the editing merry-go-round and life

There's a reason I call this stage a merry-go-round.

I'm almost done with edits on Book 12, but I've still been making some bigger changes than expected on even the fourth pass and am tempted to make one more pass through just to be sure I found everything. I'm getting burned out at this point on MESSAGES (sort of--it's a fun book!). I feel like I'm never going to finish this to my satisfaction. I know I'll always find something wrong, but after changes like these, inevitably, there are typos that get introduced or something that on another pass jumps out because the new pieces make other pieces not fit quite right anymore. It's hard to catch everything right up front, because one segment of rewrites can make other stuff jump out as wrong after a fresh pass.

You try to fix one part but then it puts a kink in others that you don't see immediately, no matter how much you try to see it all at once. That's what I mean by the editing merry-go-round. I am determined to only put out the best book I can.

And I will have this book done by the end of May!

Unfortunately, life is also busy. Next weekend, I have a kid graduating high school and I've been busy preparing for the open house, which is expensive right now and a lot of work, but I'm going to give this to her at this special time of her life. I am an event planner as part of my day job, so I'll do what I can within our means for this special day for our valedictorian honor student (proud mom!). It's her special time and I am her mother, even though the teenagers think their parents don't know anything. 🙄 (Today, we're cleaning the garage, so it looks decent when people come to visit for the open house next weekend, although it'll just be an open garage really, since we'll have everything in the garage rather than in the house.)

And the kids want to see the new Dr. Strange movie, so we're planning on going as a family after the garage is cleaned. Teens are difficult to incentivize, so it'll be a reward for today's project. The theater is something we enjoy as a family on special occasions--we're not big movie-theater goers overall, but some movies we like to see in the theater together.

We also need to get our garden in. We've waited because of the expected frost that we've had the last few days. We'll have to get to that asap... this week. I covered my new grape plants and hope that they survived.

And after another week away, I really need to get out to my horse. Poor guy. All that green grass and room to roam and play with his herd. However will he get by? 🙃 *I* need to see him for my own sanity. He enjoys the visits too, just not the workouts I impose. Learning to carry himself properly is a workout (engaging his core and directing his feet to bear weight properly is like squats and burpees to a horse), especially for a horse like him who is not built uphill and is a bit post-legged behind. He benefits from the training, and I enjoy the results, especially when he shows up a fancier horse and his rider (so proud of him!). 

A mediocre horse with a skilled rider can actually perform very well, while a well-built, talented horse with a mediocre rider will only ever be mediocre, although that's not terrible. (The other rider will improve to great things over time; she's just very young and inexperienced and with all the pride that comes with youth--graduating from the same class as my daughter too, so make of that what you will.) Only as we age does humility come and then real learning as we accept our mistakes and fully comprehend and accept instruction to improve. Over twenty years of working with good dressage trainers as an adult has taught me how to help a disadvantaged horse like mine, and, as with my writing after decades of practice and critiques, the results of improvement are amazing to witness because it's something I didn't know I could achieve until I achieved them.

I love telling my boy what a good boy he is for his great efforts, and he loves the treats and face rubs afterwards. I need him, and I love to see how far he can go, a plain little grade gelding who freaks out at stupid things but puts in 110% effort when I ask. The greatest rewards are the result of hard work and the humility to realize that we have much to learn, no matter how much we think we know.

Photo from a year ago on the farm.
I can't wait until he sheds out like this again!

Sorry, I guess I'm really missing my boy after a week. I'd love to see him today, but family plans today and bad weather forecast tomorrow will keep me from him for a couple more days. So much for my plans for more frequent visits to work with him.

As you can see, my life is busy. Thank goodness I only work part-time at my day job! I couldn't get everything done, especially with my autoimmunity, which causes other problems that can put the brakes on my plans at times, another reason that I only work part-time.

But, I'm a fighter and I push through and keep going and love writing, especially this series. My faith, family, and a special network of friends is my support, as are you, the readers who buy and love the books. Seeing the high ratings tells me that someone is enjoying the books, and that encourages me to push through the difficult times as well. Thank you! 🥰

So, somehow, I'm getting through these edits, although a little more slowly than I'd like at times. That has given me the right frame of mind to catch the nuances of flow of the action, description, and dialogue.

I can't wait until graduation is over and then I only have to worry about youngest child finding a job, which I will have to chauffeur her to and from until she gets her license and maybe a car of her own... at some point. The life of a mom! (Dad works full time from home and is tied to his computer all day, so I'm the errand-runner.)

There's a slice of my life!

Thank you for your patience and for your support!

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update 5/24/22: I'm definitely glad I gave this book one more go-round. It needs this final clean-up. Although minor, the mistakes would bother me when I look back later... Also, I didn't get to see my horse today as I'd hoped--too much to do. But tomorrow looks like a beautiful day and I have nothing going on at home. I will take advantage of that.

update 5/27/22: I got my horse fix two days ago. I have 1/3 of the final copyedits to finish on Book 12, and it's looking good. And we are putting in our garden this afternoon. I will finish this book in the next few days if it kills me.