this week.
She was back checking email before she realized it. Once she was there, she began to type an email to her critique partners laying out some of the possible scenarios.
“No!” she said aloud even as she got up and walked over to the window so that she could see the traffic moving on Peachtree. “You don’t need your critique partners for this. You have a brain. Why don’t you try using it before you run to them?”
Leaning into the window, she spotted the big orange CB2 sign a few blocks north. If she took a break she could walk through the store, maybe pick up another desk lamp. This one was definitely not bright enough. She went back to the table and peered at the bulb. It was only a 45-watter.
Except what would she be taking a break
from
?
Back in the chair she reread her notes, added a few thoughts, then stared out the front window at the bright blue sky.
Maybe Rory was the one who objected to the marriage. Because he thought he wanted a more biddable wife? She groaned aloud and turned her head away so she wouldn’t have to look at the big question marks she’d just typed across the screen. A bird sang happily out on the balcony railing. Squinting, she tried to determine what kind it might be. She was still trying to figure this out when it flew away.
Her mind, which appeared to be as reluctant to settle down as the unidentified bird, flitted to last night’s screening and the lush beauty of
Downton Abbey
.
Her fingers moved on the keyboard and she was back on Amazon. Big bad Amazon, who was ruining publishing, putting bookstores out of business, and deflating the price of books in general. Not to mention making readers believe that an ebook should cost half as much as a printed book just because it didn’t have paper.
Her mental rant didn’t prevent her from typing the words “Downton Abbey” into the search box. A book titled
The World of Downton Abbey
popped up. It appeared to be written by Jessica Fellowes, niece of series creator, Julian Fellowes. The hardcover, which had received sixty-seven customer reviews and averaged four and a half stars, had lots of cool photos and background on the series, the time period, and the real stately home, Highclere Castle, where the series was filmed. As she clicked around Amazon informed her that customers who bought
The World of Downton Abbey
also bought
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
, which was written by the current Countess of Carnarvon about an Edwardian-era Countess of Carnarvon.
Claire’s fingers, which once again seemed to be functioning independently of her brain, added them to her cart. Which was when Amazon pointed out that many of the customers who’d bought both of these items also bought the series on DVD.
She could order them right now and watch both previous seasons whenever she wanted. In case she had to miss a Sunday night. Or just couldn’t wait a whole week. It would be a treat to watch whenever she felt like it. In fact, she could probably download episodes from iTunes and not even have to wait for the mail. She clicked over to see and sure enough there they were.
But it felt like cheating. As if she were reading the last page of a book first instead of reading it in the way that the author intended; something that members of her book club had admitted to doing.
Claire shuddered.
No
.
The Amazon confirmation appeared in her inbox midshudder.
After her mini online-shopping frenzy, she tried to refocus her attention on the new book, but the characters and their motivations continued to elude her. For about thirty minutes she free-typed imagined backstory for both main characters and attempted to decide in whose point of view the book should start. But without her critique partners to bounce ideas off, her brain circled in a nonproductive loop. There was a reason brainstorming was a group activity. Doing it alone was sort of like cheerleading without a game or a crowd—you could
She was back checking email before she realized it. Once she was there, she began to type an email to her critique partners laying out some of the possible scenarios.
“No!” she said aloud even as she got up and walked over to the window so that she could see the traffic moving on Peachtree. “You don’t need your critique partners for this. You have a brain. Why don’t you try using it before you run to them?”
Leaning into the window, she spotted the big orange CB2 sign a few blocks north. If she took a break she could walk through the store, maybe pick up another desk lamp. This one was definitely not bright enough. She went back to the table and peered at the bulb. It was only a 45-watter.
Except what would she be taking a break
from
?
Back in the chair she reread her notes, added a few thoughts, then stared out the front window at the bright blue sky.
Maybe Rory was the one who objected to the marriage. Because he thought he wanted a more biddable wife? She groaned aloud and turned her head away so she wouldn’t have to look at the big question marks she’d just typed across the screen. A bird sang happily out on the balcony railing. Squinting, she tried to determine what kind it might be. She was still trying to figure this out when it flew away.
Her mind, which appeared to be as reluctant to settle down as the unidentified bird, flitted to last night’s screening and the lush beauty of
Downton Abbey
.
Her fingers moved on the keyboard and she was back on Amazon. Big bad Amazon, who was ruining publishing, putting bookstores out of business, and deflating the price of books in general. Not to mention making readers believe that an ebook should cost half as much as a printed book just because it didn’t have paper.
Her mental rant didn’t prevent her from typing the words “Downton Abbey” into the search box. A book titled
The World of Downton Abbey
popped up. It appeared to be written by Jessica Fellowes, niece of series creator, Julian Fellowes. The hardcover, which had received sixty-seven customer reviews and averaged four and a half stars, had lots of cool photos and background on the series, the time period, and the real stately home, Highclere Castle, where the series was filmed. As she clicked around Amazon informed her that customers who bought
The World of Downton Abbey
also bought
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
, which was written by the current Countess of Carnarvon about an Edwardian-era Countess of Carnarvon.
Claire’s fingers, which once again seemed to be functioning independently of her brain, added them to her cart. Which was when Amazon pointed out that many of the customers who’d bought both of these items also bought the series on DVD.
She could order them right now and watch both previous seasons whenever she wanted. In case she had to miss a Sunday night. Or just couldn’t wait a whole week. It would be a treat to watch whenever she felt like it. In fact, she could probably download episodes from iTunes and not even have to wait for the mail. She clicked over to see and sure enough there they were.
But it felt like cheating. As if she were reading the last page of a book first instead of reading it in the way that the author intended; something that members of her book club had admitted to doing.
Claire shuddered.
No
.
The Amazon confirmation appeared in her inbox midshudder.
After her mini online-shopping frenzy, she tried to refocus her attention on the new book, but the characters and their motivations continued to elude her. For about thirty minutes she free-typed imagined backstory for both main characters and attempted to decide in whose point of view the book should start. But without her critique partners to bounce ideas off, her brain circled in a nonproductive loop. There was a reason brainstorming was a group activity. Doing it alone was sort of like cheerleading without a game or a crowd—you could
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