Calm Before the Storm

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree Below.

I’d thought that the Thanksgiving break was going to be about having the downtime  to get some projects finished.

Attract Him Back

Like editing  the rest of Third Degree of Separation and getting it off to the printer. The cover is done, after all. It’s not that much work.

Or maybe I’d get a good chunk of A Wedding of Souls edited.  Or  maybe the  revision  to  Waiting on the Thunder finished.

Or even get my websites updated.

Instead, the downtime I got for Thanksgiving that I’d thought  would be for productivity, ended up for downtime for…downtime.  So  my break is over now and I’m kicking myself for not getting enough  done and meanwhile, my Personal Obi-Wan is telling me she doesn’t see how I get so much  done. There’s always  more,  always more ideas, always more projects. I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

With the help of my mentor, whom I now refer to as my Personal Yoda, I’ve structured  a plan that I’m busily putting into place. This isn’t the Healing Center yet, but it certainly fits in as well as fitting with my plans of a more portable career. I’m am pushing, pushing, pushing right now.

I already accomplish a ton of work on my daily commute, using my  digital recorder and a transcription program for my essays/journals.  The only problem with the program is that, when I write fiction, I really get into the characters and begin to talk in their accents and pitches instead of a natural voice that my transcription  program recognizes.

Hypothetical example:

Our heroine cringed at the sound of her arch-nemesis’ voice and answered in her clipped accent, “Certainly naht! That’s the noit-ee-est thing Ah-ee have heard ahllyeahr.” To which  her  nemesis  raised  an eyebrow  and  said, “Well, da-a-yam, shug! Wher-yah bin?”

Shannon, when  she  edits  the  transcriptions,  gets  a huge kick out of this! The software works just fine at interpreting my normal speaking voice until I “do people.”

The digital recorder is vital to my productivity and my plans right  now. One of my upcoming  how-to projects will be comprised of several hours of recorded audio files sent to a virtual assistant who’ll verify the dictation three times and edit it for grammar, etc. I’ll drop in some samples, once it’s back, and off it’ll go to the printer’s. It’s fast-paced, but that’s a necessity right now.

Meanwhile, I’m editing my journals as quickly as possible and beginning the workbook that goes with the first three journals. It’s definitely going to be a course, at least 3 courses over the whole of the series, though I’m not sure yet how  thick this workbook is going to be. Each course will cover about 6 months’ of essays and “personal archeology” questions based on my own journey to healing.  The  workbook  will  reference  the  corresponding Third Degree diary books.

I have the first three books completed now, with the first  copies  of  Third Degree of Freedom coming  off  the presses tomorrow and in my home office later this week. The books and  workbook will be available separately  or packaged as a course. Hopefully the questions I ask that supplement the essays will be thought-provoking  enough to help the reader explore some old patterns  and break them. It’s funny that the series didn’t start as “self-help” other than as a way to help my own self figure things out. Now it’s something I’m apparently  to take forward with me into a coaching career of some type.

Right now, as little blips of issues are showing up in my life, I’m swooping in and exploring them, categorizing them, and putting  them  away rather  quickly.  Sorta like everything is falling into place faster. I’m  sure this will slow at some point—I know it will to make space for something else—but  for now this is coming quickly and I’m flowing with it, writing more journals than usual but understanding that this is what I need to do for right now while that particular  stream of energy  is  there. I’m not even sure of where I am in the stream of journals yet. I know Third Degree Tilt’s essays occurred in the May/June timeframe,  with  Third Degree Curves hitting  around  July and August, maybe  September.  Third Degree of Truth is, I think, where I am now. But I’m not sure.  It’ll depend on how the formatting goes and how much I’m actually writing.

But here’s the thing: I know the title of the one that’s next. I know it, just know it. Or maybe I’m already there and just haven’t finished it. It’s a blue book with a huge crystal on it, though I might opt for pink instead just because I’ve been socialized that way. It’s called Love in the Third Degree.

It’s  a  good  thing  that  my  Thanksgiving  break  had enough downtime for me to get some adequate rest. I’m going to need it.


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