The Week in Hindsight

Good News/Bad News

Well, I have two items of good news and one item of bad news. When faced with this option I usually ask for the bad news first but since I have an odd number of ‘new-es’ I think I’ll present it good, bad, good.

Good News #1 – I am recommitting myself to making a weekly blog post. Now keeping in mind that I’m out of work for the summer, I’m just back from a trip to the beach, and I’m in between books so my outlook is optimistic! In a few months the world may cave in on me and I might give up again. But I have received many requests and so I am going to try. In looking at my life – searching for a way to make it work – I realized that I find time every week to email my missionary son. So if I plan to combine that process with a blog update and I plan to include a few new features. I’ll give a little family update (The Week in Hindsight), a little something funny (What are the chances????), a progress report on books that are in the works (cleverly called In the Works!!!), and a recipe each week. I hope that these features will make it worth the while to come check out my blogspot weekly.

Now for the bad news

Covenant has decided to delay the release of Danger Ahead (the sequel to Proceed with Caution). SO, even though I have been promising for months that it will be coming out in October – it will not.

I accept responsibility for the delay. I got the manuscript to them late and they want some changes (which will almost certainly translate into a better final product) and they don’t think there is time to make the changes and then push it through the publishing process in the few months we have left. So, all I can say is that I’m sorry and I’m working hard on the re-write. Hopefully it will be out at the first of next year.

Good News Again

Covenant asked me to make sure that the release dates of my self-published books don't overlap the release dates of  my Covenant books. Since I thought Danger Ahead was coming out in October and I am working on another book that I was hoping would come out next spring (sneak peek next week) I wasn’t sure when I could release the sequel to Pivot Point. But since I will not have a Covenant book out in October, as soon as I finish the re-write for Danger Ahead, I get back to work on that sequel. I plan to have it ready for publication in September (or October at the latest) filling the empty spot in my book release schedule. So while I can’t wrap up one storyline – I CAN wrap up another.

And really –  two pieces of good news and only one piece of bad – I can't complain!

Works in Progress 

Danger Ahead (Sequel to Proceed with Caution) - This story picks up where the first book ended - but that was part of the problem. The evaluators and my editor all felt that I dropped the reader too quickly into the action without any back story. They felt that it would be difficult for people who read Proceed with Caution to remember all the details and impossible for people who didn’t read the first book to know what was going on. We don’t want to discourage new readers and we don’t want everyone to have to re-read PWC in order to understand the sequel. But I also hate retelling the old book in the new one. So we have compromised with the addition of a preface (or possibly a change to the prologue) that will be a brief summary of past events so that by Chapter One – everyone has all the information they need to understand and enjoy the book! There was also some concern about the split plot (I just can’t seem to get away from too much going on at once). But by rearranging the events I can pretty much finish one plot before I begin the other one. So that's what I'll be working on for the next few weeks. I will have this re-write in to Covenant by the end of July for a release date early 2014 (I hope).

Side Track (Working title for sequel to Pivot Point) – Planned release date September or October 2013.

 

Recipe of the Week

Layered Ranch Dip

2 cups (16 oz) sour cream

1 pkg ranch party dip mix (salad dressing mix is okay)

1 medium tomato chopped

1 can ripe olives, chopped

¼ cup red onion finely chopped

2 cups Monterey jack cheese

Tortilla chips

Mix ranch dip packet with sour cream. Spread mixture in casserole dish or on a small platter. Sprinkle on layers as follows - tomato, olives, red onions, and cheese. Serve with tortilla chips. Refrigerate until time to serve.

This is a new twist to an old favorite of ours that has refried beans as the base layer and taco seasoning mixed in with the sour cream as the second layer. My husband is a diabetic so I particularly like this one because it is relatively low carb – not the chips, but the dip!

What are the chances...

I was in our local WalMart recently and while checking out at the Express Lane my cashier was acting kind of strange. She was muttering under her breath and with every new step in the purchase process she would act like she wasn’t sure what to do. I thought she was new and so I was waiting semi-patiently for her to finish my few items. All of the sudden she turned around, heading away from the register, and passed straight out in the floor. It was a pretty graceful fall, thankfully. I looked around but there was no other cashier or WalMart employee anywhere nearby. So I went over to the fallen cashier. She didn't appear to be hurt and was kind of moaning – not completely out. I was pretty sure that she wasn’t having a seizure and very sure that she needed more help than I could provide. Still no one else has noticed or come to help. Not a customer, not a manager, not a custodian, nobody. So I had to leave the poor woman and go running up the line of registers calling for help. I got some strange looks, even from the WalMart folks, until I finally got them to look and see the woman lying in the floor. Then they came running. It was determined that the cashier’s blood sugar bottomed out and she didn’t feel it coming on until it was too late. They offered to call an ambulance but she declined. Once they had her up and drinking orange juice, the manager completed my transaction and I left. When I got home and told my kids they didn’t believe me at first. Then my daughter said, “You know that kind of stuff only happens to you, right Mom?”