Wednesday, December 12, 2007
A Well-Timed Tidbit
My return trip on Sunday was not to be.
That morning freezing rain was predicted for Chicago the entire day. By 9:00 a.m. flights to O'Hare were already running two hours late. By 5 p.m., when my flight from O'Hare was scheduled to take off for San Francisco--the whole dratted airport would likely be shut down. I could be stuck back in the Red Carpet Room with Mr. I-Am-The-World Cardiologist.
Uh-uh, ain't happenin'.
I called my niece's husband, a US Air pilot. (US Air is the sister airline to United.) "What should I do?"
He told me to try rerouting through the south. "You can try calling, but they'll want to charge you. Best thing is to go to the airport and see what they'll do."
I tried calling United. The very polite girl in Bangalore was no help at all. (She's probably never even seen freezing rain.)
So I packed and trucked to the airport. I did not, however, take the sheets off Mom's guestbed before I left. Call it intuition.
There were no available flights to reroute through the south. I could take my chances with O'Hare that day or change my flights to the following day. Guess what I chose.
Mom was thrilled to have me back so soon.
However, I did have to hole myself in her office and work. At that point I couldn't lose another day from writing. I managed to put in 8 hours. She made me a fine dinner.
Ya just can't beat the service of a great mom.
On Monday I actually made it home. And only forty minutes late. Amazing.
Tuesday here in California I worked from morning til night. My deadline is now three days away. Sweat time. As usual I am convinced this is the book to end my career.
Sigh. When will it ever end?
Opening my e-mail yesterday morning, I found a well-timed tidbit. A very kind author pal sent me an excerpt from one of his fans who'd mentioned me. It read:
"Secular books, of which I have a scad because I love mysteries and such, are inclined to have unacceptable language, though I do purchase authors who don't use that much. Dean Koontz, for instance can terrify a person until they go to sleep with the lights on while using lovely, almost poetic language. Not that the author of Eyes of Elisha didn't do the same."
Got me through the day, I'll tell ya.
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7 comments:
Glad you had safe travel and a nice visit with Mama Ruth. I'm praying you'll meet your deadline with minimal stress.
I read Brink of Death last week. In about 6 hours. It was amazing! As a fellow author, I am always excited when I read a book without editing in my head. :)
Be encouraged, Brandilyn. You're doing a good job.
Dear Brandilyn, may God richly reward you for taking precious time from your busy schedule to join us at the KY writers meeting Saturday at your mom's house. We all benefitted so much from your company and comments. Praying for you to meet your upcoming deadline.
What a great quote. Those reviews really do get us through deadline crunch. Mine's still a few weeks out, but ack! Praying for you!
You ears should be burning then. :o) I talked a bunch about you this week. All the gals at Curves were asking me for recommendations for books to buy as Christmas presents. They all loved suspense, sick people. ;)
So naturally, I recommended the best - the one you have to wear a seatbelt to read. Just because I'm a BHC, doesn't mean I don't know who writes the best stuff.
Aw, Ane, you're the best.
See why I love the BHCC?
Funny, funny stuff Brandilyn! Having done a bit of traveling in my time, I know exactly what you were going through. Glad you made it home safely (and that you made deadline).
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