CHAPTER JINGA

Happy Memorial Day, Ladies ~

I’m writing this blog from our new place in Mesa, Arizona, where it’s already eighty degrees at eight am in the shade. While I love sunshine, I’m seriously not a fan of melting.

I keep reminding myself that being here in May is an anomaly this year since we’re just here to set up our new place. While I traipse through our small one-thousand-square-foot abode, making a list of what goes and what stays (the place came furnished and not in a good way), my husband, Randy, follows behind saying things like, “Oh, come on, all that fur-covered chair needs is to be shampooed.” Insert picture of me gagging.

At this point in my life, I don’t want to live with other people’s castoffs, shampooed or not. I want a new queen-size sofa for future guests, and a matching recliner for my thrifty husband. The list of things I want or need is long, and I remind myself that I don’t have to buy everything at once. Creating a list and making a plan will be enough for this trip. Come up with a plan, make a list, check it twice.

One thing I’m good at is lists! I make a list for everything, including one for the novel I’m working on. I add things like making sure a character’s eye color is the same throughout the book. How many women have gone missing? Two or Three? And, for God’s sake, check the spelling of “wisp,” which my brain seems to think is spelled “whisp.”

Another tool I use to create my books is to calendar the chapters and scenes. Nothing is worse than publishing a book and then finding out a few scenes are out of order. I’ve completed the first draft for “Fatal Falls” and am in the process of listening to the manuscript after reading through the book twice. As I listen via my laptop, I also read along, checking my list as I go … and … I check my chapters against my calendar for an accurate timeline.

As I reached the end, only twenty-four chapters to listen/read/check, I found it. To my dismay, I have scenes out of order. Normally, I’d laugh and start brainstorming on how to realign the scenes or remove/add situations that will bring everything back in sync.

But I had the misfortune of discovering the out-of-order chapters the night before we flew to Phoenix. No problem. I’ll just add “Chapter Jinga” to my ever-growing list of things to do while settling into our new place.

Have you ever heard the saying? “If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him you have a plan.”

When we arrived on Saturday, there was a snafu in getting our car rental. This would normally send Randy into a tizzy, but he remained calm, and we finally were on our way to Mesa. We were starving, so after unloading our luggage, we used the facilities, and Randy discovered one of our toilets was leaking. Oh, boy!

Time to get a larger sheet of paper for our To-Do list.

As I go about the process of unpacking and setting up each room, I find my mind drifting back to Stoneybrook. I clearly need to move my cattle drive scene backward in the book so that the scene where my villain’s location is discovered makes sense to the reader, which may even require a new chapter or two …

So I’m not continuing my blog in the afternoon. I was drawn into helping with the leaking toilet, which required more work than we thought, so off to Home Depot we went. Armed with all the things we need, we set out to fix the leak.

But just like my out-of-order chapters, we forgot plumber’s tape, which needs to come before attaching the new fitting, just like the cattle drive needs to occur before the location of my villain is revealed. We also bought the wrong size flapper for the tank, so it looks like we’ll need a larger size. Just to be sure, we probably need to buy a couple of sizes to ensure we have the right flapper to prevent any more water leaks from the tank.

My apologies for this blog being posted late in the day, but oh what a day it has been!!!

Happy writing, Ladies ~