So, the ducks have gone — and in fact, have gone again, winging their way west this time.

I had a call this morning from my editor who had read them — and cried at the end, she says. Presumably good tears, though possibly just tears of relief that I’d finished the damn thing. She accepted them, has finished line-editing them, titled them, and this afternoon sent them winging on their way back across the pond to Toronto for copyediting.

Whew. Must be nice to be able to move that fast. I wonder why writing takes so long.

Anyway, Spence and Sadie are going to be called The Boss’s Wife For A Week. Trust me, this is not my title. But it is at least a title that reflects a part of the book’s premise, though I promise you it is more than a simple “hiring a wife for a week” story. Promise, promise, promise. I am rather fonder of simply Wife For A Week (yes, I know Kelly Hunter just used that title. In fact I read her book on the plane home from England. Good book, too!). But the editor says she wants the word “Boss” in there because people buy the word “Boss.” (I wonder why I keep spelling it “Boos” and then having to change it. Freudian? And if so, what does it mean?)

So, I hope lots of people really want to buy the word “Boss” which is not exactly a ‘grabber’ for me, but must be for some. Whatever. I don’t care.

I have a title for my next book already in my head. I just need a book to go with it. I’m thinking about Flynn and Sara from The Great Montana Cowboy Auction. Their story seems to be bubbling up.

But first, I’m really thinking I need to dust about a hundred pounds of dust out of my house. Amazing what has accumulated while Spence and Sadie were taking up all my time.

They are slimmer and trimmer ducks now. They have a new (I would not necessarily use the word, improved, but at least editorially mandated) back story which one (that would be me) hopes makes the editorial mandator happy.

She cheered them on. And after an all night session of duck regimentation (which I am getting too old for) she sent me a lovely hot cup of cyber- tea. I enjoyed it immensely — almost as much as I enjoy a real one.

And now, thanks to other joys of cyberspace, Spence and Sadie are already across the pond and printed out and waiting for her to read them. How are they? I have no idea.

I have no perspective on them anymore. When you change an element of backstory, you basically change someone’s whole life. The events may stay the same, but the reasons for them are different. The characters reactions are different. They make different choices. They get different outcomes.

It frankly wouldn’t have surprised me if Spence and Sadie had taken one look at their altered back story and decided they didn’t suit. He might have said, “I’d rather join a monastery given what I know now.” And she might well have said, “Who’s that guy I dated last year trying to forget you? I think he’ll do after all.” (I have the strangest feeling that there is a guy like that somewhere in the new chapter one. If there is, I’ll have to go check and make sure I get rid of him, because one thing I’m sure of is that he never appeared again.)

Characters in books are rather like children. They’re yours. You raise them until they’re five. You civilize them a bit. And then you send them off to school and all of a sudden there’s a new influence in their lives.

They have teachers with different expectations than yours. And teachers must be pleased. The comparison stops there, of course. Because with kids, they are the ones who have to do the changing and fitting in with new expectations. And with characters, sadly, the author is still responsible for their behavior.

So I hope Spence and Sadie are living up to expectations. I hope I remembered to get rid of the other boyfriend. We’ll see.

In the meantime, the ducks are flying south.

There is nothing like a pair of two-year-old assistants when it comes to frosting a cake.

They take a very definite hands-on approach to the project. And they think that checking out the taste of each layer before the cakes is assembled is imperative. After all, you wouldn’t want to use one if it didn’t taste good, would you? And with the frosting, no one will notice those nibbles.

Well, not the nibbles, maybe. But almost certainly someone will notice the great gaping gouges where enthusiasm took over. Let us just say that both layers, the bottom even more than the top, met with double approval.

Let us also say that they have a saint for a big brother because he didn’t complain when they tried to help him stir the frosting, and he just sighed and rolled his eyes when they smeared chocolate all over their faces. He didn’t even mutter when they patted chocolatey hands on him. Eight is a truly wonderful age.

Two year olds walk around with this sort of “color me astonished” look on their faces. As if they are just coming to grips with all sorts of things and they need to check it all out. They find licking mixer beaters an amazing experience. They find getting birthday presents confusing. Why, if you get something, do people make you put it away before you can play with it? Just because it needs to be put in the car to go home, why can’t you play with it NOW? (very good question).

They also have opinions. The blue cup with the cartoon Tasmanian Devil on it is highly prized by one. The purple with some other creature on it is the only one the other will look at. One doesn’t care which jacket he wears. The other wants ONLY the red one. One thinks the dogs should come in. The other thinks the dogs should go out. I think my son has his work cut out for him. It’s a good thing that one of his gifts is that he raises boys so well.

Anyway, the cake was lopsided, droopy, held together by toothpicks and had six baseball players stuck into the top of it, knee deep in frosting so that when we took them out to cut the cake, they looked as if they had been slogging through mud. But no one cared. Everyone loved it. We all ate lots. One more birthday to go. What fun!

ps: if you haven’t entered the scavenger hunt and would like to, please stop by my website and go to the contest page. The “first” winner has already been selected. But everyone who gets the answers will be in the drawing for the Grand Prize “Here Comes Winter” goody box. It’s been a lot of fun so far. I’m impressed with how many people have stopped by and answered the questions! Thanks.

pps: yet another Batakis has surfaced!

ppps: Spence and Sadie who?