Changed My Point of View

This is my view this morning.  I like it.  I even liked scurrying home after work yesterday, flinging everything into the van, stopping at the Hilltop Cafe (in a BP station) at the edge of town for excellent burgers and tots for supper, then driving up the Door Peninsula in the dark.  The drive itself was kind of surreal because not only was it dark dark dark (being essentially rural), there wasn't any traffic to speak of, so we were driving along all alone in our little bubble of light.  Even though I am extremely familiar with the route it seemed like I was driving in a whole new place, and things seemed farther apart than they do in the daylight.  One cool thing, when I was getting all of the food and luggage out of the van I glanced up to see the sky full of stars.  If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have stayed out longer to look, but I fully intend to go out and have a longer visit with Orion and the Plieades tonight if it's clear again.  Also I'll wear a hat, scarf, and gloves and be warm enough to stay out.

This is another aspect of my view this morning.  It's a mug of tea and the fireplace.  It's a gas fireplace on a timer so no tang of woodsmoke (which Durwood probably couldn't tolerate anyway) but it throws off lots of heat (which Durwood is a big fan of) and I predict that it'll be on pretty much all the time we're awake until we pack up and leave.

I told you yesterday that I'm tidying and polishing part of my novel to enter in a contest.  I worked on it yesterday at work, last night, and again this morning.  I think I've got it.  One of the things I love about my Kindle Fire HD is that I can email my manuscript to my Kindle and then I can read it like it's already a "real" book.  It gives a whole different perspective.  I can't make changes on the Kindle but I can take notes while I read, go back into the laptop to make the changes and then send the corrected manuscript to be read again.  So instead of writing from a photograph prompt last night and plonking that on here, I'm going to give you a tiny bit of the first chapter of my novel.

February 26--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview (excerpt).  

Chapter 1

            I started my first full day of owning the Seaview, a ramshackle hotel on a Caribbean island, wide awake before the sunrise and unable to blame it on the rooster that laid claim to the courtyard outside my door.  Sheer panic slammed my eyelids open at about four in the morning, my heart was pounding and I was hyperventilating.  I could hear the slow, reasoned voice of my son, Will telling me he did not think that “sinking so much of Dad’s life insurance money into a decrepit hotel on an island at the back of beyond” was a very good idea.

            I couldn’t get started until the shipping container got to the island and that depended on the weather and the other ports the freighter needed to call at.  The wait would give me time to do any demolition and empty out broken or outdated furnishings.  The plumbing and electrical work needed to be done before all the cosmetic work started.

            Since I could tell that I wouldn’t be sleeping any more, I got up and got my day started.  I had the coffee pot ready to plug in and there was enough light from the security lights so that I could sit out at one of the tables overlooking the salt pond behind Sydans Garden Inn where I was staying until the Seaview was inhabitable.  I took my notebook and pen with me to begin drawing up a plan of attack.  I wanted to consult with Ann, Sydans’ owner, before she went off to her job as principal at the middle school to get names of two local men who were reliable and could provide the muscle.  There was a lot of work that needed to be done, tearing out the rotting walls, repainting everything inside and out, making sure the roof didn’t leak, a million things before my guesthouse would be safe for visitors.  I hoped that Ann would know a good plumber and electrician because I wanted to be absolutely confident in the safety of the wiring and the plumbing.

           By the time the sun was up I had a long list of things to be done.  Topmost was to get started tearing things down and tossing things out.  I needed a man with a crowbar...

Okay, that's all you get.  I hope you like it.  Don't tell me if you hate it.  Now I think I'm going to go soak in the jacuzzi or maybe I'll read a book... no, I'll read in the jacuzzi, that's what I'll do.  Multitasking is the name of my game.  Blub, blub.

--Barbara