Mistakes are really easy. It’s getting it right that’s difficult.
At the moment I’m thinking that the chapter and a half of book 2 of the new piece is going to need to be rewritten and slowed down massively. Why? Well, so far, my main character has been ambushed, escaped through sewers/drains, emerged in a bath house soaking wet, got caught in a panicked crowd when the enemy oopsed and set the bath house on fire (most places are built of wood), damn near been trampled in said crowd, damn near got crushed in said crowd because for reasons I don’t know yet the authorities had the city gates closed, escaped over roof tops, climbed city walls while fire spread through city (cold, dry, windy day), almost got caught, slid/fell down the other side, sprained or broke one ankle (not sure which) fell into damn cold river, got carried downstream a ways and may have passed out briefly.
Yes, that leaves me breathless as well, and there’s no way I can keep that pace up for a 50k word book. It’s too much. Hell, some authors (better ones than me) could have the 50k book just on what I’ve got so far.
Then there’s the domestic mistakes, like not getting someone in to look at and possibly fix the gas heater in the study. The rest of the house is fine despite temperatures way too low for this tropical brat (although we’re going through heating oil at a rate that makes both of us cringe), but the study, being an add-on without the benefit of 24-inch thick walls to help insulate, gets very little benefit from that – which is why it has the gas heater. I’m seriously wondering if we should have used the teeny second bedroom as a study instead, but the idea of hauling furniture up the stairs doesn’t appeal, funnily enough.
Oh, and it looks like the powder room pipes have frozen. The rest of the house, fine, but no water coming through those pipes. Yes, the powder room is in the add-on.
I have mentioned I’m a tropical brat and cold really isn’t my thing, right? Yes? Good. After 7 years in PA I’m getting better at it, but I still don’t like it, and the teens (Fahrenheit) are a bit bloody much. All you Canadians can start laughing now, but when you grow up somewhere that’s never once had snow, it’s traumatic. Yes I’m complaining. I can’t think to write when I’m trying to thaw out, so those who want to see more of my writing had better hope I get things sorted.
Mad Genius Club 
Eep! Forget the gas heater. Call the plumber. When pipes freeze they have this nasty habit of splitting the pipes they’re in. Then they defrost . . .
I don’t know about PVC, but with Copper, you usually get one freebie on the freezing. The first one puts a bulge in the pipe, and it’s the second one that busts it, but yeah, you want to be careful there.
We have copper pipes. Of course, we also have no idea what’s happened in the past, since we only bought the place last March
This is one of the advantages of PEX pipe (the other is ease of installation) it can freeze repeatedly without busting.
The fun will be if there’s damage in the section of the pipes that are in the wall. I naively thought that with heat in the basement and heat in the powder room, we’d be fine. Apparently that’s not the case for below 20F…
No, don’t forget the gas heater! You keep the gas heater on, maybe you won’t get this problem again. You thaw the pipes but keep the interior cold enough it won’t waste heat into the walls, even with keeping the tap open to a trickle, they’ll freeze again sure as snow in winter.
Don’t ask me how I know…
At this point there’s this small impediment called $$$ involved… We’re hoping we can escape the issue for now and get the gas heater sorted during the slow season (when I called in November, there was nothing doing until January, then Things Happened).
Oh, um, yes I think that amount of action deserves to be either spread out further, or the character should collapse in exhaustion and let the pace slow after this bit. Beware leading readers to think this is a Thriller–non stop action–in your blurb. Unless you want to give it a try.
Or she can work out a fee-splitting agreement with a local cardiology group and include their phone number in the back cover blurb . . . 😉
Hehe. That has prospects…
Yes. I suspect that’s why I’ve blocked on it. Well, that and it’s so fricking cold I’m finding reasons to be anywhere but the study. I think I’m going to need to rewrite with more breathing space.
It is all part of the one escape, but it’s still way too much “stuff”.
It’s far far better to err on the side of too much action rather than too little (my usual error, sigh). That said, nothing is sweeter than allowing your exhausted character a chance to rest by the creek and do a little fishing.
I think at this point my poor exhausted character would be sleeping, not fishing. Possibly sleeping for a week.
Naturally the “fun” isn’t over yet.
It does sound like fun. good luck with it.