Going Down For The Count

Right quick, I am going to blog before the manuscripts begin to arrive. When that happens I go down for the count--things really start happening fast. I wondered what it would be like having two publishers and both planning to release books at the same time. Well, I am about to find out--crunch time is here! Later this week the manuscript from Destiny arrives. I have one month to review and return my suggestions to them. Also at that time the forward from Mark Sandford arrives and will be added. Then on the 15th the Sassy Pants manuscript arrives. I have two weeks to review and return that. By the 31st my editing work will be done. Whew! For better or worse, it will be published!

Just in time! Beginning April 8 I will have a class every Thursday evening for five weeks at The Healing Tree on Burden Bearing, which takes us to May. Puff puff!! All the classes will be video taped and Destiny will market them as DVDs along with my books. Cool, huh! Somewhere in there I need to also video tape a YouTube spot for Sassy Pants and redo the clip for The Mystery. When I receive the link for the current book in process, (Highly Sensitive; Learning to Live with The Gift of Spiritual Sensitivity,) I will pass it on. They sure go for long book titles! I also met a lady this Monday who has a connection with Public Television. Wouldn't that be something if I go on TV! Ha!

So thank you all for the prayers for the books doing well. You can also pray that my eyes hold up with all this editing I will be doing.

I think I may have the month of May free. Maybe we can have a little get-away? Because in late June or early July I will receive Sassy Pants books and can begin marketing them. Maybe I will spend May setting up  venues--like libraries and home school associations. In August we drive out to a suburb of Tulsa --can't remember the name at this moment--to do the audio taping for the Sassy Pants audio book. I am trying to arrange for a book signing in Albuquerque, NM because we know some people there. The gal is at the state level in home school association there, so she is going to call in everyone she knows! She will also help me hawk the burden bearing books. Hey, we know people in Phoenix too! Oh, boy, this could develop into something. Since we are out that way David is making rumblings about going to Texas to visit a church that we watch on Sunday mornings -- our little house church meets in the afternoon. Man, if we do all that I will be flat for two or three weeks!

The problem is that I need to schedule these things months in advance, so wise planning is critical! At some point I need to go to California--I promised! And Seattle/Tacoma, Spokane, Atlanta, Fort Wayne, Ann Arbor, and there are three bookstores right here in Grand Rapids! That does not even include any speaking engagements that might turn up. OOOOyi! I could be really busy!

A while back I was lamenting that I can't drive, so I am dependent upon David, and his schedule simply does not allow for me to build the market demand that I need to sell books at a pace where I can actually make some money. One of the gals from writer's group asked if I had prayed asking for such a driver--totally dedicated to me! She said she would pray. The very next day another gal from the group said, "Carol, you and I need to do something together. I can drive and you can talk--what can we do together?" Yaa, my jaw dropped! This is the gal who did/does my video taping. So when she called to ask if I wanted to come and help her paint I went happly. Next day I just had a sore wrist from running the roller and a sore peck from bracing so I didn't fall into the paint! Even did a flight of stairs! Needed help getting back down, but I was rather pleased with the effort.

Now to David's news. He went to the doc and asked if he would use a different test which would be less invasive than the biopsy. The doc would have been happy to do that if the test was available! It is so new that it isn't even available outside of the origiating lab, evidently! As soon as it is readily available Doc will prescribe it! David laughed and agreed to have the biopsy. Seems that when your dad had prostate cancer your chances of having it double! I do not know what the PSA count was, but it was high enough to cause the doc to want to verify what, exactly was going on in there. He did prescribe something to help aleviate some of the discomfort from the enlargement pressure. If I publish this and something is incorrect, he will just have to blog the correction!

Oh, other David news! The Healing Tree, where he works, has given him a token salary and a title--not as something to stress over or strive to do and be, but in recognition of what he is already doing. He is now co-director with Joan Feikema, the founder!

I was going to get one last picture of the snow bank before spring came and melted everything, but alas, I was not fast enough! The sun has been very busy the last few days and winter is making a hasty exit. The birds are getting frisky, but the squirrel is content with getting fat! The piano continues to have a good effect on my muscles all over. It amazes me that God had plans for a lot more to happen than just satisfying my need to make music!  Guess that brings us up to date. I don't know how much blogging I will be doing this next month--but who knows! I may need to exhale and blather for a while after sitting still and reading with a fine toothed comb and magnifying glass!

Blessings, Carol