2021 Life Logs, Day 105: Meeting with My First Reader and Editor
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2021
Weather: Overcast, Windy, and Cool; High 49, Low, 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This time last year, friend Christina Brodie and I were completing our Zoom Memoir Writing Class. We had been partnered to read each other’s writing and make suggestions for improvements. I had written the introduction and first two chapters of The Voyage of Windbird and as my partner, Christina had read them and given great feedback. She encouraged me to keep writing, but the class ended and I put the writing aside. In late January when I decided to start writing again, Christina offered to read my chapters and do a first edit. She was once a high school English teacher and her suggestions for my first eight chapters all brought great improvements to my writing. This morning Christina called to ask if she could stop by to drop off her editing suggestions for Chapters 9 and 10. Since we have both been vaccinated, she felt comfortable coming in to have tea and to talk about the writing. I was finally able to thank her face to face for all the work she is doing for me out of the kindness of her heart. She is a great editor, and I am so grateful that she is willing to continue to do that hard work. I sent her the next four chapters this afternoon. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Christina Brodie.
Today was a dreary day, but after Christina left, I took Shadow for his morning walk before launching into writing. Then I came inside and finished writing about the passage to American Samoa and on into the first few days there. American Samoa has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1899. The people who live there are US nationals, but not citizens. There are five islands and two atolls. Tutuila is the largest and most populated island and that is where Mark and I visited in 2006. Mark had lived there for two years in the late sixties and it was great fun for him to revisit the places where he lived and worked and share those places with me. Tutuila is a beautiful island. We enjoyed it so much, we stayed for an entire month. I will continue that writing tomorrow.
Last night late I talked with my good friend Lynne who has been in New Zealand during Covid. She flew there after Thanksgiving 2019 and has not been able to safely return home. She is living a totally normal life in New Zealand with no threat of Covid. As much as I would like to see her, I can think of no reason she would return to this country quite yet. And if things continue to go downhill, I’m not sure there would be a reason to ever return. She has been pet sitting for most of her year and a half there. Recently she was pet sitting for a dog named Maggie. Lynn was reading the book, A Gentleman in Moscow, and returned home one afternoon to find the book in shreds. Lynn loves nothing more than devouring books, but evidently Maggie like to devour them in a different way!
I can never let April 15 pass by without thinking about my parents. They were married on April 15 in 1924. My mother had just turned 16 and my father was 20. Before my mother turned 17, she had the first of her seven children. Only five of us survived and now only two of us are left. My sister will have her 88th birthday in July and I am not getting any younger! But on we go.
