All posts by David Todd

America, Health

Staying Quiet at Home

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When I was out and about on Thursday, I didn’t see any blooming redbuds. When I walked the neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday, there they were. It’s nice to greet them each spring.

As I write this we are in the midst of the growing corona virus pandemic. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, worldwide cases now exceed 700,000 and deaths are over 35,000. In the USA it’s 143,000+ cases and 2,500+ deaths. In my county in Arkansas we have 33 cases, up 5 since Saturday. Thankfully, no deaths to this point.

We are under many restrictions imposed by the government, and other restrictions self-imposed. Our church cancelled in-person services before our governor restricted gatherings. School has been closed two, or maybe it’s three, weeks now. We go out as little as possible. I’m cancelling a doctor appointment this week, and will not be able to go in the building when Lynda goes for a doctor appointment tomorrow.

In some ways this isn’t much different than normal retirement. We’re a little more isolated, but, since I’m only working a little as my former company needs me, I don’t get out much for that. Normal weekly trips were for church, groceries/meds, and doctor as needed. Now it’s mainly groceries.

Sometime late this week there’s supposed to be a pre-construction conference at Centerton that I’m supposed to chair. They are trying to figure out how to make it a digital conference. But, I also need to sign the approved construction drawings as city engineer. We’ll see if I have to go in to City Hall, speak with no one, just do the signing in the lobby.

For the last two weeks I taught our Life Group via a Zoom conference. It’s been a learning experience, as each week we were cut off before I’d finished. I think we have it down for next week, but we’ll see. It was good to see everyone and hear them, even if we couldn’t be together. On Saturday we had a family Zoom conference, which went well. Nice to see the grandkids, our son, our daughter, and my sister. This may become something regular.

These bloomed all December through January, dropping their flowers during February and March. Here they are blooming again.

Meanwhile, spring has arrived. I’ve upped my walking, now trying to get three miles a day, trying to lose the last 50 pounds I’d like to lose (the doctor says 30). Yesterday I did the three miles in almost perfect weather. The redbuds are blooming, and the dogwoods aren’t far behind. Forsythia are still yellow, and a few jonquils have blooms. Our Christmas cacti have a few late blooms to brighten my reading time in the sun room.

We will get through this. The corona virus hasn’t peaked yet, but the end may be in sight. I suspect we will have another month of social distancing, though even longer wouldn’t surprise me. We’ll see how it goes for us. My prayer is that we humans, in the USA and around the world, would be smart about this and do what we can to end it.

Genealogy, research, Writing

Interrupted by Research

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These bloomed all December through January, dropping their flowers during February and March. Here they are blooming again.

I’m sad to report that progress on my work-in-progress, The Teachings, has fallen behind. In fact, I’ve done nothing on it since Monday. Instead, I’ve filled those hours with something equally pleasurable: genealogy research.

One of my goals for 2020 was to get back to work on, and perhaps publish, the book on Stephen Cross and Elizabeth Cheney of Ispwich. Elizabeth is Lynda’s 8x-great aunt on her dad’s side. Her father, John Cheney of Newbury, will be the subject of a future book. I have lots on him, but want to get more on his children. Elizabeth is the youngest of his 12 children (10 lived to adulthood; 9 of those had children), so I decided to start with her. Three or four years ago I began the research and realized I had so much stuff that it would make a book by itself.

I started on that book, got it up to about 60 pages, and quit. I had done the easy part of the research by then, with some hard slogging to go. This week I worked on the hard slogging.

And I made significant progress. On the book part, I deleted duplicate and most extraneous material. I expanded the bibliography. I created a couple of side bars. I like the look of it.

The research I picked up is into Stephen and Elizabeth’s children, as well as Stephen’s siblings. Elizabeth’s siblings I have down, but Stephen’s are a puzzle. That’s where I found lots of disagreement among researchers, and information added that seems to have no basis in documents. I really want to get this right. Stephen’s siblings are tangential to the book, but, again, I want it right.

What do I have for my four days of effort? A better organized book. A more correct and complete book. A better understanding of Stephen’s and Elizabeth’s life. An expanded bibliography. And a ton more work to do.

But, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Each day I left my research for a little while and went to the sun room. There the Christmas cacti are blooming again. Well, at least some of them are. They and the many other plants in the room provide enjoyment for my reading.  At times I look up at the blooms, or at the other plants, and just enjoy them.

When will I get back on The Teachings? At this time I have no idea. Once I start genealogy research I just have to let it run its course till I the interest wanes. It might be another week, perhaps sooner. The fact that I’m working on the book at the same time makes me think this will last a while.

book reviews, History

Book Review: The Commanders

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An excellent read for anyone interested in the early historical accounts or the 1988-1991 era.

In our garage is a large bookshelf, scavenged years ago when the company was downsizing, that hold the books we trot out whenever we have a garage sale.  I finish a book, if it’s not a keeper, I bring it to the shelf and stuff it in somewhere.

As I did that recently, and looking for a new book to read, my eyes fell on The Commanders by Bob Woodward. I knew I’d never read it so pulled it from the shelf. It had belonged to my father-in-law, a book we brought back from his house after his death. The front page included a discussion of an illness he was going through, then in the book he had made much marginalia.

The book interested me because I understood it to be about Desert Storm, a time in history of special importance to me. I figured, knowing Woodward, it was an expose of everything our leaders did wrong. That turned out to false, however. It is more of a simple “here’s how our military operated in that point in time.”

Written mostly in 1989-90 and published in 1991, Woodward describes it as a mixture between journalism and history, a bit more history than newspaper accounts (because of the access he was given to principals) but not quite history with hindsight and full access to documents.

I found the book engaging and informative. The writing style is excellent.  Being ex-military, Woodward understands things such as chain of command, relationships between branches of the armed services, and how the military and civilian leadership of our defense establishment works. Being an investigative reporter he knows how to dig out the story.

And dig out the story he did. I won’t go into a lot of details, but Woodward gives us lots of information about Bush, Cheney, Powell, and others involved in using the military as part of our national security strategy. He seems to have had access to Colin Powell and possibly Dick Cheney. These two key figures feature prominently in the book.

Woodward doesn’t paint any one in a bad light in the book. He treats people fairly, explaining where they were, who they talked with, how they made decisions, how they dealt with the press during the run up to the Panama invasion in 1989 and the development of Desert Shield in 1990-91. It ends with the first few attacks the morning that Desert Storm hit an unbelieving Iraq on January 17, 1991.

This is a good book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the early historical accounts of the 1988-91 era. Is it a keeper? Alas, no. Not because of the quality, but because I have too many books and I don’t expect to ever read it again, nor do I expect my wife will want to read it or my future heirs will thank me for leaving it to them to deal with.

So, I will remove the page with the personal note, put that in my father-in-law’s papers, and put the book back in it’s slot on that bookshelf in the garage to await the next sale or donation. The next reader will just have to put up with his marginalia.

Church History Novels, Genealogy, Health, reading, research, The Teachings, Writing

A Wonderful Rainy Day

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That was yesterday, a rainy day. And it was wonderful.

My plans for the day were to go to Wal-Mart around 7:30 a.m. to get groceries and prescriptions at the pharmacy when it opened at 9. Alas, at 7:00 a.m. a hard rain was in progress, and radar said it would be thus for hours. So I put off Wal-Mart till another day and went to The Dungeon for my work.

That work consisted of: stock trading, writing in my work-in-progress, filing. I didn’t have much stock trading to do so I mainly watched the market. For The Teachings, I decided to take a step back from writing and check my timeline. It seemed that I had Adam and Augustus in leapfrogging scenes that didn’t make sense. I mostly finished that, though I might look at it again today. While I added only a few words, as I read earlier chapters in the book, I corrected typos and phrasing, which felt good.

As the rain continued, I came upstairs for more coffee and went to the sun room. I alternately watched the rain, the birds at the feeders, and read. My current read is an historical novel from the 1950s about Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. I’m now 32 pages into this 460 page book and enjoying it.

As the afternoon went on the rain began to taper off. The Wal-Mart run looked promising. So Lynda and I hopped in the car and got there about 3:30 p.m. The parking lot looked normal for that time on a weekday. The store wasn’t particularly crowded. We were able to get almost everything we needed. The lines at the checkout weren’t long. The pharmacy was crowded but they had lots of workers, so I was in an out without delay. As we were ready to leave the store it was raining again. I went for the car and pulled up to the front, we loaded in our groceries, and off we went to top off the gas tank then home. Through all of this we were more or less able to maintain social distancing. A most enjoyable trip.

At home in the evening I did the usual. Heated leftovers. We had small helpings of a frozen dessert. As we watched news all evening, I pulled up a genealogy book to work on. This is a maybe-I-will-maybe-I-won’t work on it project. It’s on my to-do list for 2020, to look at in March. So I did that. I spent the evening editing and researching. My main research for this was done in 2015-2017, and the thing has sat idle since then. Lot’s more records and the research of others could be on line now. So I looked for sources, made some notes about what needs to be added to the book and about sources I need to read. Soon I’ll develop a work plan and decide what to do about this thing. Whether this book ever comes to be or not, genealogy is so enjoyable to me that the time spent was uplifting.

So here it is Friday. I’m in The Dungeon, into my workday. The clouds still obscure the sun but there’s no rain in the forecast. The market is up a little, though the gains don’t look sustainable. I’m registered for a webinar later today. The Teachings is open before me in Word, waiting to me add to it. The neighborhood streets are calling to me to come walk on them. The sun room beckons.

And, a curious, minor event asks me to watch. Three of the four Christmas cacti in the sun room have new buds on them. I noticed them about two weeks ago and have been watching them. One bud started blooming yesterday. This is an extra treat, one that I’ll watch again today, and enjoy.

Writing

Daydreaming

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Dateline 14 March 2020

Lately I’ve been making a concerted effort to reduce the number of magazines on hand. This is part of our effort at decluttering our house. We don’t have any paid magazine subscriptions—not that I wouldn’t like to have one or two—but a lot of freebies come in the mail. I hate to just trash them, for they often have good articles and information on them.

I sometimes pull something from the top of the stack and sometimes dig into it for something older. This week, having taken a few off the top and disposed of them, I reached blindly into the basket and pulled out from midway down an issue of the University of Rhode Island alumni magazine. From Fall 2018, this was the first issue of the magazine under its new name, University of Rhode Island Magazine. I always enjoy reading this and, in fact, read it more than skim it.

This issue had an interesting article titled “What a Day for a Daydream” by Ann Hood. Ann is a writer of a fair number of books. Four years behind me and previously unknown to me, she has obviously excelled at the writing game. I spent some time looking at her website, published works, and blog.

Her article set me to thinking about my own relationship with daydreaming. I do it a fair amount, though I think of it as brainstorming. I do it most at night after going to bed. For a long time I thought I daydreamed extensively. It was years before I realized that my daydreams transitioned into dreams and I was asleep. How much was daydreaming and how much sleeping dreaming? I don’t really know.

Ann said

“Daydreaming…does not get problems solved or children raised or legal cases settled or books written.”

True. But if daydreaming and brainstorming are closely akin, then maybe good things start from daydreaming. I think that’s how many of my writing ideas come, from daydreaming. Later today, if time stays available as I think it will be, I intend to write out the composition of a future Bible study (not the one from my last post). It’s an idea that came to me…how? I think it came from a daydream, or a brainstorm, thinking about a Bible story then thinking about how I would teach it, how many lessons it would make, if it would make a good lesson series, etc.

I don’t think I daydream as much as I did 20 years ago. Although, maybe it’s so much a part of my being I just don’t think about it. I’m going to think about it for a while, understand when I’m daydreaming. Maybe I’ll be pleased with the results.

Thanks you, Ann Hood, for your article. Sorry it took me so long to get to it.

Bible study, Christianity

My Next Bible Study Will Be…

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Yes, I’ve made up my mind. After much consideration, and looking at the easiest items, as discussed in my last blog post, I’ve decided my next Bible study to write will be:

Entrusted To My Care: A Study of 1 and 2 Timothy.

My reasoning behind it is:

  • I have the best notes from past teaching
  • It’s been taught twice, to two different groups in our church
  • The subject still interests me
  • I think it will make the right length book for a Bible study

I just found the sheet I made back in January that laid out writing goals for 2020, divided into months. They might not truly be called goals but more properly my 2020 writing program. On that I show selecting my next Bible study in February and beginning to write it in May. I was a little behind (ten days only) making the selection, but beginning the writing per that sheet is still doable.

Why make the decision now if I’m not going to work on it for a couple of months? I’ll pull my notes together and get them into a place where I can work on them at any time. I’ll take some time to read the two Timothy books again. I might do a little more research. Just knowing what I’ll be working on and when will help me focus my mind in preparation for the task.

Of course, there’s no magic in what’s on that sheet. As the months roll on, what I’m accomplishing should inform later months, and my interests should come into better focus. I can make any changes I want to: accelerate some things, delay others, decide not to work on something because my interests now lie somewhere else.

I’m pretty sure ETMC isn’t going to go away. And I’m pretty sure I should write a Bible study in 2020. The months might change, but I’ll be working on this later in the year.

Bible study, Christianity, Writing

My Next Bible Study

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I found too many errors in this book to let it go. So I corrected the text and re-published.

One of my March goals is to make a decision on what Bible study I will write next. Last year I published Acts Of Faith: Examples From The Great Cloud Of Witnesses. So far the feedback on it is good, even though the first print run had two embarrassing typos in the running heads and more than a few typos throughout the text. I also published a Leader’s Guide for this, which turned out to be an entirely new book.

My wife thinks I should write and publish more Bible studies. One woman in our Life Group at church wants me to submit Acts Of Faith to our denominational publishing house. Others have said I should write more like that.

In fact, I would like to write more Bible studies, and have made it a goal for 2020 to write and publish one more. Over the years, as an adult Life Group teacher, I’ve developed a number of Bible studies that I’ve then taught to our Life Group. I had my teaching notes for most of them (can’t find one, and another has rather thin notes). Any of those for which I have notes I could most likely expand into a book.

In addition, ideas for more Bible studies have come to mind. Several times over the last year I’ve listed these, even planning some of them to gauge how difficult their preparation would be. It’s one thing to say, “Hey, that would be a good Bible study,” and another to actually put it together and teach it.

Yesterday I took time to list them, the ones taught and the ones in the planning/brainstorming stage. Here they are. The ones taught are in the order I taught them in. The dates are approximate. I didn’t keep a running record of what I was teaching when, and the only way I can pin the dates down is by reviewing my teaching notes and see what dates I wrote on them (which I usually do and hope I did in the beginning).

Here are the ones taught.

  • A Study in Isaiah. This was a 20-lesson series, developed and taught around 2008. So far I haven’t found my teaching notes for this.
  • The Prophetic Duo: Lessons from the Lives of Elijah and Elisha. This was originally around 14 lessons, but the class wanted to look at some events in the prophets’ lives that I skipped, and it grew to 18 lessons. I believe I taught this around 2009 or 2010.
  • Life on a Yo Yo: Learning from Peter’s Ups and Downs. I put this together probably in 2009 and taught it in 2010. I think it was 14-15 lessons.
  • What One Thing Is Strongest? This is not, strictly speaking, a Bible study as it is from the apocryphal book of 1 Esdras. This was just a five lesson series, and the class loved it. There are some challenges in publishing it. The writing, I think, would go fairly easy.
  • Malachi, the Answer Man. This study in the book of Malachi was around six or seven lessons. I didn’t seem to make a lot of notes as I taught this, though I have a couple of more places to look.
  • Good King, Bad King. I did this one summer, maybe in 2013. It was to be a study of the kings of Israel and Judah. I only did two lessons, but have programmed out around 12 to 14. This one should probably be in the not-yet-developed category.
  • Sacred Moments: Special Times in the Lives of Believers. This was a study of the sacraments, the seven of the liturgical churches with special emphasis on the two of the evangelical churches. I believe I taught this around 2014 in ten lessons. In addition to the sacraments, two other special times could be added to make a twelve lesson series.
  • Know My Story. This was a summer fill in series of a few lessons, maybe six or seven, on lesser-known biblical people. It was well received by the class. This could be extended to almost any number of lessons. I think 14 to 18 is most likely. I’m not sure where my notes are, though I think I do. I just haven’t pulled them off the shelf since I taught it. I could almost put this in the not-yet-developed category.
  • Entrusted To My Care. A study in 1 and 2 Timothy, this looked how much of Paul’s instruction to his protege pastor applies to laymen. I taught this in 2016-17, and it was taught again last fall at a Wednesday evening class, mostly by another teacher from my notes, but I took a couple of weeks of it. This is the Bible study for which I have the most notes.
  • A Christmas Study. This took a look at all the biblical events of Advent and Christmas, put them in a chronological order, and studied them. I forget how many lessons this was, but I think ten or so, maybe a couple more. We did this over Christmas 2018 and into 2019. One lady in our class has encouraged me to publish this.
  • Acts Of Faith. Developed, written, and published in 2019, we started

And here are the ones in the planning stage.

  • From Slavery to Nationhood. A study of the people of Israel from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and maybe a little into Joshua. Somewhere I have programming notes on this, which I hope I can find.
  • To Exile and Back. This is to be a study of Israel from their exile to Babylon to their return. I did fairly extensive research into this a few years ago and found it harder to develop than I expected. Hence it’s on the shelf for now.
  • Lazarus, Come Forth! This is a study of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It includes many interesting interactions with people. I programmed this some time ago, and think it would make six lessons, maybe seven. I haven’t taken this much more than brainstorming and preliminary programming.

Alas, my post is long already. On Friday I’ll reveal which one I’m going to write next.

goals, Writing

March 2020 Goals

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Dateline 1 March 2020

A new month, time to set and post new goals. As I sit here in my living room, typing this, with The Sorcerer’s Stone on the tv, I’m still recovering from my cold. I have two appointments this week and four the next. Spring will  be upon us and I have lots of yard work to do. Yet, I need to push myself and set aggressive goals. Here they are.

  1. Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  2. Make significant progress on The Teachings, my novel-in-progress.  I need to make this measurable, so I’ll set 20,000 words to be added this month. That means, at the close of March 31st, I should be at 32, 122 or better.
  3. Make a final decision on what Bible study to work on this year.
  4. Attend three writing group meetings this month, two for Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista and one for Village Lake Writers & Poets.
  5. Spend a little time going through the genealogy book I started over two years ago. My goal is to make a judgment of how much work would be involved and whether I could publish it this year. I haven’t talked much about this on the blog. I’ll have to do a post or two on it.
  6. Republish the two stories in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series I didn’t get done last month, to add my current list of published works (and correct any typos I might find).
  7. Continue reading for research in the next Documenting America book. This will include searching for available documents. I have a few already chosen, but more are needed. This month I may be searching for documents more than reading them.

That seems like a good amount of goals. As always, I might modify them as the month unfolds.

Bible study, Church History Novels, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

February Goals – Accomplishment

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Dateline: 1 March 2020

Early in the month I posted my February writing goals, saying at the time they were modest goals, as befitting my schedule of other activities for the month. Time now to see how I did on them.

  1. Blog twice a week. Based on past experience I feel good about this. Did this. Once I had a “sick day” post that didn’t really say much, but at least I posted.
  2. Attend the mid-month meeting of Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista. I’ll be away for the other two writer group meetings I normally attend. I did this. It was a good meeting, with just the four regulars.
  3. Write a large amount in The Teachings. I started this last month and would like to get a lot done. I hesitate to set a word goal, as I’ll be doing some research/reading simultaneously. However, goals should be measurable, so I’ll set 10,000 words as my goal. Ideally I should be writing more, at least 1,000 words a day. Maybe, as I get further into it, I’ll write that much a day. After a fast start, my cold slowed me down. But, as I came out of the fog of the cold, I had some good days. As of right now, The Teachings stands at 12,122 words. Since I started the month with less than 300, I met my goal.
  4. Review the Bible studies I’ve written before, and ones I have planned, to see which one I’ll write next. I don’t plan on beginning it just yet, but I want to know which one I’m doing so I can be thinking about it. I reviewed the Bible studies several times this month. I ruled out some, ruled others in. As of today I’m close to having made a decision. It’s down to two or three to choose between.
  5. Finish re-publishing the Sharon Williams Fonseca short stories. I have two more to go. Doing this to correct any typos and to add all my books and stories to the document. No, didn’t do this. In fact, I forgot about this. It would have been an easy thing to do on days when I didn’t feel like writing. I’ll add it to March.
  6. Do more research for Documenting America: Run-up to Revolution. I have two main research books in hand, but will look for other sources, including on-line. I did about as much as I intended. I wish I had done a little more, but at least I got some reading done. Alas, the document I read (a 60-page pamphlet from the pre-Revolutionary War era) looks like it will be hard to use in the book.

So, that’s not bad for accomplishing my goals. May this new month be even better.

Church History Novels, The Teachings, Writing

“The Teachings” and the Family of Document People

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This is the third post in a series. The previous two were:

The Premise Behind “The Teachings”

“The Teachings” and It’s Place in History

This was my first novel; but, if plans work out, it will actually be the second in the series, and “Preserve The Revelation” will be the fourth.

The third leg of my church history novel series is following one family whose employment is in the realm of document creation and preservation. In Doctor Luke’s Assistant, we followed the early career of Augustus ben Adam. Luke hired him to help write a massive biography of Jesus. Augustus had trained in the Roman schools to be an amanuensis, which is a (somewhat) low level secretary—a copyist. He might take dictation, he might copy a letter before the original was sent out, might copy old documents that would soon begin to deteriorate due to age. He could read and write, but was not at a high level. He was a mere assistant.

In DLA I said that Augustus’ father was named Adam. At that time I had no intention of making this a series or writing a prequel. All I revealed about Adam was that he was a Jewish businessman who became Romanized. Adam and his wife made a trip to Rome during DLA and brought back gifts for their children. When he learned that Augustus had become a Christian, he wanted little more to do with his son and didn’t even attend his wedding.

Good feedback on this. Though fourth in the series chronologically, it is the second published, in March 2017.

The next book written in the series was a sequel to DLA, titled Preserve The Revelation. In it we follow Augustus and two sons, Luke and Daniel, who assist him in his work, one willingly one unwillingly. They assist John the elderly apostle in writing his gospel and the book of Revelation, with many adventures and twists and turns along the way. Adam doesn’t figure in this book, and I presume he died before it.

While writing PTR, a plot for a prequel to the series came to me. Adam ben Zechariah would be an apprentice scribe in the high priest’s employ. Reasonably zealous and intelligent, he ascribed to something higher than his future son would. A scribe was a confidant of the high priest and teachers of the law, helping them to read and interpret scripture and make new documents for the people. In the book I would have to make a way for Adam to become disenchanted with his Jewish heritage and distrustful if not downright hostile to the growing Christian movement. I accomplished that, I believe, and had it fit seamlessly into the next book.

First chronologically, third written.

Which brings me to The Teachings. I chose to add a book between DLA and PTR because that time frame worked well for the historical document, The Didache. As I said in a previous post, some scholars put the writing of The Didache a century later, but many put it right in the period of late in the middle third of the first century. That puts it smack dab in the midst of the Jewish War. I saw that gave me excellent plot lines related to the war.

It also gave plot lines for the family. 66 A.D. was right at the close of DLA. Adam was alive. Augustus was hoping to recreate the longer work that Roman officials destroyed. The two are estranged. The Christian movement was slowly maturing from the early fragmentation that drove Adam away from them. I saw that all of these could be bought together. If, that is, I was able to do it.

Writing book 3 in a series after writing books 2, 4, and 1 probably isn’t a good idea. Not only do I have to make everything work seamlessly with what went before and what came behind, I also have to work in the family dynamics. What helped me along with this was the vision for the whole series coming together as I was writing Preserve The Revelation. I saw the prequel to the series first, then I realized I had both a hole in time and an applicable document between books 2 and 4. Thus, I finished book 4 knowing books 1 and 3 were coming, and I wrote book 1 knowing the basic plot of book 3.

Confusing? Yeah, it is for me. But the family dynamics are coming together nicely as I write The Teachings. Adam and Augustus begin the book somewhat together, somewhat reconciled. At least they are speaking with each other. They go their separate ways. Adam continues as a businessman, having long ago given up the trade of a scribe, and Augustus continues working with documents, though at a somewhat higher level than a mere amanuensis. Their wives will also feature in the story. Readers who read the series in order will already know their wives and be glad I include them.

I have a plan to bring Adam and Augustus back together near the end of the book. I’ve had to change what I first intended, as it wasn’t compatible with what I’ve already written in book 4.

So, that’s the three legs of my new novel. As of right now the manuscript stands at 11,089 words, heading towards between 80,000 and 100,000. Wish me luck.