Monday 3/16/2020

Was going to go for a run this morning but woke to wet streets and drizzle. Plan B was to wait until the green pixels moved off the radar map and then go for a walk.

I used that couple of hours to start writing my agent query letter for Pelajis. I mentioned building a list of possible agents. Now I have to craft a query letter. The agent query letter is a peculiar literary form; it is as tightly compressed as a sonnet, aiming to describe the plot and the excitement of a book well enough that a jaded literary agent will be intrigued and request the full text to read. On Reddit I got a pointer to a great site, Query Shark, where for a decade a working agent has been critiquing people’s queries. She’s brutal about it. The directions for submitting your own query for dissection include, you must have read all the archives. That’s something like 300 posts. Well, I’m starting to read them. But this morning I also wrote a query letter, which I think stands up pretty well. However, I will keep reading all the archives for a while.

So, off on a walk, where I changed my plan twice. My first plan was to walk down Middlefield to Piazza’s market, pick up some peanut butter, and buy a pound of coffee at Peets. However, a short way into the walk I pictured walking into Peets, standing in line, with people around me. Sneezing germ-laden people. Do I really need this?

You know, I thought, I bet Peets sells online. Still walking, pull out phone, open Safari, tappy tappy uh-huh. Not only that but they are encouraging online sales in the current situation. OK, so I won’t go there. If I don’t go there, I’ll just go as far as Safeway and get peanut butter.

Same line of thought. Do I really need to go into Safeway? I bet I can get Skippy Super Chunk from Amazon Prime. So now I have no destination. I circle back via Embarcadero and Alma, stopping briefly at Ace Hardware to get a phillips bit to replace a worn out one. Also not necessary and I probably should have skipped that too.

Later in the afternoon came the announcement that all five Bay Area counties are mandating “shelter in place” for everyone. Closing restaurants and bars except for take-away. All non-essential businesses work from home. A cascade of emails follow.

• From Channing house: until we have a case of COVID-19, which we don’t yet, the dining room remains open. However, housekeeping will now distribute linens and toilet paper weekly to your door, but will only clean your room once a month. The housekeepers are needed to do extra sanitation work.
• From FOPAL: we’re closed, don’t come by.
• From Sutter Health: you have a non-essential appointment coming up (eye exam), please reschedule it. I canceled it, since I think rescheduling short of September would be a waste of time.
• From Channing House: we need volunteers to help housekeeping distribute linens to doors, and to make beds for residents who can’t make their own. I sign up.

I check Amazon. Huh. Skippy Super Chunk is out of stock and it is not known when it will be back. Damn hoarders.

Later in the day, an email on the internal list reminding that several groceries offer delivery or pickup. I go to the Safeway link and aha, I can set up a pick-up order for Friday morning (earliest available) for that peanut butter. Well, I have to put at least $40 in the cart, so I add a few other things. Friday morning then, I will take the car out for a 2-mile round trip. Which will be the first time this week, probably.

 

Sunday 3/15/2020

For the first time in decades I did not walk out to a coffee shop for my Sunday morning paper and nosh. I was going to; and then I asked myself (actually I kind of was hearing Marian’s very grounded, practical voice), “Can I really justify exposing myself to coffee shop servers and customers, for that?”

The thing is, however small the risk, I don’t take it on my own behalf. When I expose myself to possible infection, I am in a real sense, exposing my 240 Channing House neighbors also. If I was still living alone at Tasso street, fuck yeah I’d go. But things are different now. If–or should I say when?–the virus gets in here, people are going to die. If we can make it with no illness through the year to a vaccine, it will be a major triumph for the CH management and residents. It’s not likely, really; but as long as our streak maintains, I don’t want to jeopardize it.

So from a boring breakfast in the dining room I went to FOPAL. I was the first person there, and the only one as long as I stayed, which was 2-1/2 hours, to 11:30. I did a bang-up job if I do say so, sorting at least 15 boxes of books, carrying 12 filled boxes out to their proper sections; and to top it off, at the end I got out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned the pig-sty of a floor in the sorting room. Turned out the lights and left, imagining the surprise and pleasure of the next volunteers in: open floor space and clean and tidy.

This work is I think, pretty virus-safe. Latest I’ve read is that live virus can survive on cardboard for at most a day. So all those boxes and books that have been sitting for at least a day (mostly for weeks), to be sorted, are virus free. I wore latex gloves just the same, and sanitized my hands when I left.

In the afternoon I read about how to write cover letters to agents. And wrote up a short account of my London trip for the CH newsletter. Which made me imagine riding the Underground when now, two months later, the corona virus is a reality. Brrrrrr.

Later in the day came word that

• The Vi, a nearby upscale senior residence, has a COVID-19 case.
• All staff and residents will have their temperature checked on entry to the building. There’s a new temperature check station set up in the lobby.
• Governor Newsome has issued a proclamation urging all people over 65 to remain in their homes.

I went down to supper at 6:30, but the remaining entree choice was not appetizing, nor suitable for take-out in a box, so I returned to the room and made a cheese and salami sandwich.

 

 

Saturday 3/14/2020

Breakfast in our dining room. Then out for a walk, largely unproductive. My first stop was the site of the Saturday Farmer’s Market, looking for dried apricots and dates; but the parking lot was empty. In the morning’s paper was a list of farmer’s markets open and closed, and this one wasn’t mentioned either way. The Sunday Palo Alto market was mentioned as still open, so I’ll try it tomorrow.

Then across to the bank (SFCU) to deposit a check, the one from IBM Via Benefits. Maybe I should try again (the fourth) to get their direct deposit to work.

Now up the Ave to the Apple Store, where I was going to kick the tires of an iPhone XI again and possibly buy one. But of course, the store is closed. The Apple Genius at the door explained they would be closed for two weeks; he was on duty at the door to help people who wanted to pick up repair orders.

Back to the flat to research literary agents. There’s a great site, AgentQuery, where you can search registered literary agents on all kinds of criteria. I found several who welcome new submissions, AND middle-grade, AND science fiction. Now to read the submission guidelines of each, which are of course all different. Of the ones I thought looked feasible for my book,

• Russel Galen: “Send us an unadorned, unaccompanied letter as your first step…”
• Julia Grinberg: ” please send a query letter and the first fifty (50) pages of your manuscript… as a .docx file”
• Scott Miller: use the contact form below and “include only a paragraph about yourself, a brief plot synopsis and your contact information”
• Peter Rubie: “send a query letter with a synopsis of your book, your bio, and the first two chapters (no more than 30 pages) embedded in the body of your email” not as an attachment
• Andrea Somberg: “a short synopsis of your work, an author bio, and the first five pages of your manuscript (pasted into the body of your email, no attachments please)”

After lunch I returned to this. Instead of trying to manage all the different agency sites in browser tabs, I did what I should have done to start, and made a spreadsheet. This whole business of submitting to agents is tedious and depressing. From posts in writer’s forums I know it is typical for them to take a month to a year to reply. Several note that they only reply when they want to see more; “no reply means no”. But it’s a bit hard to distinguish between “no reply” and “reply after six months”. Oh well.

Spent some time, and must spend quite a bit more, crafting that most import little prose passage, the cover letter with synopsis. Many iterations of that to come, as well as some online browsing; I know I’ve seen blog posts somewhere about “how to write a cover letter”.

Friday, 3/13/2020

In the morning, for exercise, I walked the mile-plus to the P.A. Cafe. I sat outside (distancing) with my computer and continued editing the novel. At 11am I took a Lyft back.

I didn’t mention yesterday, that I had ordered a pizza online from Palo Alto pizza, picked it up from on California avenue, and ate half for supper, with a beer, in my apartment. Today for lunch I had the remaining half. Then I returned to the editing and completed the job. Then I sent the link to the Google Doc to several friends. Here it is. Next jobs with that are to, 1, collect comments from beta readers, to include hopefully some actual middle-graders; 2, prepare a submission package and send a letter and opening chapters to some possible agents.

About 4pm I decided to get outside again. I was out of bread (I keep bread in my cupboard along with peanut butter, salami, cheese and other sandwich makings), so I decided to walk to my local store, the Whole Foods a few blocks away.

The walk was pleasant but the store was not. I didn’t immediately notice the bread shelves just inside the door, and walked the whole store looking for bread. I observed that the pasta shelves were bare. Preppers love pasta, I guess. Everything else was in good supply, except for the bread, when I finally found it. As I walked around I got increasingly nervous. There were lots of people, and which one (or ones) of them was oozing viral particles? I had come into a crowd for no really good reason, exposing myself and not even finding what I came for. I walked out and home again in a bad mood. I felt exposed, and not only washed my hands but took a shower.

 

Thursday, 3/12/2020

This morning I resumed editing the novel. Amazing number of typos, but also small tweaks that improve the text, all made visible by putting it in a different format.

I could do that because this week, the Yosemite shift is not a full day, but only half a day, from 1pm. They didn’t say, but I bet the morning is being used for staff meetings on the virus issue.

I went to Yosemite where Dave B., Elena, Toni, Tom and Allen also gathered. We traded virus news, as one does. We nearly completed the sweep of all boxes looking for the lost Ferrante plug-board. Another hour or two will do it.

Back home, to a peculiar email from Stanford Sports, thanking me for my ticket purchase with a price of negative $136. Soon after came the email saying the Stanford had canceled all sports for the rest of winter and spring terms, and they would be refunding purchased tickets. So I presume that -136 represents a refund of the remainder of my baseball season ticket?

Not long after, news that the NCAA had canceled all of the basketball post-season, and other sports.

Not long after, via Reddit I find a link to a Guardian article citing what seems like very credible scientific studies from China and Taiwan, showing that the virus is communicable from 2 to 7 days before symptoms appear. This is very disturbing to me, and should be to anyone. You simply don’t know which healthy-looking person you interact with, is infected and might infect you. And they don’t know, either. Suppose that everyone who had the slightest respiratory symptom, dutifully self-quarantined (and they won’t). It wouldn’t make any difference! Or at least, not much.

If it’s upsetting to me, how must it be for someone who has a job meeting the public? A restaurant server, a store clerk, any kind of public-facing clerk? Every single person they deal with is a potential case of virus.

This makes it entirely credible that, as competent epidemiologists are already saying, a year from now, 60%-80% of the US population will have had the virus. That’s the point at which herd immunity kicks in, when the newly-infected encounter mostly immune people and can’t create new infections. Present “social distancing” efforts will have some effect in slowing the rate of infection, but nothing will stop it from becoming endemic.

 

 

Wednesday, 3/11/2020

Went for a run. Might have finished a minute faster than the previous time, but that could also be due to not having to wait for a traffic light. Anyway I felt strong and healthy, which is good.

Did a bit of paperwork left over from my annual review with the Financial Advisors. They Advised that I should really have $3M of general liability coverage, not the paltry $1M included in my Renter’s insurance policy. So I emailed my agent. Later she replied that I could get such a policy, and then could dial back the liability coverage in my Renter’s and Auto policies to almost make up the difference. So that’s in progress.

Next, I did a copy of the full text (which is 43,000 words) of the novel, and pasted it into a new Google Doc. That took Google at least 30 seconds to digest. I thought it wasn’t coming back, but it did. I started reading through the text, tweaking the format so it looked like a book, not a manuscript, and immediately spotted a typo.

It is well-known to writers that when you reformat something, change the font or the line spacing or whatever, suddenly you will start to see things you didn’t before. So now I have to do a full read and edit in the new format, and of course, have to make the same edits in the “real” document at the same time.

Also interesting that Google Docs has a grammar checker. It has a spell-checker that puts a wiggly red line under words it thinks are misspelled; Open Doc (which I am using for the “real” manuscript) also does that. But Google Docs also puts a blue wiggly line under any phrase that doesn’t look right to it grammatically, and that has already showed me two typos where I missing words. (Like missing “had” in that line.)

At 11am I headed out to FOPAL for my usual Wednesday sorting shift. Did four hours of sorting, as usual moving many, many boxes of books. At 4pm my back was painful; time for the usual “two ibuprofen and a nap” prescription.

But there were new emails from the Channing House Response team. They’ve received guidance from the powers that be: when there is even one confirmed case in the county, all senior facilities in that county should lock down. Santa Clara county has 48 cases (as of yesterday), so at Channing House:

• No visitors at all, family, vendors, whatever
• No contact with the contractors who continue to work on the 5th floor upgrade
• Strongly recommend that residents avoid all unnecessary outside activities that involve groups of any size

Although walks in the neighborhood are fine. I’m thinking hard about my volunteer activities, which are quite limited.

Tomorrow I’m to go to Yosemite for artifact work. That’s a group of maybe 5 people who are smart enough not to show up if they have cold symptoms. Should be OK.

Processing computer books at FOPAL, and sorting books there outside of donation hours, exposes me again to at most four or five other volunteers. I had already been wearing latex gloves while handling books. I may want to quit sorting during donation hours, 2-4pm, when members of the unwashed public come in to donate.

 

Overnight I realized that the new pillow I’d bought really was uncomfortable, just a bit, well, a lot, too thick, and made my neck hurt. At 3am I got up and found the old one and stuffed it into the pillowcase.

Tuesday, 3/10/2020

Absolutely nothing in my Google Calendar for today, a rarity. Whatever shall I do? After breakfast I decided to cowboy up and finish the goddam novel. Simultaneously, the people working on the 5th Floor Upgrade began heavy demolition directly below me. They make a lot of use of a hammer-drill that sounds like a jackhammer. So I put my laptop in a bag and headed out to the good old P.A. Cafe. Sat down at a table with a coke and a scone to write, just like Adam@Home:

And I damn well did write the whole climax of the story, foiling the bad guys in a totally humiliating way. Still need a closing scene to wrap things up and tie loose ends.

The committee that keeps the art display in the lobby fresh had requested new material, this time themed “your island getaway”. I have that excellent shot of a blue doorway on Pyrgos, which is an island, so I had printed it out 11×14 and put it in a frame, and on the way out this morning I offered it to them. Unfortunately the frame I was using did not hang on their particular picture rail. So from the cafe I went to Michael’s crafts store to look for another cheap frame. There are lots of cheap frames, but none of them have good hanging widgets, and none are set up to take a wire across the back. I got one frame that might work.

Since I was just a block from Bed Bath and Beyond, I went in there and bought another pillow, identical to the one I bought last year and which was getting lumpy and floppy. It is also comfortable. If I have to replace it annually, so be it.

Back to CH with lots of time in hand. Sat down at the big computer and wrote a satisfactory closing scene, one which wrapped things up for the moment but which leaves it open to continue the story in the future.

Done. It only took thirty years. Well not really; but I first imagined the planet, Pelajis, and the idea of setting an Arthur Ransome style of children’s story on it, in 1987 or so. I started actually writing it in 2017, so only three years really.

What next? Well, I am going to reformat the text into a Google Doc so I can share it. Then I need to find beta readers, preferably, young ones — since it is after all, meant for the “middle grade” demographic. Would middle-graders actually read it?

Second, submit cover and opening chapters to some agents. I am not going to try to self-publish this book. Self-publishing is a great vehicle for people who can promote themselves. I have amply demonstrated that I can’t. If I can’t get a legit publisher, which means, via an agent, then too bad. It’s a failure.

Think I’ll go out for supper.

March 9, 2020

Went for a run and timed myself. The run breaks naturally into four segments: east along Webster to the creek; west along the creek to Bryant; across the footbridge to Willow road and west to Alma; along Alma back to University. From there I walk on home. So these four legs timed in at approximately 11, 6, 10 and 7 minutes, a total of a shade under 33 minutes. In future I will see how consistent those numbers are, and maybe reduce them a bit.

During the morning, SWBB sent out an email offering season ticket holders a link to buy a seat in the sub-regional that Stanford will surely host, probably on 3/20 and 3/22. The link didn’t work of course, so I emailed my personal ticket rep Kevin (whose name shows up when I go in to “manage my account” at Stanford tickets). Later in the day he called me directly and finalized the ticket over the phone.

At 11:30 I presented myself at the Campbell office of Valet Custom Cabinets to review the design that Ward had made for my two large closets. I made some suggestions and he added those changes. I approved his choice of hardware (drawer pulls, mostly). The closets are going to be very nice, much more usable and many times nicer to look at.

From there I went to FOPAL and, finding no boxes of computer books (yay!) did two hours of sorting.

Back home I did a little work on the novel. Over the last couple of days I have figured out how to do the big dramatic finish. To work, it will require a change in the layout of a boat that is an important prop in the story. So now I went back and altered the description of that boat where it first appears, so it is suitable for the finish I have in mind.

At supper I sat with Patty and David. Much talk about The Virus and its effects on our respective travel plans. Patty noted that Kim Krebs, CH marketing manager (who showed me my unit back last year) was on holiday in Italy. After supper I sent Kim an email, suggesting she write to the CHBB mailing list to give her status because “we” were all worried.

Sunday, 3/8/2020

For my Sunday Morning Coffee I walked over to Mlle. Collette’s. Continued on up University avenue to buy deoderant at CVS (the excitement grows) and over to Ace Hardware to check on their hummingbird feeders. I’m not happy with the one I got a week ago.

After lounging around home for a while, I took off in the car to go to Bed Bath and Beyond for a new pillow. The one I bought about a year ago, before moving into CH, has turned into a lumpy mess. From there I checked the big Ace Hardware where Orchard Supply used to be, partly for feeders and partly to browse their plant selection, which turned out to be slim and uninteresting. Although, they had a few succulents, and I remembered with pleasure the row of little succulents we had on the kitchen windowsill at Tasso street. Possibly, if I can find a tray or shallow plant dish about 4 inches by 12 or so, I could put a row of little succulents in my side windowsill.

Next I stopped at FOPAL where I found some changes. All the snacks that are usually open for volunteers to take have been cleaned away, and a new sign says no public snacks for fear of spreading the virus. And a supply of exam gloves with the suggestion that you wear them while handling donated books.

So I put on gloves and processed five boxes of books for the computer section, sending most of them on to the bargain room. There were a few possibly valuable items. C. Gordon Bell is a well-known computer person, designer of the original PDP-1 computer and many other things, whose library apparently was at least in part donated to FOPAL. So there were four pristine copies of one of his textbooks, all signed by him. On Amazon, used copies were going for over $100. So that was a bit of a gift for the High Value section.

At 5:30 I started watching the PAC-12 Tournament championship game, Stanford against the formidable Oregon Ducks and Sabrina Ionescu. The game was close at first, and Stanford ended the first quarter ahead by 2 points. Then the Ducks took off on a 20-point tear and put the game away, ending 30 points ahead. If the Ducks aren’t in the Final Four it will be very surprising, and they could very well be national champions.

I was on my way out to find some supper up the street when I checked the menu at our dining room. Quesadillas and pulled pork? OK, why not. I had those items and some vegetable medley put in a box for eating in my room. It was only OK, not great.

But the new pillow was fine.

Saturday 3/7/2020

With the goddam taxes out of the way there is no further excuse not to work on the goddam novel. But it has been weeks. So I once again sat down to read the whole thing through, all 35,000 words of it. That took only a couple of hours; and again, as after previous readings, I was pleased with my work. There is a lot of good stuff there. I just need to finish the goddam thing. I have most of the elements of the finale lined up; I just have to decide what will actually happen: how the bad people will be exposed and humiliated, and what part of that my protagonists, who are kids, can realistically play in making that happen.

(In fact, since I’m writing this the next day I may as well say: I was obsessing over, half-asleep, endings for this from about 4am to 5am Sunday, and I think I know what to do.)

Around noon I decided to go to a Stanford baseball game, even though the weather was overcast and a slight mizzle was in the air. Stanford had announced, as part of COVID-19 precautions, that they would be limiting attendance at all sporting events to about 1/3 the capacity of the venue. But the baseball organization had emailed season ticket holders specifically to say that if you have season tix, you can get in. So fine, nothing else is happening.

I dried off my seat with paper napkins and, since a very light rain was still falling, hunkered down under my umbrella.

Note they certainly achieved limited attendance. The rain soon went away and the game was fine, Stanford winning 7-5.

At supper I opted for the newly-provided take-away option. Pick any combo from the menu and instead of putting on a plate the server puts it in a box to take back to your room. (Also, they have instituted a limited seating plan: no more than 3 people at a round table, where they used to set for 6, and no more than 2 at a square table. The dining room looks a lot like the above baseball seating.) One entree was a turkey-cheeseburger with sriracha aioli and arugula. That was my take-away, a box with a very nice burger, and a banana. The burger was really good, their spicy aioli sauce was excellent. I had it with a beer at my little cafe table.

At 8:30, it was time for the PAC-12 tournament semi-final, Stanford v. UCLA. The Bruins had won at Maples a few weeks earlier, in a game I didn’t attend because it was the departure day for my London trip. This game was close in the first half; then Stanford went on a 12-0 tear in the third quarter and put the game away. So the final Sunday will be Stanford v. Oregon.

A little grump: with the game in Las Vegas on Mountain time, it started at 8:30, ran to 10:30, on the night when we put the clocks ahead. Oh well, sleep is a luxury. See above about 4am obsessing.