A Book, a Back and a Bathroom

Despite a rather dismal beginning to my vacation last weekend, I managed to rally my incapacitated back and my nonfunctioning muse and actually got a lot done since I last posted here.  

Big goal - Publish “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days”  My publisher continues to say that we are ahead of schedule. By the end of this week or the first of next week, they are to send me the final electronic proof. Once I sign off on that, it is another week or two to get a physical book proof and then, wonder of wonders, within another two weeks I will have a shipment of books to begin peddling. End of this project is actually in sight.

Small goals –

Finish writing my novel - Seeing as this has taken nearly two years, it shouldn’t really qualify as a small goal, huh? My gauge however was that I was up to somewhere around 68,000 words earlier this fall. Those final words should not have taken that long. But Sunday night, around 9:30, I entered an “ # “ into the computer (which used to mean “the end”. Does it still?) My final figures came in at 71,695 words and 39 chapters in 21 months. Now I will put it away for a while to rise like bread dough (or ferment like red wine, or even perhaps fester like an open wound). I still have research to do, so depending on where that ends up, I may need to make a lot of changes. I know, I kind of put the pie before the pumpkin, but that’s how I roll. But no matter, I have to give myself a big pat on the back. I have finished the rough draft.

Work on my third devotional – Unfortunately, congratulations are perhaps a bit premature, as I didn’t look at this at all. I don’t’ know. I will get inspired here real soon.

Submit three pieces somewhere –This is very impressive. I submitted two pieces quite a while back. I had heard back from one – rejected, and hadn’t heard anything on the other, so I sent another email inquiring and they emailed me right back, that they will be in touch in about another two months to let me know. But none of that is as exciting as my next piece of news, because, yes, just this morning, I submitted a short story to Apple Valley Review. That makes three submissions this Round.

Christmas program at church – I didn’t do much on my own, but several people actually approached me to sign up for something. Next week I promise to really crack down on this. Because I let our Sunday School teacher and our Puppet master decide what songs they want to perform, I just have to hope they have come up with something and then I can plug it into the program. Then assign my handful of reading volunteers their readings and I’m done. Right?  

As I lamented on Sunday, I had big plans to paint my bathroom while I was off this week. Despite a painful and crooked back, I pushed through, and with lots of moaning, groaning, crawling around ungracefully and resting in between, the hubby and I got the bathroom back together this morning.

I hate it when I don't take a "before" picture. This is from 2007 and I don't know what I was thinking when I took it. Could I have straightened up anything in this bathroom?

This is "during" just as the hubby was finishing the ceiling. 

Ta-da. I am working on a lighthouse theme. I only have three lighthouses right now (you can't see the lighthouse rug), but I have high hopes to hit up the second-hand stores.