Jumper Cables

I wouldn't call progress on the writing of this book stalled. I'd call it the victim of a weak battery. One of my busiest autumns in recent memory finished with a flourish when I returned to the Mt. Mansfield Winter Academy as a teacher. This combined with the two classes I was teaching at Community College of Vermont, plus the onset of peak season at FedEx, as well as innkeeping. I was stretched a wee bit, and there were many Saturday mornings when it was all I could do to sit before my manuscript and tremble, waiting for nap time. Like the crucial line in Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" asks, "What's it gonna be boy, yes or no?" I faced a turning point in my commitment.
So I finally decided to leave FedEx. The decision was helped by an offer to teach two additional classes at Community College of Vermont. Removing the stress of lifting two thousand boxes a day should help with energy levels, plus I'll have three or four more mornings per week to write.
I realize that writers sometimes focus too narrowly on the physical limitations that affect their writing. I'm the first one to dispense the kind of advice to whining writers that leaves sensitivity in the dust: Quit yer bitchin' and write! But I've been grinding my way through the writing of this book, so I'm pretty sure more time--and time of a higher quality--will push the project along. I'd like to finish the first draft in the spring, maybe mid-May, then give it to Chantal to read. A summer rewrite would follow. It would be nice to have it ready for the fall.
Ha! Listen to me! Prattling on as if I have control over any of this. Oh well, all I can do now is run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it.