turn to take the wheel at a particularly steep spot. The Rover doesn’t have a single problem with the rocky path and cheerily chugs on as if nothing is different from a straight blacktop road. I gotta admit that the engine sounds magnificent, and I’m actually a little disappointed when the impromptu trip comes to an end with the arrival home.

Once there, we go over the car some more, discussing what repairs should be done still, and then we’re heading inside for dinner and another short session behind the computer. The evening quickly comes to an end, leaving me more than ready to head on up to my cabin.

Once there, big brother and I spend some time discussing possible plots for “Hunters” while my dogs eat their meal. There are some nice, still somewhat loose ideas bubbling up, but other than that the night arrives and it is time to start working on the blog.

Yep, we’re slowly getting back to the basic routines, and that always feels wonderfully reassuring. I guess old age is starting to make me a creature of habit. Hah.

The past week in a "few" pages.

The new car: Land Rover Defender. Isn't it a beauty?

Ah, I couldn't decide which side to pick...

...So I took three. Hah.


Right, I've showed off the new car. On to the promised recount, shall we?

Let’s see if it works a little better today. I gotta say that it is very hard to get back into schwung after having detoured from the usual routine for a week. Now, if I’d been lounging during that time, I might compare it with returning to work after vacation, but since this blog thing is supposed to be my recreation, while writing books (and editing them) is the actual work, I don’t suppose that would be the right comparison to draw. Hah.

So let’s start at the beginning:

Thursday, around 11:00 PM.
The mail arrived. I did some goggling, surprise…or more accurately shock the most prominent in my head as I reread the message over and over again, bounced around a bit (driving the dogs insane, ‘cause I was walking around in a bit of a fugue). I headed into the house, called up to the second floor where the younger sibs were practicing their Spanish, and tried to be audible over the sound of the dogs barking.
Little sister peers around the corner, looking a little startled at my undoubtedly weird expression. “What, what?” she demands, thinking the worst, I’m sure.
Finally I made some sense and pleased smirks start to spread over the faces of the sibs, while we try to figure out how this publisher can already make this request, when the damn letters were send just four days before, a day prior to the car wreck.
It’s amazing that I (we, actually) managed to get the letter right at last, since in the past they seemed to leave an impression at all.
Writing letters where you need to distil a two-hundred-page book, into one is a serious pain in the butt…but the hard work paid off and that first step worked out. A minor victory, that’s how I want to look at this, no matter how it turns out.
It hits us then, we still have a shitload to read through before we can actually send it.
Considering that we hadn’t planned on actually hearing anything this early…the letter thing usually takes ages (2-6 weeks) so we had intended to take our time, just not to have to twiddle our thumbs in the meantime…we had another 27 chapters to go through.
It was hard, but in the end, we managed to calm down enough to settle behind the computer again and read until it is time to retire for the night. This is when I shortly put a pause in the daily reports on my blog, ‘cause we’re going to need to fully focus. From this day on; no more Internet, no more distractions, just WORK. Yikes.

Day one: Friday, morning, five hours after bed time.
We want to have the read through done on Tuesday, but put an extra deadline up to Thursday, 9 PM at the latest, no matter what, so we have to start cracking.
Edits get done, four chapters read through…out loud, mind you. My voice won’t ever be the same, I swear…and calls are made for the Land Rover we have found on-line, (I mentioned that last night, didn’t I?) so we can go check it out on Saturday morning. Though I would have liked to postpone the entire car thing, I do know that we need a car for emergencies and the car is an absolute gem that is just too good to pass up on.
Sixteen hours after starting the edit, bleary-eyed (pretty optimistic about the progress) and with only enough pauses to eat a quick snack have a dip in the pool and to stretch achy limbs, we go to bed and pass out for what is left of the night.

Day two: Saturday, early morning, four and a half hours later.
Time to head out to go look at the car. The owner could only agree to a meeting this early and on this day so we head put a hold on the edit and go to town.
The address is hard to find, what with all the one-way streets leading to the location. Luckily, the seller anticipated as much and had his assistant meet us at a well-known supermarket, so she could lead us there.
I am a tad disappointed when I see the car; it doesn’t look as pretty as it did on the pictures, which the owner explains is because he has hardly used it for the past two years. Apparently, he wanted to start an adventure business two years past, and when that didn’t work out, he decided to sell the vehicle.
It’s a ten-year-old Land Rover Defender, 110” long, 5 cylinders, and Turbo Diesel engine and actually went through a huge load of trouble back when the present owner bought it. He basically had to replace the entire engine and the gearshift mechanics, before he finally had it functioning. And boy, did that engine sound sweet. It had a purr-roar, and I loved sitting behind the wheel during our test drive. It felt like it ate mountains. Hah.
So, we looked at the Land Rover, checked out the obvious faults, calculated all that still needed to be done, and made a decision: I asked the owner how set he was on the asking price, which was when negotiations started.
We only had saved the amount a thousand under the asking price and said as much. There was a moment of silence, and then the owner thought fast, saying that if we paid the outstanding road taxes, amounting up to 200 euros or so, (anything more than that and he’d pay the difference) we had a deal.
It would stretch the budget considerably, but considering the lower price, we agreed.
A small contract was set up, a deposit paid and an appointment set for Tuesday where we’d meet at a gestoria, which is where such matters are arranged ‘round here.
That done, we head on home, taking only a moment to catch our breaths, have a dip in the pool ‘cause it’s bloody hot and then head inside to resume the edit.
By this time, all I remember of that day is the moist heat. Gawd, it was horrid. It felt like I was melting straight into my chair.

For the next couple of days everything’s a bit of a blur, I remember that there was, heat, frustration, discussion and actual arguments over difficult scenes (came across three of those, darn it) that had me want to scream on several occasions. And jubilation whenever we found ourselves breeze through particular scenes that felt so smooth it was like melting ice on the tongue. I love those scenes, they made this past week less like hell, I suppose. Also, the short jog we fitted in, just to clear our numb heads for a bit, was absolutely divine.

Day four: Monday, around five in the morning.
We spent nineteen hours struggling with one scene and breezed through four more that were great; we realize that we’re not going to make our Tuesday deadline, and have no choice but to turn in, lest we’ll be wrecked in the morning when we’re supposed to go to town to finalize the sale of the Defender.

Day five: Tuesday, early morning, four hours of sleep.
Considering I need proof for being a registered resident in order to buy the car, I head for town hall where I get the astounding news that somehow I am not registered. I don’t get it, and am more than a little freaked out since I’m supposed to be at the appointment in less than thirty minutes. I don’t know what the heck went wrong after I was registered there thirteen years ago, but the only way I could get that particular note was for mom to come to the town hall and have me registered.
Some rapid phone calls are made, the appointment postponed for another hour, and mom is picked up from home while I swear a blue streak at silly bureaucracy that makes everything far more complicated than it should be. First of all, why need registration for buying a car, second, why is it so bloody difficult to get that done, third, what the heck did they do with my first registration? It seriously p**sed me off, I’ll say that much.
Luckily, the mess is dealt with within half an hour, after which I drive mom home and then head for the coastal town where we’re supposed to meet with the seller, only forty minutes late. Aaargh.
The paperwork is dealt with, money exchanged for papers, and chatting exchanged about Spanish bureaucracy being a pain in the behind, before the deal made and we’re on our way…new car and all…to the insurance company to make sure everything is arranged for.
Got a bit of a break there, by the way. With the new insurance our agent managed to find for the car, we’re going to be saving up to 600 € a year, which is a rather pleasant thought, on the overall. Hah.
After an hour at the insurance agent’s office, we’re back on our way home where we spent about half an hour admiring the beauty we picked up…that of course won’t fit into the carport. The darn structure will need to be adjusted for the Land Rover to fit inside, but what the hey, we love the car too much to mind.
The edit continues; we have more than sixty pages to go, with the “real” deadline looming straight ahead.

Day six: Wednesday.
The day ended late with a rather brilliant edit (17 hours with no more than a one hour break throughout) that brings us to the end of the manuscript. In the morning, I finished a rewrite of a scene that kept stammering during the rereads, and since I am unable to get enough distance from a recently written scene we leave this particular one for the last possible moment, hoping that with the rewrite it will be less problematic to get through. I don’t know what it is with this particular scene, but we’d edited it three times and each and every time we ended up completely frustrated, with no idea as to what is causing the disruption. There are moments in this particular one that make me want to chuck the entire project in a rather asinine response to something that should be minor, in light of the rest that works so very well. Hah.
Bolstered with the completion of the manuscript, we hit the sheets a little after 5 AM, hoping that a good night’s rest of six whole hours will allow us to start fresh in the morning.

Day seven: Thursday. Deadline day! Yikes.
The majority of the day is spent going over the errors found by our five-brained team of proofreaders, writing the short letter to the editor apologizing for my tardiness and going over the synopsis. When we finally start on “The scene from hell” we have six hours left.
It’s pure horror. Our minds are mush from the past week of too little sleep, too much reading, rewriting and genuine prickliness from being this close to the deadline with, what turns out to be, too little time to get this final scene done to everyone’s satisfaction. Admittedly, there at the end we still haven’t figured out what makes big brother get stuck on this particular scene, but at least grammatically it is sound enough for us to feel up to sending the entire “crap” out, fifteen minutes after the set deadline of 9 PM in the evening. Aaargh. Personally, I have no trouble with the scene, but apparently, this is not the ruling consensus. Weird, how one scene can make all the good ones fade. Sucky emotions: They make no sense at all. A book’s supposed to have ups and downs, grrr.

Everything is double checked, the address, contact information and God knows what…it’s all a blur, really…and then………..the send button is pressed. Done! Out! Over. It’s out of my hands now. *deep sigh*
Nerves are screaming, when I finish checking the send-mail box, quickly shut down my computer and put it away in order to head out into the fresh evening air for a much-needed breather.

Time to put it from my mind. Not much I can do by worrying, so I better start focusing on other stuff. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes from now on.
Luckily, the next day (Friday that is), I had to drive our tenant and her caretaker to the hospital, for an appointment, which earned me a wonderful relaxed hour. I’d taken a book and my MP3 player, so with the rental’s AC on it was a comfortable time spent doing what I love: Reading.

The trip was pretty long, considering the hospital is at least fifty minutes either way, but what the hey; I’ll look at it as if it’s practice, hah.

Once I was back home, I went through the majority of my messages for an hour or two did some fun chats online and then it was time to depart again. It was the last day we had the rental, and though the Land Rover will do the trick in emergencies, we decided to do the groceries for the next two weeks, so we won’t be pressed for those while the car is being checked over and then tested for fitness on the road.

Big brother and I are both looking forward to being able to start learning the workings of the car. It is a type that just screams for do-it-yourself work, and we’re definitely going to try. Most of the basics have already been dealt with, lights, the broken mirror, the backseat that was loose. Fun stuff. Hah.

So anyway, yesterday we did groceries with the rental car.
The rental is definitely not a good car for us, by the time we’re done with most of it, the entire back was filled to full capacity and little sister was squeezed between them in the back seat.

Well, I guess that about sums up the week that passed. Today I took the opportunity to do my usual morning chores and a good workout of seventy minutes or so, which was a pleasure, to say the least. Nothing like working with muscles when the brain’s been overtaxed so much. Worked a bit…very randomly…on the computer, mostly organizing the mess on my desktop and in my files, and then started on dinner. Ratatouille with macaroni, which I left to sudder while big brother and I headed up to the carport for the adjustments it needs in order for the Land Rover to fit in.

The extra support beam is removed, substitutes are put in at a higher level and the ground gets chopped with a pickax until at last, about half an hour before sunset the car easily slides in, looking pleased, or so it seems. Hah.

Well, I’m going to see if I can manage to turn in early.