And the World Turned Upside Down
I hope we're singing that Hamilton song for very good reason a bit more than a week from now. But in the meantime, my world has been turned upside down in a very personal way.
But before I tell you that tale, I want to mention
What's up next
DADDY ON DUTY, co-written with my daughter Jessica Benson, releases just two weeks from Tuesday, on November 10th!
It's the direct sequel to BABY BY CHRISTMAS in the McIntyre Men series. There will be one more book in this trilogy within the series.
Now, the story...
I was entering the fourth draft phase of ARSENIC AND OLD LADIES II: FESTIVE FATALITIES when I got word that a family elder needed a place to recuperate after surgery. That recovery was supposed to be for a hip fracture and repair. Of course, we offered to let them recover with us.
What we didn't know was that the patient's glucose and blood pressure were both completely out of control and that they would need constant monitoring and intervention, especially overnight when those numbers frequently tried to crash.
So during the final ten days of the book, which were also the first ten days of the patient's stay. I was up every couple of hours all night, every night, keeping them alive. They should never have been released from the hospital with such volatile numbers, but that's the state of our healthcare system today. The first two nights I was up hourly.
However, I'm happy to report that being subjected to our healthy diet has made a huge difference. The numbers have stabilized yesterday and today, and I feel like the patient has turned a corner. Our fabulous Guthrie Home Care has begun sending homecare people here for PT and OT, and things are moving into a far easier phase for us all.
The Patient is recovering nicely. They really turned a corner over the weekend. The coming week will be focused on building strength and balance. They really want to go home soon, so we'll make sure they're as strong and safe as possible before that happens.
The Book is taking a little longer to repair. I thought I was done this past Monday, after Week One as caregiver, on almost zero sleep, working every second I wasn't caring for the patient. I sent it to my editor.
Then I went back to read it one more time just in case of a typo or two, and OMG, it was a mess! I had pieces of scenes I'd deleted still in there, lots of dropped words, a couple of inconsistencies. Apparently, not sleeping through a single night in ten days actually did affect my work. I immediately told the publisher she'd have a new version ASAP and to delete the first one. Our narrator read it anyway, then sent feedback to help me in my revisions.
Have I mentioned that the narrator for the Arsenic books, Anna Maste, is amazing in every way? She's not only an incredibly talented narrator who makes the works she reads better, she's just an awesome human being.
Anyway my publisher was able to give me one more week to work on the book. She and the narrator need the manuscript Monday morning. Tomorrow, that is.
I've read the entire novel two more times this week. I've had to make my husband take a couple of days off work to care for the patient, which we cannot afford, but it was the only way for me to finish the novel. It's an important one in many ways – to society, to women, to children, and to my career.
Today, Sunday the 25th, was my final day with the story, and I made good use of it. I've finished, and it's as perfect as I can make it. I sent it off my publisher and audiobook narrator earlier today.
Then I took a long nap, since it's Sunday and the hubs was home.
Everything else: including my blogs even this one, social media, even my activism have been on pause for a couple of weeks. I've done what I can, but it's nowhere near my usual output. I am working harder on this series of novels than any in recent memory, and those first ten days as caregiver were literally 24-7. But we got through it.
Texas Brand: Generations, Book 5
This one is being plotted now. It will be Drew's story. It was the topic at the last meeting of my critique group with my besties, a group of women writers. When it was my turn to go, my writer tribe and I brainstormed key elements of an exciting plot I can hardly wait to begin.
It'll be next in line after Arsenic III.
I also have another Wings in the Night vampire novel and another Brown and de Luca thriller taking shape in the basement.
Something romantic
My husband was home this weekend, and really tried to take the weight off my shoulders. I took Saturday off to spend with my daughter celebrating her birthday. We took her hubs and two girls to the pumpkin patch for hayrides, a corn maze, a spookhouse, and pumpkin choosing. Then I picked up groceries and voted, as I mentioned. Today he went and voted, and picked up the few things I forgot yesterday. (Tofu and mushrooms, can you even? We couldn't live!)
He brought me home a sweet card, chocolates, my favorite root beers, and a cute little Jack-o-lantern incense burner to thank me for caring for the family member. He didn't even know that I'd completed the book today by inserting a dedication to him. He's my guy all right.
In the Arsenic books, the character of Harry is really based on my Lance, only Harry's a bit older, and is played by Harrison Ford in my mind.
So now you know
That's why I've been so quiet for the past few weeks, and why the blog posts here and at Eat Like You Give a Shit and the Bliss Blog have been few and far between. But things have turned a corner. Therapy is underway, huge milestones have been reached in all areas, and life is rolling merrily on.
Pre-order DADDY ON DUTY
in eBook or Paperback now!
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