A Very Good Day . . .

I started today thinking I would blog about what a great day this was going to be. All my stars were in alignment. After weeks of waiting nervously, I received a late Friday email from my editor saying she really liked my new book. Revisions are minimal, and even better, right on the mark.

I’ve really been sweating this one. The book was a bear. It’s a two-couple story which is always difficult. I usually spend five hundred pages on one couple. Splitting that space between two disparate couples was a challenge. I really, really like developing romances slowly, believably, before plunging them into lovemaking.

Then there was an extremely complicated, convoluted plot that had its genesis thirty-two years earlier. There were four possible villains, including one of the heroes. And despite the fact that the genesis of the story was thirty-two years old, the action takes place in just two weeks.

Anyway, I didn’t think it would ever come together, and I just knew the editor would want huge changes. Instead, she suggested a few cuts and a more coherent last chapter (I agreed completely; sometimes I love editors) and that was about it.

But I also have time now to fix some things I want to fix, and this is my favorite writing time. The story is told, and I can indulge in improving the language.

So that was good.

Then there is the Kentucky Derby. I love the Kentucky Derby. My mother loves the Kentucky Derby. So I’m going to get us a special supper and go to the nursing home with it. We’ll pick our horses and enjoy the pageant, including the wonderful hats, the great horses, the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home.” Despite the fact, I have never lived in Kentucky, it never fails to stir my heart.

So all was good this morning. I planned to do this blog early, then spend the rest of the morning working on revisions. And. . . horrors, the computer froze. Nothing worked. I feared it might have crashed, and I had no back-up for the new book. Panic!!!!!! Heart attack!!!!

Luckily, I have a computer guru. He and his wife operate a little Java/Internet boutique about fifteen minutes away. Unable to find his phone number, I jumped in my car and broke speed limits to reach him. Luckily again, he said he could come over at noon, and he did. In the meantime, I ran to Office Depot and picked up FreeAgent Go, a backup drive. Never again am I going to have a panic attack because my computer crashed or, for some reason, did the strange and mysterious things it sometimes does.

He arrived, and apparently dust was the culprit. He quickly cleaned it, and all worked again. But he knows me well and he brought along some additional memory (don’t ask me what or how). It doubled my speed and memory capacity, and the computer works a hundred percent better than it did yesterday. The new book is now backed up three different ways. Binh Tran is my hero.

So I am a very happy person at the moment.

Mom happy, editor happy, computer happy.

What else can someone want?