Leaving Land Life Behind

The idea of running away and jumping on a ship is such a romantic notion. But no one ever dwells much on the amount of planning involved in leaving ordinary life for 94 days. We've been adding to our "To-Do Before We Cruise" list almost every day.

Here's what we have so far:

1. House stuff: We kind of lucked out on this one because #2 Daughter will be here, living in the house, taking care of routine cleaning, maintenance and the all important dog sitting. So we don't need to stop the mail, but we've been having a number of discussions about how to decide if the mail we receive is important enough for her to email us about it or if she can just chuck it. (Personally, I don't want to come home to a stack of pre-approved credit applications or invitations to change my cable provider.)


2. Punting on volunteer jobs/activities: My DH is the treasurer for our local camp of Gideons,so he'll need to hand that off to another fellow in January. We'll have to let our choir director know we'll be gone for Easter, in case that changes what he decides to do for that season. We also won't be able to sing in the community choir's spring concert. (One of the many things we're looking forward to on the Pacific Princess is singing with David Crathorne!)

     

3. Pre-pay yearly bills. We have a few things, like our RV storage rent & municipal taxes, that come due in the first few months of the year. Those will have to be settled before we leave. I hope I don't forget something important. Oh! And we must file for an extension on our state and federal income taxes too! 

4. Set up auto-payments. How did we live before online banking? We have a few bills that are regular enough to set and forget. I'm still not sure how to handle the ones that fluctuate from month to month. We may have to pick an arbitrary figure higher than the normal amount and just build up a balance while we're gone.

5. Update our 'What if' file. Before we went on our 30 day trip to Tahiti last year, we "put our affairs in order." We've tried to organize all our important papers in one place so, if the worst should happen, our daughters don't have to go on a scavenger hunt for them. It's good to give the papers a look-see in case something may have changed. (Like because my DH thought he needed to trade trucks, for example!)

And though my DH and I are technically retired, i.e. not receiving a regular paycheck any more, we still have to manage our businesses. For the DH, it's making sure everything is in place to take care of our tenants should there be an issue with our rental property in our absence. Again, it involves making sure #2 Daughter has access to all the keys, tenant contact info, and numbers for repair and tradesmen we regularly use.

For me, it means making sure I honor the deadlines in my contracts with Kensington, my publisher. Contrary to what you may believe if you watched Castle, books do not write themselves over a leisurely weekend in the Hamptons. Sometimes, it's more perspiration than inspiration. 

When I signed my current contracts, I planned on an easy one and a half books a year. So far in 2017, I've turned in one complete manuscript (THE SINGULAR MR. SINCLAIR written under my Mia Marlowe pen name), and finished the revisions my editor suggested. I'll see that one again in a couple of months once the copy editor has had her way with it. In the meantime, I'm working on A COLDWATER WARM HEARTS CHRISTMAS for my Lexi Eddings pen name. 

If writing two different genres under two pen names sounds a little schizophrenic, try listening to Christmas music to get into the holiday mood while it's 90 degrees outside! 

Welcome to my wacky writing world.

The Christmas book isn't due until next January, but I plan to turn it in by October, hoping to be able to at least get through the revision process before I board the Pacific Princess next January. I'll have internet on the ship, but I've heard it's insanely slow. I can't imagine how long it would take to download a 85,000 word document. I'm hoping to get the copy editor to do her thing on that one prior to our boarding too. 

Mack & me in the writing position. 

Which brings me to Book #3. I'm contracted to deliver 2 titles for the House of Lovell series (of which THE SINGULAR MR. SINCLAIR is the first.) This second book isn't technically due until May 2018, but while I wouldn't mind doing revisions and playing with a finished manuscript while we're on the cruise, pressing ahead on an as yet unformed story is not my idea of a fun sea day. So I've devised a writing schedule that should let me type THE END before we board on January 22nd. 

And no, it does not involve a weekend in the Hamptons. It means plopping my bottom down six days a week to flesh out three books in one calendar year. 

Maybe Castle wrote faster than me... 

But these are some of the things we need to accomplish before we leave our land life behind for three months. 

What would you need to do if you were suddenly going to be gone for 94 days?

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