Well, it’s day five of my quarantine. And I didn’t even have the pleasure of being exposed away from the house. My granddaughter had gotten exposed at school, but she wasn’t notified until after she’d been to my house for supper. So though it was a secondary exposure in my case, I am quarantined for ten days unless I start to feel symptoms. I think then it starts all over again. Oh joy.

I thought I was going to finish the book last week, and the good news is that I did. Then I didn’t. After thinking about the way I ended it, i decided I needed another chapter. So I’m writing that chapter. At least, I’ll be home to work on it.

Anyway, I’m finished with shopping and I will be free in time to do any last-minute things I think of later. So, from my house to yours, have a very merry Christmas, and a healthy New Year.

Well, it’s starting to feel more Christmassy. The weather certainly seems to be in the chilly mood, though we may warm up to the sixties later in the week.

I’m nearing the end of the book. I estimate about 40 pages remaining and I’m winding up the story. Of course, that is only the draft and it will require loads of polishing and editing after the new year.

I’m also starting to think about a title. It’s called Deege’s Story in my files, but that won’t do. I’m thinking about calling the book The Next Best Man. (Deege was a late bloomer, always felt a little less than adequate in comparison to his older sister and younger brother, but he shines in this book. (You met the whole family in Out of Control.) Or maybe The Better Man. And I’m also looking for ideas for cover art.

I’ll check back next week with my thoughts then. In the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever you choose to celebrate. The end of Covid-19 would work for me.

I’ve sort of been doing some unwriting this week. Had a brainstorm over the holiday weekend and had to backtrack and unwrite some scenes to work it in. However, I think it will improve the story in the long run.

Funny, I jumped right into today’s writing and almost forgot to do my regular Tuesday post. I have to confess that as I get closer to the happy ending, I tend to write faster just to get the story down.

Of course, being in such a hurry means that I’ve just jotted the skeleton of what happened down and later on I will have to go back and fill in a whole lot of blanks.

So, I’m finished with writing for the day, I need to go do the rest of my morning mile and then I’ll have to get busy with my Thanksgiving preparations.

Here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving and hoping that next year will be a much healthier one.

I’ve been so busy today reviewing what I’d written so far on the current book in progress that I almost forgot to do my Tuesday update. I had been sort of wondering if the story was going to hold water, but now that I’ve reread what I’ve written so far, I think it will be pretty watertight.

I’m still planning to finish the draft before the Christmas holidays with the plan to polish in the new year and release it around March. Maybe by then the pandemic will be on its way out.

I must say it’s a lot easier to keep to my writing schedule during this pandemic. I don’t have anywhere to go. So, the good news is that I’m halfway through the current book, sort of a follow up to the happenings in the Morgan family. This book features Deege, Dave Morgan’s middle child and Jennifer Morgan Lambert’s younger brother.

Deege has just graduated with a PhD in Computer Artificial Intelligence and needs a job to pay back his student loads. Enter Audrey Roberts, the assistant principal of a special school for students interested in all things cyber.

Though Deege has his doubts about teaching, sparks fly between him and Audrey.

I voted. I thought I’d have to be in line for hours, but it only took about 30 minutes from my house and back. So, I guess this means that I have to sit down and work on the book in progress.

Good morning or whatever time of day you are seeing this. I’m in a tizzy trying to get all my ducks in a row prior to having cataract surgery tomorrow. I had set a goal to have reached 100 pages in my work in progress, and I did that. In fact, I made 15 more pages than that. So I’m good.

I’m assuming that I’ll be perfectly capable of reading and working on the computer and add to my page count and to update again on Tuesday, but if not, you know why.

In the meantime, be sure to mask up, sanitize, social distance, and of course, get your flu shot. I’m just as tired of all this Covid-19 stuff as everyone else is.

It’s another Tuesday, another month, and it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

And since I had my experience with BC, I’m very aware, even if I have been 19 1/2 years cancer free. I’m mentioning this because I’m making a public service announcement. Get your boobs checked!

I’m reading that people are not following through on their normal checkups and this is not a good idea. The sooner you get to the doc and treat this disease, the easier the treatment will be. I should know. I had it all: surgery, chemo, radiation, and reconstruction. It wasn’t fun, but it beat the alternative. And twenty years ago, they had fewer options for treatment than they do now. (A Different Kind of Beautiful, my breast cancer romance, tells about living and loving with the disease if you’d like to know without being scared to death.)

So, get it checked out. It might be nothing. And if it isn’t, the sooner you get it treated, the less treatment there could be.

While we’re at it, it’s time for flu shots again. I’ve already had mine because i sure would not like to have both flu and Covid at the same time. So the mantra for this fall is: Separate, sanitize, mask up, and get a flu shot.

That’s my public service message for the week.

I don’t know about you, but during this pandemic, I have been reading a great deal more than I normally do. (Read that as there is nothing to watch on tv, so I must read rather than bake wonderful goodies which I then eat.)

Anyway, I just finished reading The Evening and the Morning, Ken Follett’s prequel to the three part Kingsbridge series. It’s a nice long book that you can get your teeth into. If you haven’t read the other three books, it’s a nice intro to the series beginning with the Pillars of the Earth which is a historical novel that takes place in the Middle Ages and tells the story of a stone mason whose dream is to build a cathedral in Kingsbridge.

Just a little recommendation from me.

Happy fall. I am so enjoying these chilly fall mornings, especially considering that we had the warmest fall on record last year.