Last week actually went very well. I remember one fine afternoon – I’m pretty sure it was Wednesday. I’d reached a point where there were about three hours ahead of me that weren’t instantly and automatically filled with high priority work that desperately needed doing. Toute-suite. Stat. Immediately. Right away.

The bliss of being able to use my time in whatever manner I saw fit actually lasted twenty four hours. Well into the next day.

Never wanting to waste any time, I’d had a bee in my bonnet about cleaning the oven ever since some pizza sauce spilled over in it and made it into a mini-smokehouse that didn’t add any particularly appetizing odors to meals. I’d bought some ‘fume-free’ (whatever that actually means) oven cleaner a few weeks ago in the hopes that an hour or two would magically materialize and I could clean the oven.

Well, there we were, with a few hours to spare, so I read the instructions for the first time and learned it works best if left overnight. That’s precisely what I decided to do. I sprayed the heck out of everything in there, closed up the oven and left it until I’d dropped the kids off at school next morning.

Unfortunately, while the oven cleaner did clean the oven, didn’t do a very good job.

Then, at times so close together I can’t recall which came first, I noticed the oven has a ‘self-clean’ function and the dear wife brought that very same fact to my attention.

Didn’t I feel like an idiot…

Smokey Joes.

Anyway, Thursday is the only day off she gets all week from working ridiculously long hours at a hospital that doesn’t seem to care about its employees – not to me at least, but these days that’s probably all employers, everywhere. Rather than hang out at the house while she did her running around on this singular day off, I figured I’d start the oven self cleaning – incidentally, the first time anyone had done that with this oven – and go with her. After all, we’re married and spending a few hours together one day in six isn’t a lot to ask.

When we got back, we were greeted by a living room full of smoke and an oven of darkness. I quickly reset the circuit breaker, but although the cook-top came on – it’s a separate unit – the oven remained completely uncooperative and was uncomfortably hot to the touch.

Since then, we’ve had no oven to speak of. Just a sort of avant-garde kitchen ornament taking up valuable cabinet space.

I’m hoping it’s just the thermal fuse, but since the test lead to my multimeter got shut in the truck door and destroyed the other week, I have to wait for a new set to test it and see.

So, it’s either a $20 part or replacing a $1600 oven. Okay, we got it at half price, but we’re unlikely to be able to do that again and since the stupid thing is two-and-a-half years old, it’s out of the one-year warranty period.

If I replace it, you can be sure the first thing I’ll do on a new one is run the self-clean function to make sure it’s not set to Self-Destruct.

Meanwhile…

My life isn’t all about things breaking.

Not quite anyway.

Lock Out Tag Out – Research.

I’ve been pushing on with Decade of Betrayal and I’m about half-way through, give or take. While it’s definitely dissimilar to the other subjects I’ve been reading up on, that’s mostly because there was war associated with it going on at the time. Additionally, while it is dissimilar to those other subjects, it resonates quite strongly with today. There’s one included document from an organization called The National Club of America for Americans, Inc. which includes a pledge that wouldn’t offend the sensibilities of at least three-quarters of the posts on my Facebook news feed today.

Lock Out Tag Out – Initial Work.

I’ve also been pushing forward with Lock Out Tag Out characterization on Scrivener. One thing I’ve discovered is that Scrivener doesn’t embed the pictures within the project file. This means that if you accidentally move the image files that Scrivener makes for itself (because, for example, you didn’t know that they were for the sole use of Scrivener and not to be trifled with by wretched users) then you’ll have the unenviable task of finding those pictures again, deciding who was supposed to be whom and reattaching them.

Luckily, the main characters were obvious and their family members were grouped in such a fashion that it wasn’t much of a challenge, but if it happens gain – hopefully I’m not so stupid as to risk that – it’ll be more of a pain in the donkey.

CritiqueMatch and Beta Readers.

So far I’ve had nothing but radio silence from CriqiqueMatch.com since my one and so far only invitation was accepted. As of today I have twenty-one invitations out. Hopefully there are more people out there interested in Beta reading.

With so few resources currently at my fingertips for Beta readers I’m entertaining a small number of options.

1. Try the Beta Readers and Critique Partners Facebook Group.
2. Try GoodReads.
3. Wait patiently to see if more invitations are accepted.
4. Skip Beta altogether, go through another self-edit cycle, get a professional editor and then try to figure out how to market this beast to get it off my plate.

Right now, since I’m happy doing my background research for Lock Out Tag Out, I’m content to go with Option 3. However, I don’t intend to have two novels sitting and waiting for Beta, so unless the wind changes and I find Betas in the not too distant future, I may have to change my mind.

As I say, I have enough to keep me busy for right now, so I’m in no rush.

Up Next…

This week is going to be all about trying to figure out a way forward with the Oven of Darkness. It’s annoying enough that I can’t cook roast beef today like I’d planned, but it’s become my go-to clock and now telling the time is a two-step process.

I know… First World problems, right?

I’ll want to finish Decade of Betrayal before I continue with the initial outline work for Lock Out Tag Out, so that’s my personal priority and hopefully I’ll get there by the end of this week.

There are other things of course. For instance, I didn’t move the sheep as I’d planned last week because I was hoping for another dirt delivery. This week is looking like being very wet and a bad one for Mr. Haul to be delivering dirt, so I’ll obviously have to lean whichever way the wind blows on that one.

Then, of course, there are the disasters that I can’t plan for. Like the oven giving up on me last week.

I hope everyone has a great week, free of calamities, and that I can, perhaps, share in some of that good fortune.

Stay safe!

Categories: Character Sketches, Critiquematch, Decade of Betrayal, My Life

Tags: Beta Readers, Character Sketches, Decade of Betrayal, Finding Beta Readers, Lock Out Tag Out, LOTO, Mexican Repatriation, My Life, Scrivener