{"id":1136,"date":"2016-03-03T06:11:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T14:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2016-03-03T08:19:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T16:19:14","slug":"an-ending-and-a-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2016\/03\/03\/an-ending-and-a-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ending and a Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is done.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, Mrs. Medigovich, my senior English teacher at Bisbee High School, would be pounding the blackboard and saying, \u201cFaulty pronoun reference, people.\u201d \u00a0A pronoun is supposed to refer to the noun immediately preceding it. \u00a0As you can see above, there isn\u2019t a noun anywhere in sight. \u00a0Nothing at all precedes the word \u2018it.\u201d \u00a0I have a sneaky suspicion that there are a number of young people out there reading this blog who have never heard of a pronoun, much less a preposition, but I digress.<\/span><\/p>\n

To my way of thinking \u201cIt is done.\u201d sounds a bit classier than \u201cDownfall<\/i>\u00a0is done.\u201d \u00a0Sort of Biblical. \u00a0(The preceding is NOT a proper sentence because it doesn\u2019t contain both a SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.) \u00a0More words, I\u2019m afraid, that have gone the way of the buggy-whip in terms of current educational dictates. \u00a0The thing is, I know that some of my readers are old school sorts, and those folks are probably smiling long about now. \u00a0Please, no blowing coffee out through your noses. \u00a0That would be bad for your screens.<\/span><\/p>\n

So\u00a0Downfall<\/i>\u00a0is done. \u00a0Yes, Joanna lives to tell the tale. \u00a0She\u2019s older and wiser by the end of the book, and so am I. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This book was written in a smooth-flowing stream\u2014at least that\u2019s how it felt on this side of the keyboard. \u00a0Bill and I have been in Tucson for six weeks now, but I\u2019ve hardly poked my head outside the yard because I\u2019ve been writing in long, concentrated stretches. \u00a0Yesterday was a doozy. \u00a0Writing? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Steps? \u00a0No. I ended up with a paltry 6453, fewer than when Bill and I were down with the flu in November. \u00a0(Have I mentioned that the old saw about how getting exercise improves your concentration is a pile of you-know-what?) \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My goal when we arrived in Tucson just after the first of the year was to finish the book by the time the tour started, and I\u2019ve managed to squeak by\u2014barely. \u00a0The first TV interview is scheduled for this afternoon. \u00a0I\u2019m off for hair, nail, and makeup appointments at my local \u201cadequate\u201d shop any moment. \u00a0(In most instances calling salons \u201cBEAUTY\u201d shops is overstating the case.) \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the odd thing. \u00a0I love\u00a0Downfall<\/i>. \u00a0That\u2019s highly unusual. \u00a0By the time I fight my way to the end of a book, I often find myself hating it. \u00a0My trusty first readers are busy doing their jobs. \u00a0While Bill and I are traveling this weekend, I\u2019ll be installing their edits. \u00a0The book will be in New York in my editor\u2019s hands by early next week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here I am, taking a deep breath, and launching off on another book tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

AND AWAY WE GO!!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is done. At this point, Mrs. Medigovich, my senior English teacher at Bisbee High School, would be pounding the blackboard and saying, \u201cFaulty pronoun reference, people.\u201d \u00a0A pronoun is supposed to refer to the noun immediately preceding it. \u00a0As you can see above, there isn\u2019t a noun anywhere in sight. \u00a0Nothing at all precedes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[147,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-joanna-brady","category-tour-2","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-ik","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}