Out of Sync

I realized to my horror the other day that I haven’t been to yoga all month, and I’ve only blogged once. March has been filled with exciting events – like seeing Louisa perform in the Northfield High School’s Rock and Roll Revival extravaganza – but it’s been so crammed with activity that I haven’t been able to stick to my routine.

I hope to get back to more regular physical exercise (yoga and walking) and writing exercise (blogging) as April arrives. I find that everything goes better when I make sure to balance work and exercise. In fact, I get some of my best writing inspirations when I’m out walking the dog.

Louisa singing “Baby, Baby (I Still Love You)” by the Cinderellas

Louisa in her poodle skirt – one of three costumes she wore in the show.

Louisa with her proud dad.

My online book proposal class wraps up this week, and I am happy to report that it’s been a productive and inspiring experience. Through my work in the class, offered through the Loft Literary Center, I have now completed a draft of my first chapter and the other parts of the book proposal, like the annotated table of contents and the marketing/publicity section.

The key now will be to keep up the momentum and set some goals for myself, which is a much harder thing to do without the accountability of the class. I do have some accountability with you, my blog readers, so I will let you in on what I’m planning.

My goal for the next two months is to revise and polish the first chapter, and write and revise the second and third chapters. This will likely involve at least a few more trips to the Minnesota History Center’s library to fill in some research gaps, and some long overdue transcribing of interviews I conducted a few years ago. Once the chapters are as finely tuned as I can make them, I will be ready to approach a potential publisher.

It’s exciting to feel like all of the work I have done in the past six years is finally leading to a tangible product: a book that will tell the fascinating and little-known story of G. Oliver Riggs and his St. Cloud boys’ band.

The work continues. Happy Spring!