I heard from Molly today! :) The good news is, she is alive and unharmed, having just finished a move. The bad news is, due to matters beyond her control, the illustrations for Metrognomes have been postponed indefinitely. :(

I finished red-inking Metrognomes tonight. ;) Right on time. Now I plan to spend the next week or two redrafting.

This was a very busy day. I red-inked Metrognomes through chapter 21. Then I got back to work on "The Ghost in the Olive Grove" print edition. I got everything uploaded, and then had to hit the brakes on production because of what they did with the cover. The title covered way too much of Molly's painting. It didn't look at all like it did in the step before. I think we can get around this problem though. It's just going to take a lot of work. At this point, I'd say the only thing left to really determine whether or not the print project goes ahead is the price tag. That isn't determined until the end of the process. When I see what they want to charge people, that's when I make my decision. It's just a short story, so, in my opinion, it can't really be priced like a book. I should know something by next week, after we fix this cover problem. I also did some work with the new computer and a side project (entirely dependant on the fate of "The Ghost in the Olive Grove" printing) which we shall refer to for now as Project P.

Okay, so I didn't get it ALL done today. But I did red-ink Metrognomes through chapter 15. Still working through the computer change. The new one won't recognize my printer. Grrrr. Tomorrow i'll try and get on that other stuff.

My electricity came back on at 9:07 this morning and scared the crap out of me. Suddenly the eternal silence was broken! So, I am happy to announce that I have officially come out of retirement. I went back to work red-inking the Metrognomes manuscript right away. Did chapter 5. Then, joy of joys, I got that new-fangled, at least several years less old computer to work properly! So here I am, back at the ACTUAL author's desk, typing this entry and feeling about a thousand pounds lighter. Now I have a LOT of catching up to do! It's still going to be quite a job getting all my old files off the old computer tomorrow. Then getting back to my work on the still-only-maybe-happening reissue of "The Ghost in the Olive Grove," rescheduling my meeting with Molly Brimer, and getting on top of the Metrognomes redraft! So there you have it. And we'll just see how much of it I can actually get done in a day. :)

I wasn't able to get in touch with Molly about our meeting tonight. She never did show, so maybe she got the word I'd retired. Maybe we had a mix-up abut the exact date of the meeting. I don't know, and without electricity, it's really not easy to find out. I hope she isn't ticked at me for not calling...but all I've had is my cell phone, and the battery finally went out. And I never memorize a phone number if I can help it. I keep a detailed database...on my computer. :( I really should stay on top of keeping the Rolodex updated. So I'm charging it up right now at my very best friend's house, where I am always allowed to fill you in on things as my unscheduled retirement continues.

Retirement's a bore. I've had nothing to do aside from reading Carmilla by candle light. I figured, since I've got no electricity, might as well curl up with a good nineteenth century vampire novel and see what it would have been like reading it in 1871. Now I know...and I am SO ready to come out of retirement. I'm at a friend's house today, where I just worked out (hopefully) all the madness surrounding my electric bill. Now that it's all (hopefully!!!) settled, they actually owe me money! The world's gone off its nut. So I am happy to announce that I may be coming out of retirement by May 12th, when my elecricity will (HOPEFULLY!!!!!!) be turned back on. In the meantime, I will continue my candle light readings from the various creaking-with-age tomes in my library.

Worked very hard on the new cover design for "The Ghost in the Olive Grove" all day. No matter what I do, the lettering comes out pixely when I save it in an "acceptable" file format. I would still like to find a way around that. Seems like an awful lot of work for a project that may or may not actually go anywhere. I guess if nothing else, it's been educational. Like my career, which may end today, compliments of the strange policies of my electric company. There's been much weirdness going on, such as me getting bills from two different companies...then calling and having them both say I belong to the other...and now I have no electricity. (I am typing this on a friend's computer) So, I suppose it's time I retired.

Oh yeah...and I also managed to upload a file for "The Ghost in the Olive Grove" on someone else's computer...which is where all that research later took place.

I did research today for three separate projects. I researched penny dreadfuls, moon cycles, and the year 1927. I found a couple of really cool Internet sites that have moon cycle calculators. All writers of werewolf novels should have access to a moon cycle calculator. That is, if the writer has an interest in historical accuracy.

Spent the day slightly tweaking and completely reformatting "The Ghost in the Olive Grove" for a possible new format. If all goes well, I should know if it's happening or not by next week. Of course, my computer is so awesome, that I couldn't even upload my project files today. I'll have to try it on another computer. Grumble...