After twenty-five consecutive days of work, weekends included, and four meticulous edits, Humphrey and Jack is ready to go off to my editor. I look forward to some beers and a meal with him in London on Friday.
I have managed to reduce the draft by two and a half thousand words, some of which I was very sad to let go.
I think it works but I need a break from it. A couple of days’ rest and I will then polish off an overdue review and then get back to work on a little collection of short stories called Cherries.
Two stories are ready, one is half-written, one is in my head and I will, I think, need another one. I already have a brilliant cover based on a photograph commissioned from a friend, but that’s a secret for now.
Now for something fizzy and I don’t mean Coca Cola.
2 Comments
“Something fizzy” – and well earned! Those who have not done it, don’t know the sheer hard work of writing. Hugely pleasurable, too, to be sure, but “getting it right” doesn’t come easily.
I look forward to reading H&J.
Thanks. I wish the multitudes who think ‘I have a story in me’ could be persuaded that while that might be true, they might not have the stamina to produce something worthwhile. I am afraid the multiplicity of parasitic ‘agencies’ and ‘consultants’ and ‘courses’ that flood my inbox depress me intensely. Amazon is happy to publish all and any of this rainy-night-in-Chicago-his-fingers-slid-into-me-squashed-strawberries-and-cream-pulpy-pap clichéd stuff, which makes it hard for those of us who labour like craftsmen to be recognised.