Friday Followups

What I'm reading: No One Left to Tell, by Jordan Dane

What I'm working on: Revised Chapter 1, scene 2 of Fozzie's book.

Bits and pieces:

Handyman Lane
The handyman company sent a different worker (a guy, this time) to do the final fix-ups. He's a professional painter, and he tells me the original crew did not do what they contracted, and did a poor job overall. Seems that when we opted out of the orange peel finish, they should have put a skim coat on the walls and primed them. I guess I'll call the company and see if there's a financial adjustment, because I sure as heck am not going to sit through all the painting again. Meanwhile, the guy promises to do what he can to touch up some of the holidays, and he'll mount the wall mirror and hook correctly this time.

Character names -- while on the flight to Syracuse, I looked in my seat pocket and found the boarding pass of whoever sat there on the previous flight. "Rhys Ainsworthy". Gotta use that in a book someday. And who do you 'see' belonging to that name?

Back story
Yesterday, I devoted most of my time to hunkering down with the new WIP. Since I'd brainstormed many of the plot points with my daughter, it was "simply" a matter of putting the words on the page to show it. But it does raise the issue of 'how much back story does the reader need?' I now know almost everything about my heroine's (Torie at the moment) past. But putting it front and center will only slow the pace. Still, the reader has to have a reason to care about a character, and in the early pages of the book, readers are still getting a handle on who's who. Does a reader want to know all about Torie's childhood? I don't think so. Not now, anyway.

I also brought in a new character or two--it's easier to deal with exposition if you can show it in scene rather than using long passages of interior monologue or narrative. I try to limit myself to no more than 2 or 3 short paragraphs when I'm dealing with back story. This means my heroine's best friend gets to live a little longer, because I needed her around to explain what the heck the characters are doing there in the first place.

Another pitfall is the Maid-Butler (or As You Know Bob) dialog. Two people who know what's happening don't talk about the details, or 'spell out' definitions. Cops know what AFIS and CODIS are. It's always easier to have a lay person on scene, so the pros can (patiently) explain what they've just said.

Also, another pebble in the road. One of the new characters is a guy--but he's not the hero. Readers of romance want to get a handle on h/h as soon as possible. I didn't have a clue about this expectation (there are no rules) when I wrote Finding Sarah and actually introduced a non-hero as the first male on the page. It worked, but I had a lot of questions during the draft process. Heck, Allison Brennan killed one of the "very likely the hero' characters halfway through the book.

The end of handyman lane -- not really

The last day? NOT.

Down to one worker, who arrived at her usual lateness. She exuded confidence that all would be finished inside before my normally scheduled cleaning service folks arrived. I pointed out all the little misses and problems. "Not a problem," is her answer to everything.

Things were relatively uneventful, and she had a man show up later in the day to help with the roof part of the project. When I told them we needed to go out for an hour, and asked if they needed access to the house, she indicated they should be just about done, and that she'd need to be paid.

Immediately called my husband and said if he wanted any say on the "acceptability" of the project, he'd better be home in an hour. We did a walk-through and there were still at least a dozen places where paint was missing from where it was supposed to be, or on something it shouldn't have been. "Not a problem," she said again.

It was probably around 4 pm when she said, "Done," and presented us with the bill. My husband asked if she took care of everything, she said, "Yes," and he handed over his credit card. Didn't get up and check. However, there's a one year warranty on their work.

I have an appointment with them next Friday morning for them to finish all the things that weren't a problem for her, but sure as heck don't pass muster with me.

More on the winding handyman lane

Day 4, which shouldn't have happened.

Got the now-expected 'we're running late' call. Again, they promised the work would be done. Worker #2 arrives first. She has another job starting the next day, so today, she'll stay as long as it takes. More or less.

Worker #1 arrives, and they get the toilet out of the master bath, but she leaves soon afterward for what turns out to be a medical appointment, not the supply run for the lumber to fix the chimney surround. Worker #2 reaches a 'let things dry' phase and says she's going out for a soda, then will be back for the duration. She's gone about half an hour. The master bath has 2 coats of paint, but it's now well past noon.

At about 2:00, they go out for burgers and get back 45 minutes later. Worker #1 notices the bolts are rusted on the master bath toilet. We'd been advised to buy new wax rings, but not bolts. Another trip for supplies. I may not be in the business, but to me, it makes more sense to check everything you might need before the job starts. Yes, there will be some surprises, but I think they've made two supply runs each day.

Finally, at 7 pm, they call it a night. The walls are painted, but there's still a lot of touch up—and cleanup—to do. And there's still the chimney.

The colors look good, and they've got the blinds back up in the kitchen and bathroom. I'm sure the neighbors appreciate it. But they haven't managed to get the kitchen wall phone re-installed properly, and they've missed the stud for the bathroom magnifying mirror, so they have to find it to re-hang it. Plus there are the under-counter appliances still sitting on the dining room table. There are gobs of caulk and other bits of debris all over. We won't discuss the dust. Their estimate of how long the job should take was about half of what it did take. While yes, there were some surprises, if they'd both been on the job and had their supplies from the get go, they probably would have been done on time. But, we pay by the job, not by how long it takes, and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

But first, I'm sure my husband will go through and point out to me all the things they need to attend to, then go off to work, leaving me to miraculously comprehend exactly what he expects them to look like at the end of the job. The thing is, if he's interfacing with tradespeople, whatever they say is usually a sufficient explanation. But when I have to play middleman, I'm going to be the one responsible if he's not happy.

Overall, am I satisfied? Yes, because 1) every contractor experience has been along these lines, so I expected nothing different, and 2) I sure as heck wouldn't have wanted to do it myself. However, the final answer comes after the, "We're finished, I'd like my check." The difference between doing it myself and paying someone is that I'm less likely to accept, "close enough" as a quality standard.