Hi,
I’m Seb. Anne’s been talking about me on this blog for months. Worrying. Fussing. Wringing her hands. Muttering about deadlines.
It’s simple, I told her. Write the book.
She muttered. She dithered.
She knows better. You just put your mind to it and you do it, I told her. You’ve done it before.
Yes, but — she said.
No buts. You just get it done. It’s what I tell my sisters. And my brothers. And my stepmothers. I tell this to a lot of people. Sometimes they even listen.
You have to focus. Know what you want to do and take it one step at a time.
“Bird by bird,” Anne mumbled.
Well, I don’t know about that. I didn’t say anything about birds, but if it works for her, yeah, all right.
The point is, you have to have goals before you can accomplish them. Get my book done by May 1st, I told her. Simple.
And do it right. Again, simple.
I’m an architect. If I don’t do it right, the building falls down. So I do it right. You should, too, I told Anne.
She said it wasn’t that simple.
It is.
She got it done by May 1st. She took off to see her granddaughter and told me if the editor wanted revisions I could wait til she got back.
I said there wouldn’t be any revisions.
She just looked at me.
Is the building falling down? I asked her.
She looked at me some more. She can look pretty exasperated. She also sighed. She sighs pretty exasperatedly, too.
Like I don’t know what I’m talking about.
I know. No revisions. That’s what the ed said today.
I don’t mean to sound smug and arrogant and all that rot, but . . . didn’t I tell her so?
