Yesterday, the UPS guy dropped off my preliminary galleys of A Carol for Christmas for proofing/editing/revising. Since I’ve been struggling all week with the writing of RTM (a sequel to Carol), I was happy to have something else to work on. I needed to feel like I’d actually accomplished something.
I finished going through the galleys today, despite doing more tweaking than I normally do at this phase. The copy editor only had seven author queries for me to answer. And it was nice to hear that my line editor thought this a "beautiful story."
One of the queries from the copy editor made me think about how where we live in a particular time zone can affect our perception of a novel. It is mid-December 1969 in the story, and when the heroine awakens at 7:00 a.m., the bedroom is still dark. The editor expressed surprise (and, I think, a bit of doubt at my accuracy). Well, I use the US Naval Observatory site to check on sunrises and sunsets for my novels. Thus, I knew sunrise on 12/12/69 wasn’t until after 8:00 a.m.
Still, it wasn’t until I started traveling around the country twenty-some years ago that I discovered how different sunrise/sunset times can be within one time zone. Boise is at the western-most edge of the Mountain Time Zone. It stays dark later in the morning and stays light later in the evening than it does in, say, Denver or western SD (also in the MTZ).
Anyway, I wonder how often a reader is thrown by things like this? I can’t say I’ve given it a thought as a reader myself. A good writer just pulls me into the story, and I accept the world they present to me. But still…
I’ve been watching the ISU World Skating Championships. Missed the men Thursday but caught the Ice Dancing yesterday. All of the couples were great and the competition was really up in the air to the last performance. I am watching the women as I type this. Sasha Cohen didn’t do so great, and my heart breaks for her because when she is "on," nobody is better. And all the interviewers always ask her "What went wrong?" That’s gotta get tiresome.
But Kimmie Meissner was terrific! What fun to see her performance. She’s got herself a gold. Or in her words, "Awesome!"
Two of my grandchildren came over today to earn some money cleaning up my yard. Afterward we had lunch, then went to Dairy Queen to get Blizzards for dessert. The day was cloudy and blustery but not cold. When I left their house to drive home, I saw the black, black clouds about ten miles away. As I drove toward home, it grew darker and darker. First came the rain in buckets. Then came the marble size hail, the wind, the lightning. The hail was literally going sideways, beating the side of my car. I was so glad to get home. And my thunder-shy Sheltie was glad to have me home too. She was curled up by the back door, the hail pelting the patio and her. Poor baby.
The call didn’t come yesterday for the RITAs, but it did come today for the CRW Award of Excellence. The Victory Club is one of the five finalists in the Inspirational category. I don’t know who the other authors are as they hadn’t all been notified as yet.
And finally, an update on the Bible in 90 Days. Believe it or not, this experience is drawing to a close. We will wrap it up before this next week is over. I have fallen a day behind, but because the 90 day schedule actually builds in two "catch-up" days, I’m okay. I’ll finish before next Sunday’s sermon which will be the final sermon in the series. It’s been such a blessing to do this with my church, having a sermon each Sunday that brought into focus what I’d read all the previous week.
And soon it will be Easter. Hallelujah!
-rlh-
