I’m trying to return to some semblance of normal, pre fire and thunderstorms and heat wave and smoke-filled skies. So back to planning out school work, sending out newsletters, and helping the girls reach back into their routine.
Overall, I’ve just felt tired, tired of watching Twitter for most news about the fire, and tired simply from not sleeping for a few weeks.
I’ve managed to plan out the girl’s post 0 history studies up to Charlemagne. This task has been daunting to me, trying to find a launching point and links to each civilization/event that makes sense. I finally sat down and mapped it out so I can order library books ahead of time. Since Emperor Justinian stole silk from China, we’re going to travel backward down the silk road, hitting up pre-Islam Persia, India, China, then Korea and Japan, before traveling back to Europe. Then off to study Rome’s enemies, Visigoths, Islamic Empire, the Franks, Britannia, Vikings, then back to the Franks again with Charlemagne! (We studied South American and Aboriginal civilizations this summer because, well, there was no going to the pool and park this summer… we had to do something…)
And in the meantime, I made my cats come inside at 4 pm the other day because it was so dark outside from fire smoke from other California fires that I couldn’t see them. Plenty of wildlife here, so they come in at night.
In terms of writing, last weekend, I enjoyed my first “do nothing” weekend back at home. Pairing out the two storylines of my next manuscript, I read through it all the way to see the grand picture, what still needs revising, and how the shortened chapters play against each other (what I call composing). After several rearrangements and massive chapter movings, I feel much closer to the final ordering.
This weekend, I hope to revisit the ordering, with a focus on writing that new chapter (yay, story creation!). Then, with that complete, I can work on that list of major revisions I compiled last weekend. Once that’s in place, I can do chapter-by-chapter polishing to get it ready to pitch.
