Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Brendan came to call

From "Place of Safety". I'd finished packing this job and all the boxes had been taken down to the basement of the building to wait to be picked up, so I'd gone to grab a bite at a nearby deli...and as I ate, Brendan slipped up and asked me to just write his story and worry about making it work in Derry's society at a later point. "Just get it down. Just write it."

I popped up with my usual excuses...but he shot back, "How much longer do you think you have to piss around like this? Write it, then make it work."

He's right. I'm beginning to feel my age, doing these jobs. I like doing them...packing the books and seeing what they're like and all that...but standing for hours on end and shifting 30-50 lb boxes around after going through a lot of pushing and pulling to make them square up...I get very tired. And lately my back's begun to twinge and my feet flat out hurt.

I need the week off between Christmas and New Year's to recuperate in time for another job beginning on the 7th and going for a week, then another after that...then the San Francisco Book Fair. Not a lot of rest time in there.

Didn't help I was denied assistance this time. I'd asked for a helper but "it's not in the budget." So I did it all myself...except for taking the boxes up to the truck; that I left to the transport guys.

I guess I'm getting old. And Brendan's getting nervous. He and I are locked into each other, now, and I do want to complete the book. So I'd best get past the nervousness...hell, abject fear...and get back to POS.

I'll use the last week of the year to do another draft of A65, whether I have the feedback I asked for or not. I need to get this done and ready to send off to competitions and production companies, and if people ain't gonna do what they said they'd do, I ain't gonna make an issue of it.

And I have to stop referring to "Place of Safety" by its initials; they carry too obvious another meaning and it's beginning to bug me.

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