Anyone waiting on tenterhooks for an update on the book? No? Oh, well.
Anyone know the derivation of the term? I didn’t until a few hours ago, when I was drifting across the internet like a small puffy cloud of curiosity and came across this picture.
Tenterhooks are hooked nails set in a wooden frame called a tenter. Cloth was stretched along the tenter (the Latin tendere means stretch; think of words like tendon and extend) so it didn’t lose shape after being cleaned. The workers in this photo - especially the guy second from right - don’t look like they are paying full attention to the task at hand. Speaking of which, anyone still reading this post? Oh, well.
There is news on the book front!
Not about the new title. That’s still being discussed, so I can’t pass it on. Not about the cover either – I can’t share yet. I will do so as soon as I can.
But this round of editing is done. The book is back on our desks. Melanie and I are hard at work, or will be as soon as we deal with the aftereffects of family gatherings in the time of Covid. (My children and their partners all got sick for a couple of days, one after the other, a rolling broadside of headache and fever that is finally starting to fade.)
This edit is not about story ideas or character. Whew! Now we’re dealing with words, phrases, even tenses. I am in the process of shifting between the fierce in-your-face present tense of my opening chapter and the easier, relaxed, and-then-this-happened past tense of the rest of the story.
As of yet, there is no hard deadline (right, Anne? Right?) but we should hurry if the book is going to come out this summer. I hope y’all are eager.
Anyone pre-ordered a copy? No?
Oh, well.