DO-OVERS

DO-OVERS

I'm doing First Pass edits on Taking Midway. I've written about this step in the publishing process before. The pages arrived a week ago in PDF form, typeset and paginated to look the way they will in print. My job is to proof for corrections, not rewrite the book. This massaging is my favorite part of the process because I also use it to correct clunky sentences and word repetitions. "Echo" is the copy editor's term for a word used too many times. With Midway, I used the description "mighty" sixteen times. After a while even a casual reader will get the feeling I've been lazy so those have to be corrected. I'm down to two mighties now. I took utter delight in substituting "Brobdignagian" for one of them. Editing can be fun.

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CHRISTMAS

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CHRISTMAS

The lights are hung. Mantel decorated. Tree standing tall next to the piano, covered in ornaments, listing ever so slightly. Alexa playing Christmas music. Today, I'm going to buy a small tree for the courtyard and decorate it with the ceramic C9 lights I picked up at Lowe's. I couldn't believe they still had Christmas lights for sale after Thanksgiving.

We're not doing a card this year. Actually, we stopped sending cards once the boys grew up. I used to write a Christmas letter, believing that because I'm an author my Christmas letters were somehow less annoying than the rest of the world's. I keep them all in a file. Went back to have a look at them not so long ago. They are a snapshot of what was going on in our lives each of those years.

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THE HANGOVER

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THE HANGOVER

Cross country season is over. Twenty-four weeks of training and racing came to an end yesterday at the California State Meet. My girls team took third place in our division and made the podium. It was a hard-fought conclusion to the double days, Saturday long runs, summer camp, and those many days in between that make for the consistency needed to become a champion.

The girls were ecstatic. I felt the glow of a top finish and did a little jig. Made it home from Fresno and downloaded to Calene about the great weekend until I was talked out. She listened patiently, then resumed watching SVU. My queen loves her murder mysteries.

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THANKSGIVING

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THANKSGIVING

My Thanksgiving week began Saturday at precisely 9:24 in the morning. I was standing atop Reservoir Hill at Mt, San Antonio College cross country course. My girls team was racing for their Southern California division title. The fifth and final scoring runner crossed the finish line at 32 seconds past the minute.

Reservoir is a lofty viewpoint, allowing coaches to not only cheer for their runners as they make their climb to the summit, but also follow their progress back down the hill into the stadium for the finish. I was frantically refreshing the Finished Results app to get a final score….

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SUNDAY MORNING

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SUNDAY MORNING

Sitting here at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning. Sadie at my side with her tennis ball, hoping I will throw it across the room even though she knows Calene isn't a fan of fetch in the house. NFL Countdown on TV. Set my fantasy lineup. Feeling great about how the girls team ran at prelims yesterday and scheming a way for them to win the championship next week. All of which is my way of saying it's time for a newsletter instead of a blog. Have a great Sunday!

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SANTA ANAS

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SANTA ANAS

Our town backs up to the local mountains. Some cities have houses facing the sea. We have Mother Saddleback staring at our backyards. Fire ravaged the steep areas on the very edges of Rancho Santa Margarita a few months ago, burning all the way to the summit and up the slopes of the valley on the other side for miles. Last Wednesday Santa Ana winds roared through the pass connecting our town with cities on the other side of Saddleback.

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ELECTION DAY

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ELECTION DAY

A funny thing happened when I worked on Confronting the Presidents. I learned we have always been a divided nation. Whether over religious freedom, states rights, slavery, monetary policy, or race (among many others), America has always had one side violently (literally) opposed to another. It's how we roll. The book takes us from George Washington to Joe Biden in chronological order, so it was easy to track each rift as it grew and exploded and was either solved or suppressed. I'm not saying this to condemn the radical divisions in the country right now, though I certainly believe this is the craziest political time in our history by far. I'm just saying that we're decent people. We find a way.

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CHANGING TIMES

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CHANGING TIMES

The whole world is in love with Artificial Intelligence. I don't know all the things AI is capable of accomplishing, but people seem to love is that it makes writing easier. Letters, emails, term papers — no more struggling to find the right word and build a smart sentence. Let AI do it.

You know who doesn't love AI?

Writers.