Editor Patricia is finally getting around to giving me some more feedback. Big Creek is WAAAAY too long. I knew that. Two days ago, Patricia told me to cut 20,000 words. It’s not really too hard as I had so much material. It is time consuming though. So that is what I have been working on the past few days.
I am a compulsive volunteer. At our first Middle Keys Concert Association performance, they announced that they needed a volunteer to help with some record keeping. It turned out that they needed someone with spreadsheet experience and I am the spreadsheet Queen. It was a perfect match. The concert, by the way, was The New Xavier Cugat Orchestra. It was a great Latin music performance featuring the music of Cugat and Desi Arnaz. They even wore those huge frilly sleeves. We were also treated to some Latin dancing. Very sexy.
We have been affected by the great blizzard. The second week our performers, Trio Solisti, were unable to fly out of New York. They are fabulous and I am sorry that their schedule will not permit them to appear this year. All was not lost. Violinist William Hagen, scheduled for the third week, was already in the south and was able to come a week early. He played some amazing Mozart, Prokofiev, Tartini/Kreisler, and Ravel. The whole audience jumped up and cheered when he finished “The Devil’s Trill” and again after “Tzigane”.
We’ve still been taking our walks, which refresh me. I’ve taken some pictures too. We’ve had some brilliant blue skies obscured by clouds.
We have a lot of cats in the RV park. They stare at us as we walk by.
I don’t know why I have not taken pictures of them before.
The hibiscus (or is that hibiscusi? No, it is hibiscuses. I think you can also just say hibiscus.) have burst into bloom again. Many RVs have some blooming in front of them.
I don’t mind the clouds; they keep it cooler for walking.
One windy day, we had a flock of birds at the end of the canal. Here are a Great White and a Snowy Egret. I noticed that the Snowy did not chase away his larger cousin. There were also two pelicans, but their photos did not turn out very well.
We took a short walk at Sombrero Beach the other day. It was cold and windy. I was wearing jeans and my new “dark orchid”, fleece-lined, raincoat as a windbreaker. I could not believe all the people lying on the beach with nothing on but swimsuits. They must have been Canadians or Germans, or English. Those folks are tough.
We came across a man blowing bubbles with one of those wands made with two sticks and some twine. It was too windy and most of the bubbles burst quickly. This one was huge!!
This one stayed together longer.
The heron was close to the seawall, so I got a portrait. The float in the background is not so great.
Martin and Betsy suggested having lunch at the Marathon Ocean Park. We ate in this tiki.
I don’t know why I even noticed this iguana basking in the sun near the peak of the roof.
Martin and Betsy posed for a picture for me in a smaller pavilion at the water’s edge. We sat and chatted for a long time and it turned into a very long lunch break.
Dinata Misovec 
Good luck with your unwriting. The alternative would be for your editor to say you need 20,000 more words.
I have been using Scrivener ($50, or $25 for NaNoWriMo winners). Like you, I use two spaces after a period or other stop. Scrivener has a search and replace, so I just search for [enter two spaces] and replace with [enter one space]. You can do the replace one at a time, or do the whole thing.
I have been doing most of my writing with a typewriter, then scanning and doing an OCR conversion in Adobe. It’s very slick. The spacing problems are easy with search and replace. A bit tougher are the quotes. Typewriter double quotes are not open or close, so OCR gets creative with them. Some examples: H, TT, II, 11, !!, and , , with an “n” superscript.
Best of all is the simple W. Some examples: 1f, \</, and -,.ro with the o in superscript.
Rebecca is back at Olin College. Marion is waiting for her second knee replacement on February 16th.
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Thanks Neil. I’ll have to check it out more thoroughly one of these days.
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I usually see your photos first thing in the morning- a lovely way to start the day. Good luck with the editing!
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Thank you. You are motivating me to stick to the daily routine. I will when THE BOOK is done.
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Lovely post with such great photos.
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I’m glad you enjoy them. It makes me feel good to think I may have brightened your day just a bit.
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Good luck chopping 20,000 words. The pics are great.
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Thanks Peggy. It really wasn’t too hard. I had so much material.
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Fabulous photos !
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Thank you from the Snapshooter.
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You should post this on Wednesday at the Salon. the photos are fantastic.
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Thank you. I’ve thought to share them on some photo sites, but am too busy with THE BOOK to take time right now.
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Stunning photos!
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Thank you again!
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Reblogged this on Ancien Hippie.
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Well, thank you Penney!
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Beautiful pictures. You don’t have winter around. That’s nice. Here Spring was on its way, but tonight the snow came back.
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I love the snow – in your pictures. Actually, this is the coldest, rainiest winters we have experienced here since we first came in 2002. But, we really can’t complain about a harsh winter in the 60s, can we?
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Maybe not, but we seems to have Spring coming very soon here. No snow left and plus degrees C and green grass. Spring birds have started to sing too. It’s early. We had a short winter, but it can come back before we know. But I hope not 🙂
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Yes, it is too early to think spring. By the way, I liked your torn paper art project very much.
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Thank you. That was a fun way doing pictures:)
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I still remember an artist (maybe it was a teacher) I watched as a student who made a painting with tissue paper. He painted the tissue right onto the canvas and it squished up and made texture. I’m pretty sure it was watercolor. Your work reminded me of that. Sure enough, after Googling, I see that it is a common technique.
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What a great idea you gave me. I have to check that technique up.
That’s a great thing with art, watching art can make memories for a lifetime. Thanks for telling about your artmaking teacher. Lovely story 🙂
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I Googles some images with “watercolor painting with tissue paper” and got all kinds of paintings, mostly flowers.
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Thanks. i will try google 🙂
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You picture are great. Keep unwriting. The end product will be worth it.
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I sure hope so. When I decided to write a book about our adventure, I had no idea it would be such a long and tedious process.
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Wow, I could have written much of the above about this week in Crete, Greece including feral ally cats that look like those in your RV park, hibiscus and orchids, egrets and blue skies, lovely walks and lingering lunches, even a few hardy swimmers. However, the part that got me nodding was unwriting, what a fabulous term. Up until now I called it snipping, embroidering and polishing but you’ve really hit on the right word. Good luck with it. X
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I hadn’t thought about it, but unwriting is rather descriptive of how it feels. I would love to be in Greece to check out the cats, birds, and skies there too!
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Hi, I just thought I’d add that with the increase in self publishing, in all its different guises seems to be a death knell for the weighty sagas I used to read. Payig for publishing by word count drives each author to find an acceptable price point. I unwrote my novel from 120,000 words to 80,000 and feel the tighter story works. I cut a big chunk of material about what would have been a key character and that gave me a head start for the sequel. X
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I have noticed that some books are getting shorter, but sometimes I feel I didn’t get my money’s worth when the book ends before I am ready for it to.
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Always enjoy your lovely posts and photos, Dinata! 🙂
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Thanks Anna! I have been slacking off a bit lately, working on THE BOOK.
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Excited about your book! 🙂
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I am too, but don’t know how many people are the least bit interested in what goes on in a national park.
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I think it sounds very interesting! National parks are such a wonderful part of our heritage. 🙂
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I think it is fascinating, but then, it is our adventure and might not be so interesting to anyone else.
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I’m certainly looking forward to it! 🙂
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Thanks, I hope other people find it interesting enough to buy and cover my cost of publishing!
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lovely photos, WOW what a lucky Iguana find! He’s awesome!
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Thanks. We get plenty of iguana picture opportunities around here.
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I forgot to add, I like his apparent smile.
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Thanks so much for following http://fonzandcancer.wordpress.com I really do appreciate it – Fonz
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We’ve been through it, I have no advice, but will hold you in the Light.
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Your photos are just stunning. Looking forward to sharing many journeys with you.
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I’m just a snap shooter, but love to capture what I see and to share it. I’ll try to post every day.
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I’m a snap shooter too, nothing wrong with that. It’s all in the subject.
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