"Angels walk among us. Sometimes they are unseen and have wings; sometimes they pant and lick our faces." -Jonathan BrooksIt’s been another doggie death in the family week. Freya was only eight, but that Histiocytosis diagnosis I wrote about two weeks ago… it’s a crazy-fast killer, horrifying to watch as your baby just wastes away. What’s truly devastating is that that makes three unrelated cancer deaths in that house in the past five months. I know when we lost two of ours in six months in 2010, it was almost more than we could bear, so my heart aches in sympathy. (To say nothing of our loss of Kyra not even a year ago.)

It’s also the one-year anniversary of the Move From Hell. Somehow it felt like we revisited a cellular memory of how exhausted we were by the end of that travail. I was dreaming equal parts of mysterious paperwork (a job I don’t have, shifting piles of paper I hadn’t worked on), and odd nightmares, so felt massively un-rested by Friday. Even getting the dogs back to Affectionate for a day of play wasn’t the relief it might have been, since we had glass replacement appointments several days this week… meaning more running around and schedule disruption.

So I lost track of days a bit, and didn’t get as much revision done as I’d hoped. I have four pages remaining on chapter three, which marks the end of this latest round of beta reader feedback for book 1. I’m thinking things should go faster once I’m past that and can just tweak per earlier changes and suggestions, but it means the process will stretch out at least another couple weeks.

I figure so long as I’m getting back in the groove of sitting at the keyboard 3-4 nights per week, I’m at least headed in the right direction.

😀

For our newest show (AKA stay-at-home date night), we’ve picked up “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.” In the set dressing and general manner I am somehow reminded of the magic in Harry Potter’s world, but the characters play more like the stiff upper lip and class and station consciousness of Pride and Prejudice. It’s an interesting contrast of protagonists, each strong individuals, but no clear antagonist one episode in. The prophesy that the two magicians are enemies–and even the spell that shows the newcomer magician the established magician as his enemy–seems a false tension at this point. Each man seems to me to be his own stumbling block. Nonetheless, it’s a unique take on a low fantasy world, and engaging in its own right.

As for walking, we went every night, again, though a few nights we kept the distance shorter in deference to the high humidity and heat. Still, we went for 14.6 miles over the course of the week, and my phone is showing that I’m carrying it around for a daily average of more than 3 miles, so I’m definitely on a better health track as far as activity is concerned.

Hubs is also keeping me well-supplied with supportive articles. For one: why people feel like they don’t fit in. I liked the 33 Emerson quotes, and in particular:

“Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finally, two sets of historic head-scratchers: 10 mysteries caught on film and the world’s biggest plot holes.

I’m down to one month to go before I get to see Gayla again. She’s been hard at work at both starting up a new series as well as home renovations, so I’m trying not to get caught in comparison mind about how many words she’s written versus my very slow progress, but I’m seriously looking forward to my visit. For now, I’ll be planning on at least another week of hard-core revising before I start handing off my work for another copy edit. We’ll see where I am next week, then, but in the meantime, check out how my fellow ROW80ers are doing with their goals and I’ll check in again in seven days.

Related Posts

2 thoughts on “Angels Walking

  1. Sorry to hear about your loss. ~Sending warm thoughts~ Loss is hard no matter who it is. It was rough when we lost Winkin (cat) two years ago. Hoping your week get better.

  2. Arrgh, having problems again posting comments on people’s blogs. This will be my third attempt, so accept my apologies if somehow this does post three times. Let’s see if I remember what I wrote the first time.

    Sorry to hear about Freya. Our four-legged family members mean the world to us. I don’t know what I will do when it is time for my Dino to cross over.

    You’ve had a lot of stress the last couple weeks but sounds like you are holding up. Sending you thoughts of peace and happiness.

Your Two Cents

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.