Blog post 56

This blog is all about the process of completing the project, writing and marketing Golden Gate, the first novel of the Tessera Trilogy. Along the way, as fellow blogger Hildred of http://hildredbillings.blogspot.com/ , author of the Musings of a Procrastinating Author blog would say, there are numerous bright shiny objects that present themselves, and distract us from our objective. I need to bring you up to date on several shiny objects in our yard. Well truth be known, they’re not shiny, or bright, but definitely cute. I speak of raspberries and rodents.

Months ago two raspberry plants were given a home in our garden, in the hopes they’d yield berries for Offspring. In the past few weeks I’ve walked by, and savored a few delicious tart berries straight off the bush. Exceeding my joy at that, I noticed that their roots had spread and some sprouts had come up. I diligently dug those up and replanted them under the grape vine, in hopes that next year there would be lots of berries. Keep your fingers crossed.

The rodents, well they’re another delightful tale. The first is a baby chipmunk, whose visage has appeared on our Facebook page, resting atop a small cement pagoda style ornament by the backyard pond. I noted that he appeared to be worshiping. Six days ago I was in the back and heard a scratching sound from our gutter downspout water collection barrels. I walked over and was startled by the sight. The chipmunk’s heads was peaking out of the downspout. As I moved closer, he turned around and tried to climb up, inside the gutter downspout. It was quite a scratching tune his feet made, but I knew he’d never make it. I withdrew, letting him achieve a slower heart rate and escape to his borough.

The second rodent event was just five nights ago, as Nancy and I sat down to eat dinner. Outside the bay window, through the screen, I spotted him. We both moved to the window, as the baby squirrel started chewing on hibiscus branches and leaves. I was able to get a photo of him, through the window and screen, and it amazed us both. We were amazed that the squirrel, despite being less than three feet from us and clearly able to see us, continued having dinner on the deck railing. Perhaps he’ll grow more cautious with age. So there you have it, all you needed to know about raspberries and rodents.

More now on the process; finished chapter 15 – hooray for the home team. Progress doesn’t, however, support putting Golden Gate on Amazon.com by Black Friday. The overall GG word count has inched upwards again, to 85,167, marked by completion of final revisions to chapter 15. Final revisions to Chapter 35 are now afoot, as much of it had been reviewed, critiqued, and revised after a RWG reading some weeks ago.

Saturday another shiny bright object injected itself in the process, the RWH monthly meeting, including The Parade of Prose. A fellow RWG member and I chatted at length, finding similar mental processes in our respective creative projects.    Four pen names depending on particular product, prose, lyrics, musical CDs, poetry. I joined four other RWG members on a panel at The Parade of Prose, discussing Writing and Publishing in the New Millennium. It was a rewarding occasion, with valuable insights provided by other panelists; three of the five are published.

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