Paksworld

Yesterday I had more input from Agent about the last part of the book.   As this call came just as I was heading outdoors to clear my head, I’m glad he also put comments in email.   Some  comments have already been dealt with by changes made since his first call, some will mean further changes, and some…hmmm…

The folding-in of newly revised and new chapters into the existing main file began yesterday–very, very slowly, with much care (there are now enough versions of this thing to satisfy most literary scholars, not that any will actually look at it, or that the files will still be around when I’m through…heh-heh-heh.)     This continued today, until I ran into the inevitable tangled knot of “But you said that already, didn’t you?  Well, which version do you want?  And why?”

This was not helped by the headache the cold front brought with it, because clear thinking at that point becomes difficult.  However, I have printed out the relevant bits of two chapters (18C, which became 21, because 18 became 19 because of an earlier extra chapter, and 28, which is about to become 30-something) in a single NEW file, so I can compare the two versions side by side and decide exactly which revelation should come where, when, and by whom.

Meanwhile two very large chunks of beef bone (totalling well over 10 pounds; my guess is 15-16) have been roasting in the oven for hours, slowly (they started frozen), and tomorrow morning early will go into the big pot to make stock.   I’m short one bunch of parsley (the family shopper got everything else, while I was working on the book, so no complaints and I’ll add extra parsley later.)    Knowing there’s ample food in preparation helps me concentrate on the work (because, if the food runs short, I might have to cook unexpectedly…like supper the other night, when I took out a plastic container I’d labeled “Lamb Curry” and found it full of turkey stuffing instead.  (Um…I have help with the dishes sometimes, and sometimes they don’t pull off the labels.  Found another labeled lid today in the “clean” stack,  claiming to be lamb & ham vegetable soup. )

Anyway.  I’m closing in now.  Once I get the old-chapter-28 thing straightened out, the rest should be a clear run to the finish…the earlier changes will then line up and define exactly what needs to be done to clear up the last of the Agent comments.   Only it’s now overlong.  And I don’t know how much effective cutting I can do over the weekend, assuming I get the base revisions finished tomorrow.    There won’t be time to let it rest and look at it with a clear head.

Wish me luck, folks.  And that the headache goes away overnight somehow, because I need the old brain firing on all neurons.