Ending the Hiatus

This month tends to get crazy around the house. Within the span of five weeks, all four of us have birthdays. My son turned six. My daughter, fourteen. My wife, twenty-seven. In two days time I will be a whopping thirty-two years old. Sprinkled within those four dates are also a father-in-law, nieces and nephews, and a few friends. So if I’m not attending a birthday party, I’m either hosting one or planning one. The current tally is: Attended=1, Hosted=2, Guest of Honor=0. As the month goes on, I’ll keep you abreast of that total.

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During a rare moment of quiet this chaotic month, I managed to slip away to see one of my favorite authors on his most recent book tour. This month Jim Butcher released his tenth book in the Dresden Files series, Small Favor.  For about a half an hour he answered questions and related amusing stories.  A few of them I’ve heard from previous signings I’ve been to.  One thing I found interesting that heard for the first time that day was how many drafts his books go through before reaching the everyday reader.  Seven.

There’s his first draft.  Then he makes his own revisions.  Then it goes to some beta readers, and he makes changes according to them.  Then off to his agent and more revisions.  From there it’s to the editor and a fifth round of edits.  The publisher and then the copy editor bring the tally to seven.  By that count he has seven versions of every book that he has written.

It was an enjoyable afternoon, and I’ll probably see him again if he should happen tour through this town for later books.

Time for Change

Change is definitely in the air. First, my daughter’s school called me on Friday to tell me they want to move her up to the advanced classes starting today. She’s so nervous that she’s making herself think she’s sick. There’s no fever and she’s not puking, so she’s going to school. I know it’s hard to change classes in the fourth quarter, but we talked it over this weekend and we all agreed that this is the best thing for her. She’s bored in her regular classes. If she has any homework, it’s done in a matter of minutes. Come on, her last presentation was on Expressionism and she managed to tie in Existentialism into it. Her instructors said that that was a difficult feat for a college student, and she pulled it off with exceeding marks. That’s pretty impressive for a thirteen year-old. I know I’m coming from a biased view point, but still.

She’s not the only one with good news in the house. My wife has received a letter of intent for a position she’s been stalking for the last little while. She can’t get an actual job offer until she graduates in about a month. No graduation, no job. Not that that’s going to be a problem. She graduating in the top five percent.

Yesterday my son celebrated his sixth birthday. We all had so much fun. We deemed it a water party. All the kids showed up in swim attire and I got to soak them with Super Soakers and pelt them with water balloons. They loved it as much as I did. There’s a little known secret I’m about to share with you. If ever you’re feeling down, a little sad with life, spray a kid with water. It’s so rejuvenating. They laugh. You laugh. All is good in the world.

I needed that burst of life, too. I was feeling down about my lack of writing. I steal scraps of time as I can manage, but life can get so hectic and those scraps never seem to manifest. I knew this heading into this year. Time was going to be limited for me. I need to savor what I can get and remember that my time will be coming. Now that my wife is finishing school, my time to finish will be coming up shortly. All the time and energy I’ve been putting into the job I care nothing about can finally be put behind me. Well, in a year or so at any rate.

There hasn’t been a phone call or party in my honor this weekend, but I know that change is coming for me, too. y writing will take off. The agents will be impressed. The publishers will bid over my manuscript. They will laugh. I will laugh. All will be good in the world.