Dateline: in the loft at Nona's, Terre Haute IN, 8 April 2005

Working the house with Vonne this a.m. for another G.D. showing! We're all getting a little freaked keeping the place so pristine, though the flowers in every room are quite beautiful.

Then I bug out for airport and fly to Indianapolis.

Re-edit the Neil Nyren-edited Preface on first flight (Mark had already worked over). Then re-edit the Mark Warren edited Afterward (Blogging the Future).

Pretty damn happy with both. Neil did a nice job. I like the way he makes me sound in those Prefaces. Like Mark, his edits are so transparent that you have a hard time spotting them. In fact, you tend to just breeze through the text, marveling all the while at what a fantastic writer you are!

I can't understand people who say they don't like working with editors. I really love it. It's like the best haircut: still you, but so much better! Who doesn't want a nice haircut? And who doesn't want their text to shine?

Plus, between Neil and Mark, I get so much coaching that it's just a lot more fun in collaboration. No reason for it to be a lonely process. Hell, you want people to find it accessible, right?

Nice dinner at restaurant with mother-in-law Vonne I and father-in-law Carl. Then to see their 1940s house they bought earlier in year (my first time). A way cool place and a very unique house.

Just as I see Nona Vonne at airport, she has Vonne II (my spouse) on her cell cause mine's still off from flight: we have an offer on the house on Day 5. They're asking for a suitable discount on the first offer (2.8% off our asking price). Sounds like nothing, until you see it translated in thousands!

So we're going to counter with a splitting-the-difference offer. We shall learn their response tomorrow. I think we have them where we want them. Their kids fell in love with the huge white cedar playset in the back, one I put together all by my lonesome in 2000 and on which my now four kids have played consistenly our five years in the house.

We should walk away with 40 percent of what we originally paid for the house 5 years ago. We got nothing on our first house in northern VA, so we're pretty happy with this. And since I am here to check out houses tomorrow and Sunday, the timing is pretty good, yes?

On the Esquire front: pouring over some transcripts (some from Pentagon and some from magazine interns), I am feeling less incompetent. Each interview gives me something (I've done many research-oriented interviews in years past, and I knew this was the case, but you forget), and the critical mass is being reached. Story will end up being a three-way blend anyway: general insights from secondary interviews (all I've done so far), big draw from main interview (to come), and storyline I need to generate from all of the above and my own knowledge. So today while driving to airport, I ginned up my proposed storyline and I was able to generate 35 salient points, some from interviews so far and some I just plain know. This will be vetted with several knowledgeable people and refined extensively, but it's a cool first draft. And just doing that made me realize I will do well with this piece. So I chill a bit on that. Especially when I know I can simply ping those magazine interns to go do the basic gathering of facts and figures. Nice!

So I go to bed tonight in Indiana feeling pretty good.

Now to find THE HOUSE!