I am in hiatus: the “gap in space, time or continuity” that I know best from hiatus in TV Land, as opposed to the “fissure in an organ” that I associate most with the hiatus hernia. Visiting family who live on Lake of the Woods, my progress on the Road to Publication is stalled, although the endorsement promises continue to trickle in. Odd that my work in Proposal Land is not much affected.
Internet access out here in the boonies enables me to download, edit, and upload RFP response sections from/to a shared repository; new wi-fi capability enables me to sit beside patio doors opening onto a deck overlooking the lake. Hummingbirds flick in and out of my peripheral vision, slurping up sugar water when the bees don’t intimidate them away from the feeder. The shrieks of children hitting this frigid Canadian Shield lake, about fifteen feet deep right off the dock, float over the water and drift up the hill.
Is it my imagination, or can I also hear–at a much greater distance–the shrieks of a proposal team as the client changes the statement of work and the submission requirement, occasioning much rework? When the cold water takes your breath away and you can’t touch bottom, all you can do is paddle like mad until things settle down. As true in Proposal Land as it is in Lake Land.