Readin' and writin' and 'rithmetic

To start with 'rithmetic, I am watching a series on Netflix, the four-part 2008 BBC's The Story of Maths with Marcus de Sautoy. Why? I know little or nothing about the topic and like the occasional dip into foreign territory. And I enjoy hearing him call it maths instead of math. Talk about foreign!

As for readin' and writin', I did a bit of both today between feeding cats and watching our changeable April weather pass over with rain and thunder and wind and sun. The cats have been agitated all day, perhaps by the weather and by Tom's absence for most of the day with things at the railroad.

I am working on Wacky in WhoVille, a project that I began a year ago. Although I am a firm believer in the do-not-edit-while-you-are-composing school of writing, I decided today to go back and at least review what I had written so that these final few chapters will fit closely enough with what went before that the real editing, when I get around to it, won't entail endless flipping back and forth trying to keep thing consistent.

I have to say that I am pleased with the earlier parts I read today. I did very light, light, light editing but not delaying much over that. This will be the third (and possibly last) WhoVille volume and may be the best. 

Writing is a challenge when people read what you write. Some readers have written very kind things on their own blogs or in private messages to me and some have even posted embarrassingly glowing reviews on Amazon. (Thank you, very much! Don't stop!) But when you write, as I do, very different sorts of things, some readers prefer one series or style to another and other fans vice versa, so to speak. 

Because I always have several literary irons in the fire -- some having been there so long, the iron has almost rusted -- I wind up with strong suggestions that I write another WhoVille book or that I put that aside and concentrate of the sometime-mentioned second John of the Cross mystery or that I write a new book about some of the characters who appeared in Except for His Wings. When the rare reader has been vouchsafed the opportunity to read something from The Prior's Cat or Penultimate, Wisconsin, which are basically collections of short stories, I get questions about when I will complete those volumes.

It is wonderful to be in demand, even though, let me be honest, the demand is painfully small! On the other hand, I find myself easily distracted when the work completing a book gets difficult, as it always does. It is much easier to set that aside and turn my attention to those that are nowhere near complete and piddle and fiddle around with them.

The greatest temptation, of course as should be obvious by now, is to set all of those things aside and write a blog post about writing.

Thanks for your support!