I Set A Deadline To Finish My Novel: It Worked

I’m done. Finished. I typed The End on my manuscript earlier this week. Right on cue. I met the deadline I set for myself a few months ago when I emailed Julie, my British bestie, to ask if she was planning to visit me so we could make or annual pilgrimage to the US Open (tennis) together?

She replied that she was going to visit her son and family in Manhattan and wanted to visit me , but didn’t want to interrupt my writing since I seemed to be so close to finishing my thriller. I emailed back and said, don’t worry about my writing. I don’t have a deadline. My writing will be there, waiting for me after you’ve visited.

I Set A Deadline

And, then suddenly, I thought, “Idiot!” Create a deadline. Make Julie’s visit the deadline. Have a draft ready for your beta readers, and for an editor by August 26. Then, Judy, my American bestie who is the director of middle and high school admissions in a very, very uptown private school in Manhattan said if I wanted her to read a draft, then I’d better get it to her during her “less busy” (which is not at all less busy from what I see!) time in August. So, issue resolved. I set the deadline. Should have done it months ago. I’ve always worked better with deadlines since for most of my life in newspapers, magazines and in TV news, I worked with deadlines every day.

Out To Readers & Editors

So, now my manuscript is with my American bestie even as we speak (she texted to say she’d missed her subway stop while reading Part Three) It is also being read by my brother and husband, Joe (always my #1 reader.) Julie will be assigned to read it as soon as we’re done with the US Open! Two days ago, I emailed it to a professional editor for editing and evaluation.

And, so here I am with nothing to do for the first time in 30 months haha!!! It’s almost two years to the day that I blogged about my decision to write a third thriller. I didn’t think it would take this long; and there were times when I thought I’d never finish it and was ready to just give up. But all’s well that ends well — at least until I get the suggested edits from my editor and beta readers.(Don’t know why they call them beta readers? Mine are all alphas!)

Went “Wild” This Week

In the meantime, this is what I went “wild” doing this week: Caught up with emails and Twitter (barely glanced at social media over the last few weeks;) Started reading Sharon Bolton’s latest thriller, The Craftsman, not available in U.S. yet, but brought as gift from U.K. by bestie Julie. Sharon is top of a list of about 40 new books that I’ve already purchased and downloaded on my Kindle to read now that I have more spare time.

Need to get through them before the end of the year for the Goodreads Reading Challenge where I signed up to read 50 books this year, and have read only 17 of them. Goodreads keeps reminding me I’m falling behind schedule!!

Highlight of the Week

And, of course the highlight of the week was watching Madison Keys, Petra Kvitova and tennis hunk Alex Zverev (all seeded players) playing in the new Louis Armstrong stadium at the U.S. Open. According to the New York Times, the new stadium is the place to be this year.

This year Julie and I decided to do the Open in style: car and driver to and from Flushing Meadows (so no getting lost in Syosset looking for a public restroom on the way back) and reserved seats in the new Louis Armstrong stadium which is fabulous with a retractable roof (in case it rains) and great food stands and a bar.

Staying Cool at the Open

Our top priority was staying cool in temperatures that hit the 90s in the stadium in Queens.  So, first thing, out came our sunhats.

Then,  the battery-operated fans. I picked these up in my local drugstore for $7.99 a piece. They were made in China so I assume, given the very reasonable price for a couple of “life-savers”  the new Trump tariffs had not yet been applied to these beauties.

And, Staying Hydrated

Finally, we made sure we stayed hydrated with a couple of delicious Honey Deuce cocktails, the official cocktail of the US Open which is Grey Goose, lemonade and Chambord, with honeydew melon balls over tons of ice!!!

These were served in glasses that listed the mens and womens singles tennis champions of the last 50 years.

Great Week!