Editorial comments just came in from my fastidious editor at Night Shade Books and we have a quick turn around for deadlines. This means editing The Song of All has become a 7 day a week job.

The not so glamorous side of editing.

But instead of spending lonely hours in front of my computer by myself, listening to the loud demands of our Siamese cats, fellow writers at The Castro Writers’ Cooperative decided to have a Write In over the Fourth of July weekend. Despite glorious sunshine to tempt us away to beaches and parks in San Francisco, our dedicated group came huddled together and put in long hours on various projects from novels, to screenplays, to reporting for Public Radio International.

But as an incentive to show up we decided on a little treat at the end of the day–a glass of bubbly. 9-5 never tasted so delightful.

Clockwise: Me, Lee Jenkins, Jeanne Carstensen, Janis Cooke Newman, Shana Mahaffey

Colleagues who support each other can make all the difference to outlook and that can make a deadline just a bit more manageable. Revisions await. Write on!