June 19, 2016 – June 20, 2016

I finished my run and thought I would share the song I selected for the number one spot on my ipod today. I’ve had the song for years and enjoy it, but it felt extra special today on Father’s day. I’m posting the video on facebook—Who I Am, by Jessica Andrews.

Superhero and I traveled down to spend a few days with my family. We planted a rose in my mom and dad’s yard, for Father’s Day, while I chatted with him about the rose nearby and all the cool things my grandfather could do in a garden. My grandfather was a specialty gardener here (see picture below) for many years.

Now that my grandfather is gone, it seems my father enjoys my gardening efforts even more.  I can’t graft like he could, but I love to hear my dad tell stories about how my grandfather did it.

The family supervised our planting efforts and the small gift became a family event. Then, after food and chatter we ended up at the park playing ball; for the record my Dad and Superhero cheat. At one point Dad held my arm while Superhero did the one finger poke in all my tickle spots as I tried to dribble away with my rebound. My teammates shouted their locations so I could throw the ball since it’s obvious there is no such thing as a foul when you play ball with my family.

However, I’m posting this today for a different reason.  Amidst the activity and fun it crossed my mind to do something for a new comer to our family, so she would feel included, but I waited. Shortly, my father left the game and offered to tend the newest child in our family so her mother could play. My opportunity to do that special thing was gone, but I was reminded why it crossed my mind in the first place. Thanks Dad – your example impacts every day.

Now, I’m back home and working on my own yard. I still consider myself a novice gardener. It’s kind of like writing, the more I learn the more I realize how much I don’t know. This is my practice box. Superhero and Golden Egg painted it for me.

If you look on the left you can see the poinsettias I pruned and trimmed earlier this spring. They are doing really well. I think I have a closer picture of one. Here it is with its new leaves. They won’t turn red till the nights are longer than the days.

Anyway, the point is I’m pleased with my success, but I’m still learning. Which brings me to a writing point, I am still finding my way with social media, blogging, and writing. The copy edit I started on the 16th is moving forward. However, I have no precedent by which to measure how I am doing. Therefore, I’m using my daily posts as a tool to log my work so I can look back and see what works and what doesn’t.

The problem with that is that if I publish a post I need to spend extra time changing it from my shorthand to something presentable. I think it is necessary to publish some because, for me, changing ideas from madness to clarity is part of what writing is about. The skill you present will reflect the effort of your practice, so I want to practice often and well. The tricky part is finding balance, but you have to start where you are.

The plan for copy edits: a query copy edit to look again through the entire manuscript for world building flaws, plot holes, timeline errors, and general weak spots in these main areas; a structure and content copy edit which sounds very similar, but will focus on how well I implemented the corrections from the query edit (ie… did I lose consistency, valuable content, or necessary structure); finally, a grammar copy edit where I review the entire manuscript for precision, not just accuracy. I’ve given deadlines for each phase, but I am uncertain if they are manageable or even realistic. My goal, for now, is to post at least once a week about my progress.