We’ve had house guests this week—very good friends—and it’s amazing how busy the days and nights can get. Nonetheless, I’ve been working each morning on The Next Novel—mostly research at this point. I’ve been slowly wading through a French biography of my character. Some French is easier to read than others, and I find this historian’s writing quite challenging.

Too often, too, I’ve had to deal with computer/software/Net frustrations. One morning my keyboard had a terrible stutter. The word “stutter,” for example, would appear as ssssstuutteerrrrrr. Then suddenly, it’s fine. Why?!

I’m also trying to figure out the technology involved in setting up a video conference with a book club. This has involved quite a bit of searching the Net for solutions to the error messages that kept popping up.

I’ve had corrections to make to my anthology essay; an interview for a magazine article; quite a bit of reader email; time spent trying to figure out how to qualify for the Net research site Jstor (this is on-going); on-going puzzle-time trying to figure out how to store my research documents (more on that to come); a visit with a wonderfully fun group of readers from Little Rock; and—now! at last!—correspondence with a woman who will be my VA (Virtual Assistant). Readers of this blog will know that I’ve been thinking about and searching for a VA for some time.

So, for now, back to wading through this French biography.