Arden House, Book Two is done.
It is BEAUTIFUL, and just in time for holiday gift-giving.

We're going to have two Open Houses: 
Saturday, 20 December and
Sunday, 21 December
Both days 2 to 4 PM at our house.
(IM me if you need directions)

We'll have crates of books, $15 each, and
I'll be able to accept credit cards.

I got up at 4, wrote until 5:30, went to work. Worked until 15:30, then went to Pendle Hill. It's 18:00 now. I just noticed this poem by Marge Piercy written on poster board over the door to the Kiln Room.

"The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest 
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

5:30 this morning, house is quiet, woodstove warm.

I was trying to pick a date for the Arden House Book Two launch party, then got distracted and curious about what we'd planned for later today.

Clicked "Today" on Google Calendar for the first time in, I don't know, months. Surprise! Neil Diamond rocks across my screen, loud as the Downton Abbey episode we watched last night.

Scared the cat into next week.

It's early, but the smart money is on this being the highlight of my day.

I've been writing since 3:45 AM. (I did also get my teeth cleaned, opened a checking account for Arden House Press and drove to Pendle Hill.)

All of the writing has been with Ulysses, and wow.

I don't know enough to recommend things to others, as a general rule.

I can say this, though, I've spent 100% of my writing time actually writing. No mouse, no navigating B.S., no style tinkering, no switching between documents, no saving, nothing.

I can't tell you how awesome that is. One thankful guy.

I have a few PNG (thank you, Tom Boutell) files that I want to put on top of a simple PDF template and save as a new PDF. Positioning and size are important to get right. Word won't open the PDF template, I tried GIMP for an hour, read the tutorials, manual, couldn't get layers to move around without smooshing into each other, couldn't get images in any way besides layers.

I tried Preview on the Mac, because I read that could work, but I could not get it to work.

What am I looking for?

A. Image editing software

B. Graphic design software

C. Desktop publishing software

D. Something else

Thank you in advance, Rob

I'm deep into Book 3, planning where the load-bearing beams will go and pouring footers.

Character profiles, setting details, plot points and major themes are all mapped out in rough form and I'm going through, putting finer details in here and there, calling out connections and setting up resonating imagery.