Hi Everyone,

I just saw this note and since I haven't been able to sleep this night (I'll pay for that at work) I thought I would take the time to answer the question and let you all know what's going on.

When will I get back to Duty Calls?

Simple answer... I don’t know.

I’ve tried to write more and have about a half a chapter completed but...

1) Teddi's notes for the chapters have a very large gap at this point. If where I am now is point A, then point B is on the other side of a rather large chasm.

2) If all I had to do was write the stories then I could probably spend enough time to devise some logical progression allowing me to take the story from point A to point B... unfortunately 3) is occurring.`

3) I am working seventy hours a week, give or take three or five. That’s very nearly one hour of work for each of my years of age (I’m no spring chicken). The travel time to and from work is approximately seventy-five minutes each way depending on the state of traffic. Typically I depart home for work about five in the morning and return around eight or nine at night. End result... I’m tired. Very tired. I actually had a day off last weekend and it rained. The upside? I don’t need to do the driving nor the shopping but I’m still worn to a frazzle and would love to have a week to myself.

4) Temperatures have been dropping... We are down to ten to fourteen degrees (Celsius) which means we will have slush or ice soon which will add more travel time.

5) The “kids” (well... they’re younger than I am - by at least thirty-five to forty years) are doing well at running the business (all seven divisions) but they still look for guidance from me. With eight of them (seven division heads and an overall CEO) if each of them only talks with me once each two hours that means I’m still spending fifteen minutes at a time with one or another of them, thus filling each of my two hour slots. (It would be nice if I could take a nap or two during the day - then I might have enough energy to do some research for the story while at home.)

I tried working on the stories at work but felt guilty as well as not having the kind of time to do any meaningful research (I usually need two to four hours to find and understand something pertaining to portions of the stories).

So, back to the question. When will there be more to Duty Calls?

At a guess there should be five to eight more chapters following the one which is partially written........... The tracking information I have kept regarding production of the chapters shows me that on the average I have spent forty hours to produce one chapter. That’s five to seven hours a day for six or seven days straight. This last half chapter has taken me over fifty hours which is double the average. At a guess by the time I add in forty hours of research (or radical guesstimating about certain things) make them all fit and then write the chapters which are missing outlines and notes then I’m probably looking at two months... IF I WAS DOING NOTHING ELSE, which I am.

I won’t lie and say I’ll have more material out soon. I also believe I should finish the story before I post any more material. I’m operating under the delusion that one very long gap is better than a large number of medium to long gaps. That would also mean that I would feel better having finished the story. So, I’ll leave it up to all of you...

Which would you rather see? A chapter or partial perhaps once every two months or a long gap, perhaps totaling a year or more before the remainder of the story begins to be posted?

Remember, I’m over seventy years of age... I’m tired (very tired), and I have what amounts to a double workweek job. All I want is to get back to my retirement so I can enjoy writing.

Anesidora