Les Semaines October 25, 2009: My Life in Manuscripts
How things are around here while my head is in manuscripts (poetry and fiction): Edit edit edit; tweak twist cut.

I'm proofreading, really. An intense proofreading to see if this deep cut works. It's nearly 1/3 shorter. It's 100,000 words instead of 136,000 (150,000 at its true height).

It's getting obsessive. Jim has been helping, too, by reading each chapter as I finish it, and on Friday night, by tearing the poetry manuscript (The Walk She Takes) apart. I'm having some trouble facing putting it back together again. We'll see. Maybe I'm just tired. Or maybe having trouble switching gears from the novel.

We also made jam this weekend. Three batches, only two of which set. Anyone want some spiced apricot-raspberry syrup?

Things around here have also been kind of like this:



Late tomatoes.


Three cats! Together! Titus looks a little nervous, but Sophia and Atia are reading the news.