Music is the easiest thing in the world for me to write. This one has been drawing blood, just because it's so damned personal.

But yeah, I know what goes into a major 18-city tour. I know how to cost out a venue, what the roadies should pack, how to mount a Helpenstill or Countryman on a piano to get it ready for full band use.

Man. Old now.

Oh, brother. Nepotism, much?

The following snippet was on "Publishers Lunch". I wonder if Amazon will be selling her used books -- the week they come out, the same as they do for everyone else?

Mr. and Mrs. Bezos

Jeff Bezos's wife MacKenzie's debut novel THE TESTING OF LUTHER ALBRIGHT will be published by Fourth Estate in August.

Amazon's own reviewer already hails it as "a debut novel that heralds the beginning of what bodes to be a substantial writing career," though the author ID simply says: "She lives in Seattle." Amazon isn't offering used copies yet, but Alibris and AbeBooks have galleys available for about eight dollars, and Half.com has a couple for under five dollars.

I've...um, seen Mr. B. She may earn it, for all that he seems nice for a gazillionaire. Just not with writing.

Just got an email from RWA announcing a special board meeting tonight, with the following agenda:

1. Suspension of Graphical Standards

2. Creation of Graphical Standards Ad Hoc Committee

Huh.

See, how come I didn't? I get the RWR in the mail, and my membership is up to date. Was I supposed to *do* something to get email alerts?

It came through the RWAAlert Yahoo Group. I can't remember if you can just sign up for it through Yahoo, or if you have to go through the RWA website.

Shorter RWA:

Oops.

Heh.

On a completely different subject, I need some advice on writing, life, and the juggling thereof.

As many of you know, my father is undergoing chemo and radiation for lung cancer, and we're going to spend the next week in Alabama visiting him. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm expecting it to be exhausting and draining.

Obviously this is one of the times when family takes precedence over work. No question about that. And yet by coincidence I've arrived at the threshold of one of the key turning points of the story, and the writing has taken on a beautiful momentum of its own in the past week or so. So I'd like to do what I can to make sure I'm able to pick up where I left off when the time comes.

The one thing I don't expect to be able to do is produce much new work while I'm in Bama. Even on ordinary happy visits home, that rarely happens. I'm thinking of printing out everything I've written so far--switching to TNR12 1.5-spaced to spare a few trees--and giving it a continuity read. Does that sound reasonable? In some ways I feel like an ass for even thinking of these things at a time like this, but it's not as though I'm planning to blow off the family to work on my book. Mostly I figure I'll read it at night, when DH and I will be up later than anyone else anyway by virtue of being night owls who normally live on Pacific Time.

Susan, print it out and read, but don't assume you won't want to work. Some of the best work I've ever done in my life has been under the spur of pain, or pressure, or the compulsion to somehow cope with tragedy or illness.

That's a good idea, Deb. And I certainly will write if I have desire and the time/space to do it--I'm just not going to set myself a page count and push myself to meet it like I usually do, because that's never easy to do while traveling and visiting in any case, and I really don't know what this trip is going to be like.