Deadlines, Cafe Scientifique

My book is at the digital printers and I will meet with them to see the "galleys" today. One of my favorite TV programs was (on CBS from 1984-1996) "Murder She Wrote" with Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. She wrote mystery fiction and also solved a murder every week. I loved it when she was on a deadline. She'd be busy at her typewriter (the word processor came later), telling everyone she had to get finished with her manuscript by so-and-so time. Then a murder would happen and everyone knew she was the only one who could really solve it. In fact, when the police arrested someone you could always eliminate them as a suspect. Somehow she managed to finish the book and solve the mystery! What a relief until the next episode!

So, I thought of Jessica a lot as I was trying to get my book done before Christmas season. I've been very busy, but fortunately no townspeople have been around asking me to solve a local murder mystery! I've talked with a manager from a book store who might be willing to take it on consignment. She wants to see it first which is totally reasonable, so I want to get it to her as soon as I can. I am now working on getting a copyright. The copyright office is not your grandfather's copyright office! There are all kinds of downloads for forms and I had to update my Adobe ® reader to get what I needed. It's neat because you can fill in the form by computer and then print it all out. You mail in the print-out and the process is supposed to be faster than before. My last book was quite a while ago and I got the notice through snail mail. It didn't take that long , but it's always nice to know you have it.

I'm writing this Thursday, and tonight I'm going to a Muskegon Cafe Scientifique meeting in the GVSU/AWRI building on Muskegon Lake. It's a research facility of Grand Valley State University. The program is by Dr. Keith Crandall who is Professor of Biology and Curator of Crustacea at Brigham Young University. After the presentation, discussion and questions are allowed in an informal setting. It's a very good idea, I think, for students and community members. I used to want to belong to a discussion group when I was in veterinary school at University of Pennsylvania, but 1) I didn't have time and 2) there weren't any--not like this anyway. Well, we will see how it goes.