Transit Installment 27
You can never have too many snacks to weather a typhoon.
Nobody’s worried about Typhoon Kaala. At least not yet. But better safe than sorry. The mess man makes sure everything is battened down in Jessamyn’s cabin, as well as Lovely’s, and the two new friends follow his advice to stock up on goodies the cook has prepared to enjoy in their cabins in case the seas get too rough to move around and make their way to the officers’ mess. The captain’s cello is locked up in his cabin and the Bösendorfer is padded and bolted down in the Saloon. No more practicing for Lovely until things settle down. Jessamyn decides on a nap and wakes to dark skies and twenty-foot waves crashing over the shipping containers outside her portholes. Things are even worse to the north where Kaala is becoming a super-typhoon, threatening to turn Hong Kong into an underwater theme park. Jessamyn realizes the Andaman Pearl is at Neptune’s mercy and abandons her couch, where she has been wedged in against the roll of the ship, for her bed. She swallows a Dramamine and hopes for smoother seas in the morning. What could possibly go wrong?
Spoiler alert. Nobody dies, but you never know who will come knocking on your door to share your bed in the next installment.
The last illustrations for Transit are complete and we’ll be sending the completed book to IngramSpark and Amazon for proof copies tomorrow. This is always the terrifying part. Not quite sure why that is except as we’ve been chugging along, I’m continuing to find little errors. Errors the editor missed (no way she could have known) and that the beta readers and initial reviewers didn’t mention (thank god) if they even noticed. By this time next week, everything will be perfect. Yeah right. We’re looking toward a release party in early December. You’re all invited if you’re going to be in the neighborhood.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the serialization of Transit so far. I plan to continue the story under the Novels tab of this site following publication. This is the part where I say “thank you!” to everyone who has subscribed so far and beg you to tell friends and acquaintances about my substack. It will still be free for the foreseeable future.