Time Adjustments

I was scheduled for a writing post today, but I think I'm going to skip a week since I'm still in convention/travel recovery mode (I went to bed last night early for Central time, woke up on Pacific time. I guess I was tired). Forming coherent thoughts isn't working for me.

Meanwhile, I made a good start on the epic to-do list yesterday. I got about a third of the way through going through the manuscript for the copyeditor's notes. I hope to get through the rest today, and then I'll need to do one more thorough read-through. That will be my reading out loud pass and will probably take several days. Most of what she found so far has been minor, including an embarrassingly high number of typos. I might need to increase the size of my screen view because even looking at these, it took me a while to see that a letter really was missing, so it wasn't just that I skimmed past it. I really didn't see it when looking at it. And yes, I did just get my eyes checked.

One question for anyone who lives in New York: In mid-late November, what time does it get dark? I was going off the US Naval Observatory tool where you can enter a date and location and it gives you sunrise and sunset times. According to this, civil twilight for the date in question ends around 5 p.m. Supposedly, that means that any outdoor activities after that time will require artificial light because the disc of the sun is totally below the horizon. The editor, who lives in New York, wasn't sure whether flashlights might be required in the middle of Central Park, away from the lighted paths, after 6 p.m. Since she lives there, she might know better than the computer what it's really like to experience it, but I wanted to get another opinion. It is a cloudy day, so that might make it seem darker. I know when I was there in early December, it seemed to be pitch black before six. Is this a detail that would totally throw you out of the story one way or another?

Now I really should obtain groceries because there's next to no food in the house. I made something for dinner last night with food in the pantry and freezer, and I'd planned ahead to have breakfast items for a couple of days, but now I really need some fresh stuff. I may splurge on some convenience foods to get me through the week of copyedits. Though when the copyedits end, I'll have to jump on developing Rebel Mechanics 2 (tentatively called Rebel Magisters). I think Labor Day weekend may be a research and mood setting retreat.