June 20, 2022

Daily Diary, Day 659: As I intended, this weekend my husband read the draft. He said he liked it and laughed at the right spot, and he only found typos. I did one more polishing, and then I sent it off to my first beta readers, and I should hear back from them by next weekend.

I also started to catch up on the various blogs and newsletter issues I’ve signed up for, but had let slide. Did 2 walks (total 50 mins) and 30 mins of exercise yesterday, and today I’ve already done a 40 min walk, ordered groceries, watched the dogs play, and after this post I have to do some updating my sales records. I’m very behind on this, and looking at what has sold, after what promotions, is how I keep a handle on what marketing is working and what is not.

And, I plan on doing some reading! Let’s see if I can actually meet that goal.

I thought I would also catch you all up on what my husband and I have been watching at night. It’s important for me to have some good tv to look forward to when I have been working this hard. We watched a six-part BBC series, The Singing Detective, that came out in the 1980s. We had seen it long ago, it is fantastic, especially for a writer. Basic plot is that a pulp fiction writer is hospitalized for a terrible skin disease that has him crippled. To keep himself from going bonkers, he imagines the plot of one of the books he wrote, interspersed by flashbacks to his childhood. The people in that past, the people in the hospital ward, and the characters in the book (that often interweave) will frequently break out into song (lip-syncing to music of 40s and 50s.)

Each episode was an hour, so we would then watch episodes of the new The Ipcress File, or Dark Winds, the new Tony Hillerman series. Both deviate from the originals (films, books) but in smart ways that have maintained the spirit of those originals. We are definitely enjoying both.

Also this weekend (since the Ipcress File and Dark Winds are coming out once a week) we started the Jeff Bridges' The Old Man, an action thriller, which we are also enjoying. Then we wrap up the last half hour before bed with the feel good British show The Café, just a sweet little thing. Really has been a good patch of fun TV watching.

Here is a gorgeous Iris (as several you have pointed out—evidently this is a gladiola- smile) from this morning’s walk!