THIS AND THAT (Patricia Potter)

The title of this blog means a little of everything. I’m currently reading – madly – the copy-edited version of “Behind The Shadows,” my April ‘08 book. The publisher’s mailing department misread the “overnight” instructions and sent the manuscript with five-day delivery instead. Unfortunately it turned out to be seven-day delivery because of weekend. The deadline for returning it did not change.

This is the next to my last chance to fix and refine the manuscript. The editor has line-edited and the copy editor has added her particular expertise, and now it’s up to me.

I hate this stage. I know it’s my best chance to make it better, and I’ll spend an hour on one paragraph. Then I get panicked when I add up in my head the time required at spending one hour on every paragraph. I’m taking too much time. Then I fear it’s going to be a terrible book. My career is over, etc., etc.

I know it’s a vital part of the process but it’s the third time I’ve read the almost-finished manuscript,and familiarity breeds contempt. I gave it a read-over after finishing the raw product, another after revisions and this is the third. There will be one more chance to make changes at the proof stage, but the publisher frowns on massive changes then.

Because of the limited time to review this stage of the book, I’m missing the famous Countrywood Garage Sale. I blogged about it last September. It’s a mammoth neighborhood garage sale of some 800 homes plus businesses and area churches. It draws approximately 25,000 people from as many as seven states.

It’s usually great fun, and I always have heroic ambitions. I’m going to get rid of at least twenty of my more than 3,000 and more books. That’s an admirable goal for me. I almost made that goal last year, along with clothes I haven’t worn in twenty years, a thirty-year old typewriter and old suitcases. Because my offering are usually pitiful compared to others, I undercut all my neighbors and offer cokes and bottled water at a ridiculously low price. It’s the fun of the affair rather than any real attempt to make money.

But today, instead, I’ll huddle inside with the manuscript pages and my red pencil and ignore my telephone. I’ll occasionally glance outside and wish I was there talking to all those people wandering about in search of bargains. It’s a carnival atmosphere with homeowners setting up hot dog stands and barbecue pits. There's lemonade stands manned by kids. Ice cream trucks cruise the streets offering treats and music. Neighbors talk and review each other’s junk that might become their treasures. It’s always amazing to me what people will buy.

It’s a great piece of Americana, and I will miss it.

I will especially miss it this year because our weather should be quite grand. We have gone from temperatures hovering around 107 (unusual for Memphis) to 85, and there’s a new spring in my steps. Autumn is always my favorite season. Even the word summons the image of hazy days, pumpkins, changing colors. We in the mid-south usually have a long, lovely fall. Leaves take their picturesque time in changing, and the temperatures drop softly. We’ll have temperatures in the seventies during daylight hours through October and into November. There will be the slightest chill in late October.

But now I have to get back to reading. I hope you all have a great and beautiful fall.