Going well!

The book is over 60,000 words and I still have a bit more to write, so all is going well there. Russ was supposed to come home this weekend, but it looks like we'll have to wait for Labor Day weekend instead. As things go lately, that's not so long a wait.

I've been doing a lot of research for this book, pulling out a number of favorite nonfiction books from Matt Ridley's Genome to J. Bronowski's The Ascent of Man. I haven't looked at that last one in a long time, and I'd forgotten how readable and fun it was. I think I'm going to put it aside to re-read after I get other things done.

I've also been listening to one of the Barnes and Noble Portable Professor collections -- this one on Ancient Rome. I had listened to part of it before and I really loved it. Last night, I took it into bed and listened to the first two lectures, and it was wonderful. We have a large collection of these types of things, most of them on American History (Russ's favorite), so I'll likely be listening to quite a few for a while here. It was interesting, with the lights off and the head phones on, and to have nothing at all distracting me from what was being said.

Learning things is always so much fun.

I've still been walking most mornings -- though not this morning because of a major storm. I am, however, working at switching my days around so that it's not the last thing I do before I sleep, but rather the first thing I do when I wake up. This is a big change, and I don't know if I'll like it. If not, I'll just go back to night work. I just figure it doesn't hurt to switch things around now and then. The good thing about doing much of my work at night is that there are no distractions at all... except for the cats and an occasional storm. Day time has noises, birds in the yard, mail going by... and things I could be doing rather than writing.

Maybe I need to have some of those other things. Maybe not. We'll see.

Anyway, back to the book. I'm working in the last few pieces and then I have to look at the ending piece again, because I really don't think I like it. I may still pull a couple thousand words and do something different.

I think it's turned out to be a good book. Let's hope the publisher thinks so as well! Though, having mentioned this work to one other publisher has gotten that one interested, so maybe all will not be lost anyway!

I've still be walking most mornings. Couldn't go yesterday because of a storm, but I've already been out for a walk today. It was a great day for it, too. Lots of lovely pictures, including the one I posted here. I just got back, and I think I'm going to go back to work on some writing.