The Mystery Project

It’s been a few days since I've come up for air. It's as if I have been chained to my light box and computer.

Nearly a week’s worth of newspapers and magazines have been piling up while I toil away on what I will refer to for the time being as TMP (The Mystery Project).

Although I expected to be finished with Sections 1 and 2 by the end of this week, that is not the case.

The scope of my involvement expanded before I wrote a single word. (Actually that isn’t totally true—I wrote a sample chapter for the publisher to approve before I was officially hired.)

Instead of starting to write, my first mission was reorganizing the more than 1,000 photographs shot specifically for the book or bought as stock. The folks involved with TMP had worked so long and hard on their “baby” that they “no longer could see the forest through the trees,” so to speak. They needed someone fresh (me!) to sort things out.

Next, once we more or less knew what photographs would go where in the book, I put together a new PL (photo log) and TOC (table of contents).

As of this morning , I am finished editing The Introduction, and I am putting together a visual presentation to show to the book’s editor at the Publishing House tomorrow.

I plan to catch a train to New York City in the morning to meet her for the first time and get her blessings on the new outline and book structure. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. (In the photo above, the vintage rhinestone buckles, ikat accessories, shell earrings and EsMor necklace are a few of the treasures that I brought back from Renita's house. They were still sitting on my work table!)

Before my meeting, Dan and I are going to get together to work on our Romantic Cottages book. It’s always easier when we are in the same city at the same time.

And as an extra incentive, he usually treats me to a nice lunch. Thai noodles? Cuban sandwiches? Perhaps, Jamaican roti? Hmm-- I'd better not choose anything with a drippy sauce. I’d hate to meet my new editor wearing a stained blouse.

Later, I plan to have dinner with some of my friends and go to hear Miguel Pena Vargas, known to flamenco fans as the legendary “El Funi”. No girls in polka dot skirts and castanets, El Funi sings pure Flamenco. It's just Miguel singing, while devotees hang on every flick of his wrist or click of his heels. I can’t wait!