Five Things on a Friday

1.  I worked so hard on my new book yesterday that my brain felt tired when I was done.  

2.  This week has been a challenge. My laptop started acting funny on Tuesday, so I had to take it into the shop. But my book deadline is Sunday, so I worked on my book using my old laptop that has a cracked screen.

Because only the screen is broken, any image still looks perfect when sent through my projector.  So this week, I worked on my book by projecting the pages onto the wall of my writing shed.  As Tim Gunn says in Project Runway, "It's a 'Make-It-Work Moment!'"  I'll be really glad when my laptop comes back!

But, since I had my projector all set up, while I worked on a hard copy of the manuscript, I set my laptop up to do a slide show of photos from a climb Julia and I did last year in the mountain setting for this book.  I put in a CD of some music from the book, had the slide show playing, and worked on the pages.  It was a multi-media editing experience!

3.  Last night Milo was barking at a black cat in my neighbor's yard. After I called Milo in, I thought, "But they don't have a black cat." I think it was THE SKUNK. We have a fenced-in yard, and it appears that we've discouraged him from coming into our yard . . . but I don't know for sure.

4.  Happy Birthday Hamster made The Bank Street College's Best Books List!  I'm thrilled by that honor!
 
5.  My heart is broken for the people of New Hampshire this morning. Police officers risk their lives for us all every day. I have great respect for what they do and how much their families also must give for our safety.