Last Wednesday morning, I wrote the post about Public Speaking for Newbies somewhere around 4 a.m., then concentrated on my work-in-progress, The Cat Lady’s Secret–and finished it!

Since it was supposed to be finished last October, then by March of this year, I’m happy to say it’s finally done. Well, the first draft anyway. It still needs some work, and I’d better get to it or I’ll be guilty of having a novel that falls apart “Beyond Chapter Five.” I have a couple of tough, talented alpha readers ready to go over it for me and (get this) an agent interested in it (yea!), so I’m hoping to have it done and in someone else’s hands by the end of the year so I can move on to The Simulacrum, Corporate Ladder, and Southern Challenge, each novel at various stages of the writing process.

Great news #2 from last Wednesday came in a Facebook note from one of my cyberfriends. She’d just put an order in for nine copies of Give the Lady a Ride for her book club, and could I be available in October for a conference call to discuss the book? Ya betcha!

All this happened before I had to run to the Brazos Valley to take Mom to her appointments. The good news for her (for those who keep up) is that her blood count is finally climbing. Last I heard it was 10.4 as opposed to 7.4 while she was sick. Normal is 12. Bad news for her is that the macular degeneration got worse while we were fighting other things. Next month, I’ll be taking her to someone who can help with low vision.

We had a good time together, though. Having her feel well enough to do things with me was special. We went out to dinner a couple of times and tended to some long-neglected business. She spent far less time sleeping and more time chatting and sharing with me. Another visit that can go into my treasure box!

Finally, in this list of things I’m thankful for and catching you up on, it rained last night! It started raining around ten and was still raining when I got up at four, and it’s still raining now, at a quarter to six! I can’t wait to see the pond. Of course, if it rained enough to fill it back up, the rest of the neighborhood would be in a flood, but I hope it rained enough to raise the pond some, to give it a start toward the beautiful body of water it once was.

I was looking through some pictures I took of it during this past winter’s freeze–full and frozen from one end to the other. Now the deer walk down into it and eat the lily pads. I walked in it early last week, realized how deep it once was as I looked back up to the house. Before we move in three years, I’d love to see it full again, but if not, I hope the forest takes it over. Seeing it this way breaks my heart.

But on a good note, we’ve kept water out for all the birds and have attracted some I’ve never seen before. In spite of the pond’s slow death, our back yard is full of life with our feathered friends and the deer, so it’s still a pleasure working at my desk by the windows.

For this week, I have two manuscripts to edit for others, two ready for me to resume writing, and one to research. I’m gonna be busy. I love it!