Perhaps I've taken enough time off that there are no readers left. If so, that frees me to write randomly, which in fact may be nothing new.
I have been cramming. I had a January 15 deadline for finishing work on the submarine book, Eight Survived. By that time, it was necessary to incorporate editor Keith's suggestions into the manuscript; to develop a list of sources, by chapter; to compile a thorough bibliography, and to write an acknowledgement section.
Cramming never was a strong suit in my days in school. I learned slowly that you had to have actually opened the books at some point in order to cram.
In this case, it had been nearly six years since I'd written about Flier. Although I still had all my files in a cardboard carton large enough ro raise a litter of puppies, such a litter birthed in there the last time I looked at any documents would now be middle-aged dogs.
Almost immediately, I discovered that some documents were missing. Then I found there were folks I'd interviewed whom I didn't remember.
I asked for a month more to finished the job, and Keith reluctantly said yes.
My fear of failure was misplaced. The work was done by the deadline. There must be a lesson in that experience.
One fact that helped is Keith's light touch as an editor. I probably mentioned before that he edited my first book for another publisher.
Now I wait to hear of any further effort necessary to get the book into print in the fall.