Read-aloud alterations

The North Jetty, Humboldt Bay. Snapped yesterday by my better half.

My husband and his friends are off trekking about this morning, having toured Samoa Beach and the North Jetty yesterday afternoon. His friends are truly enjoying their Humboldt visit, and we're reveling in their joy, as well as appreciating new guests with whom to share our beautiful corner of California. Yesterday I read out loud three chapters of The Deadfern Miracles, and just finished another three this morning. Six remain, which I'll wrap up this coming week, then it will be time to decide what to do with it; proffer it up for agents or merely release it myself. Queries (lol) for Future Me to ponder.

Present Me is thrilled at being back in my computer chair, as well as not having to do dishes, both chaps volunteering to sort that task, as well as making me a cup of tea after they returned from the ocean. My normal role as mom or BFF doesn't apply in this situation and I'm thoroughly pleased to have space for my pastimes while they hang together not quite like they did in high school, but certainly with a fair amount of their shared past as part of the conversation.

As to my pastime.... Reading aloud isn't like writing, but it definitely falls under revisions, though I can only tackle three chapters at a sitting, my voice requiring the rest. Yet with only six chapters remaining, a part of me wants to quit this post and dive back into the novel. However, lunch is next, chickens to let outside, a few other items to address. Six chapters are for Monday and Tuesday assuming nothing unexpected muscles them aside.

I hope nothing intrudes, in that I LOVE this story and want to put my voice to it, hopefully digging up any further typos, one of which I found today, altering obviously to obvious, very grateful to have found that error. Other changes were merely those an author makes when hearing the prose, finding actually in two straight sentences, doh! Or substituting a pronoun for a proper name as I did in a few spots. Minor niggles truthfully, which is GREAT! At this stage minor niggles and the rare grammatical correction should be all there are to change.

The big issue will be what Future Me decides to do concerning querying. A week or so ago Past Me had discarded the notion, but Present Me is keeping the option on the table, or maybe I'm passing the buck to Future Me, hah! Are my husband and his friends in a similar state, reliving their teenage pasts while admitting their true ages, that of sixty-one-year-old men no longer like their former selves. Not in negative ways, other than aches and pains aging forces on all, but in positive manners, like earned patience and wisdom. Appreciation for where their lives have taken them to this very moment, a trio reunited in Humboldt County, far from where they met in southern California. One is like me, wishing for the sun amid the haughty marine layer, while the other doesn't seem to mind the clouds, how my spouse feels about gray weather. Again I'm hoping they get a peek of sun where they are, the photo below more gray than blue, but that was over an hour ago.

I told my hubby this was a COW-tastic shot!

An hour ago I was Past Me, happily reading Chapter twenty-three. Future Me awaits their return to hear of the trail, their hike, and if any sun stole through the clouds, sparking their adventures. Yet for the present I'm wrapping up this post, grateful for their camaraderie, time to revel in my joys while ideas about lunch whirl in my head. Enjoy your weekend and stay tuned about that query question. In a week's time, Future Me has a decision to make and Past Me will certainly keep all posted, insert winking emoji here!