Back to work--a day of details

Who says we don't have color in the fall? This picture doesn't do justice to the red brilliance of my crepe myrtles--and the neighbors across the drive are just as bright and beautiful. I love driving in and looking at them.

Yesterday I felt edgy, as though I hadn't done anything or there was something I'd left undone, in spite of all the cooking I'd worked on. Think it was reflected in my sleep because I didn't sleep well. But early this morning as I was dozing, inspiration hit, and I knew an incident that had to go into my novel-in-progress. Of course it was this evening before I tried to fit it in and found it doesn't fit anywhere smoothly so on the first edit it may go, but it does tie up one loose end that would be left at the close of the novel. I wrote a thousand words tonight and am up to 58,000 words, so now I begin to wrap it up. But life--and holiday planning--keep getting in the way.

My other big accomplishment of the day was to send off my 1988 title, Mattie, to be scanned so I can put it on Kindle and Smashwords (for those that don't know Smashwords provides books to all digital platforms like Nook, Sony Reader, etc.). And I made contact with an artist to do a new cover. The cover that's on it is not commercially eye-catching and totally misrepresents the book--and besides, I don't have rights to it, though I do to the text. The president of Smashwords was a guest mentor on Sisters in Crime today and I got lots of information, overload really, about posting books. Now I'll have to digest it.

Also taught my memoir class at TCU today. I had decided not to do it again, because the atmosphere is so different from the evening class (I'm sure wine makes the big difference but so does being in a home and relaxed at the end of the day instead of in the middle of a work day). Several of the women, however, said they looked forward to this break in their day, so Susan, the director of training, and I will talk it over and see what we come up with. I also have some ideas about changing the evening class and am wondering if there will be enough demand to do a daytime class on my own. I don't want to let it encroach too much on my time, but I enjoy the classes and am pleased that the women seem to get so much out of them. One woman in the evening group wrote a long email about what she'd discovered through the class and sent it to all of us. Gave me a real sense of satisfaction.

So here I am, back in my workaday world and liking it. Never did figure out what I left undone yesterday or what was niggling at the back of my brain. Perhaps it will surface, and if it doesn't I'll just assume it wasn't important.