I was going to write about Ada Wong, a mysterious fictional character, but after a call from my daughter, decided to put it off.
Instead, I’m writing about my upcoming vacation.
A few days ago my daughter phoned and asked if I’d stay at her house during her vacation. She’s going out west to Seattle and then Montana, hiking and camping in the mountains. She has two teenagers, a giant dog and now, a new cat that isn’t yet used to the dog, or vice versa. I haven’t been around teenagers for extended periods of time for a long time.
Then, since I’m busy with packing up all my books and everything that is in some kind of cabinet or on shelves, preparatory to the installation of new carpets in the entire apartment building, I’ve been moaning and groaning to my daughter. She then said, “Maybe you won’t want to go home. Treat it like a vacation.”
First of all, she’s got lots of stairs, and even curbs are a challenge for me. Then, while I love the dog, a golden retriever, he likes to greet me in a manner that threatens my being able to remain upright. He’s also a big chicken, especially when he guesses he’s slated for a bath. Then, he runs and hides and gets into the most unbelievable places. He also can take something off the stove without any trouble at all, he’s that big, and the kids sometimes forget to, for example, put a batch of brownies into the microwave for safe keeping.
The kids are going to want me to play cards, the girl choosing rummy, the boy poker, and I’m not good at either. I like it for a short period of time, but Meghan, my granddaughter, can play for hours and hours. My mind wanders during such activities, usually to thinking about whatever chapter I’ve been working on and planning the next one. At least they don’t holler at me. But will I get any writing done?
I’m bringing my Nook with me, which has well over 60 books on it and also my laptop, which has my desktop Kindle with, gasp, over 500 books. No, I didn’t buy that many. If I had, I’d be living in the park or under a bridge. What I did was to join Books on the Knob, which sends me a daily email telling me what’s free at Kindle and B&N. This, of course, means I’m addicted to books. Good thing they’re not illegal or I’d never get out of jail. But, on the positive side, I’ll get to read, using my Nook, when the kids are at work. My daughter, not this one, told me I could endanger the Nook by putting so many books on it, so when I was at B&N last week, I asked about that. They told me that when I got to 1,000, that I should think about adding some space.
I also will be making the changes my editor has suggested for the book I’m going to be self-publishing this fall. Hopefully, I’ll get done. I’ll also be revising the third book in my Mollie Fenwick series, which my publisher is waiting for.
At this point, I’m wondering how much of any of these tasks I’ll get done. I am, however, just about 100% certain I’ll be glad to get back home, packing notwithstanding.
This doesn’t rival the camping trip I just read about, but then I haven’t gone to my daughter’s yet. That’ll be this next Wednesday, the 22nd.
Joan K. Maze
Writing as J. K. Maze
http://sleuthingwithmollie.wordpress.com
