Well, it is time for the Saturday blog once more.  The first thing I should do is apologize for missing the last one and, yes, there was a good reason.  I accidentally deleted 16, that is right 16, unedited manuscripts in various degrees of stages.  The computer acted indiscriminately, it didn’t care what got pulled when I emptied the garbage.  Integration.  Andromeda Queen, Equals, Lost in Myth, Champions, Erica, Hunter’s Challenge, Earwen’s Song, even some of the older texts that were being revamped.  All gone.  Poof.  It took 4 days to pull them out of the main drive, so I could go hunting through the files.  It then took a couple days to find the right ones.  Still not sure if I got the right copies… Sigh.  In some cases I was lucky, I had them backed up and so did others, imagine that?  Anyway I am, more or less, back on track.  Integration is going through a check, before the next stage of edits, which means it could be ready for last edits some time in the month of May and ready to be formatted before the end of June.  Surrounded by the Light has not come back from first edit, but there is no rush there. 

While all that was going on, we brought in the paperback proof of ‘For the King & Elven Empire’, I am going to hurt someone at UPS yet.  There is NO choice, the printing house uses them, primarily, although sometime I get lucky and they use DHL.  The proof was supposed to be here Wednesday at the latest, but they forgot to take it on delivery with them, (they forgot to post that it might be coming until they published that tidbit too, that is right, no tracing # to indicate that it had even been shipped.)   Pushing that aside, the book arrived Thursday, towards the end of the day, and no, it was not right, there were flaws that had to be taken care of, sad part, they were those of the printer… something is rotten in Denmark.  I growled at them about UPS, snarled at them about their error and generally made a nuisance of myself… yes, I was in a mood. (lack of sleep from keeping a computer awake will do that to a person.)  We ran it through the system, reordered, and there is a new book, ready to ship, which may (or not) be here Tuesday (or Wednesday).  I have huge hopes for this, the fates couldn’t be so cruel as to do this week to me a second time, although it has been known to happen.  Meanwhile I write, yes I threw out 4000 words in Tratchars, but the good news is that what I replaced them with is much better.  Eniko is not happy that I have not been sending her fixes and she knows I have about 7 chapters to type out, or more.  rolling eyes here.  I know Eniko… (pushing, pushing)

On the kitten front… I am beginning to be able to tell them apart in the dark, this goes for their characters as well.  If one gives a soft mew, that is Thena.  Tath gives a louder Ma or MOM.  If there is a furry object running between my feet while I am TRYING to walk, that is Tath,  if there is one on the kitchen counter, that is Thena.  If a pen goes flipping across the floor, that is my pen thief, Tath.  If something goes crash from inside the cupboard, that is Thena.  If someone comes through the door Thena is there to be noticed.  Tath will check it out from around a corner to see if he knows the person or not.  He is picky about who he will come out to see and not… his favourite hiding place, under the bed.  When they are in a playful mood, the house sounds like the final stretch of the Kentucky Derby during the final stages of the main race.  Those two kittens kit their blue tunnels at full gallop, and sometimes go flying with them.  BTW.  I no longer have flowers on the top of my furniture, courtesy of Thena.  My jumper has knocked them down and, proud of it, I might add.  

The kittens have also noticed that there are birds outside, though they don’t go out there.  I shouldn’t say that, Tath went out though the door yesterday by error.  The look on his face when he raced back in said as much as that he wasn’t about to repeat that mistake anytime soon.   He is such a wuss, Snoop would have had a blast putting these two in order.  

Well, time to toddle off, I am half way through a chapter, have a truck and trailer safety to write up, two kittens who are tearing at my white sheers, and I haven’t had breakfast yet.  I also have to see what I can do about finding someone to put these shingles back in place that the wind knocked off the other day… sighing… yes, it was certainly one of those weeks.  Well, today is the end of that one, I hope, crossing fingers, hope yours was better.  Have a good one, until next week, beware of galloping kittens.