Winding down

The year is winding down and so are we. Sue celebrated Hanukkah in Boston with her local family, then again in California with her children there. Lil enjoyed Christmas with her local family and shared pictures with her New Mexico family. And through all of this we have tried to work, but it has been difficult.

Irwin has completed his rewrite of his medical reference section, so that was a big accomplishment. Lil and Sue expect to go through his last section by Tuesday. We just want to make sure what he has written is reader friendly for all of you.

The big news is that we have printed out the entire book (wow!) so we can each read a copy separately, on paper, which is different than reading on a computer. This is the final process making a few changes (maybe more than a few) so that we can bring you the best product. We are still expecting to have the manuscript to the publisher sometime in January. So keep your fingers crossed!

Next step.....

Well, we took the next step in the process today. We signed our contract with our publisher! And this was on Lil and Wayne's anniversary. So we celebrated with dinner in Sue and Irwin's kitchen over a Mediterranean diet (read the book to learn why this is important) of pasta and vegetables, wine and Wayne's homemade beer. And chocolate dipped biscotti for dessert.

We worked all afternoon tightening up the medical reference section of the book, and will continue on that tomorrow. Of course best laid plans, because Sue has a meeting Thursday morning and Lil has a meeting Friday morning, but we will maximize the time when we are finally together. We are currently aiming to have the book to the publisher the first week of January, and have a real book in our hands by late spring.

If you want us to send you a notice once When Sex Isn't Good is available for purchase, just drop us a note at whensexisntgood@comcast.net.

Vienna photos

Never let it be said that Sue traveled to a foreign land without bringing home pictures to share! For our wonderful followers, we want to share all our experiences. Sue spent the week in Vienna, where her father grew up, and saw lots of people and places.

The scientific sessions were excellent at the meeting, with a packed house at the first session on female sexual dysfunction (FSD), and the dinners to which we were invited were wonderful, including a private showing of the Chagall exhibit.

While Sue was sightseeing at the Schonbrunn (the summer palace) and sitting in at the conference held in the Hofburg (the winter palace),
Lil was home seeing new and old clients, and decorating her house for the holidays. Vienna was decorated with outdoor Christmas Markets and lights, and the pedestrian ways had street vendors and street performers. This is the home of the Lipizaner horses and the moving Anker clock, but what was most amazing was touring the world famous State Opera House, damaged but not destroyed by bombs and fire, magnificent and stately, and overwhelming to a woman who had sat by her father's knee as a child and listened to opera. Sue was there on the anniversary of Mozart's death (considered Austria's most famous citizen), one of the few days the Opera House held an event that was neither opera nor ballet.

Food and drink are always plentiful in the city, wienerscnitzel and gluhwein, Mozart candies, but it is always good to be home in one's own bed, eating some nice roast chicken and drinking a glass of Poland Spring water!



After recovering, we will be full steam ahead next week to work on revisions that have been given to us by our esteemed medical consultant, shown here drooling over hand made Viennese pastry. Maybe it was a good thing we hadn't yet completed proofing that section!!

Dedication

We try to set a goal each time we meet, and an overall goal for the week. Last week we were going to work on Monday and Tuesday, then Sue was off to Omaha until Friday, when she was to unpack and repack for her journey to Vienna on Saturday. That gave us two solid days to work and our goal was to do the final proofing of the glossary. Each section of the book has to be proofed for language (so we don't use the same words two sentences in a row or sound awkward or not easily understood), spelling (including uniformity of use of hyphens) and punctuation (including correct use of commas and only one space after the period after we had entered two). Each section was read once for language and spelling and an additional time for punctuation. This was to be the final punctuation read for the glossary—a reasonable task for two days.

Sue woke up sick on Monday. So we thought we would work on Tuesday. Tuesday she was still pretty weak, but she decided she was not well enough to go to Omaha and risk canceling Vienna. With that, we had an opportunity to work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. So we worked on Friday and got about half way through the task. We were right on target! Thursday Lil was exhausted, but we decided to fall back on our other technique since we were only "commatizing" as we fondly call it, and we worked for two hours Thursday evening on the phone, with only a few pages left to proof by the time we ended, tired but satisfied. We would finish Friday.

Best laid plans.... Lil had a client, then had to look after her mother. There was no way to spend any time on the book. Here comes the dedication: Sue called from Logan airport and we got through one more page--only two left and we had vowed to finish this before Sue left the country. JFK here we come, and we finished the last two pages on the phone from the airplane lounge. Finished..... and Sue was off to Vienna to attend the Europen Society for Sexual Medicine. Next week we will work more on proofing other parts of the reference section. The stories are done.

This is a really long post, but we wanted you to know the latest!