I’ve been going through this novel like a reaper, cutting and slashing, removing viscera, changing things around. It’s fun so far. The request was to knock between 50 and 100 pages out of the manuscript, which roughly equates to between twelve and twenty thousand words. So far I have flensed the text of seven thousand. This may sound like a lot, but the book was nearly 140,000 to start with, so it can lose a little weight and probably be much better for it.
The weather has been beautiful and since I am working in my front room, by the big picture window, it’s been pleasant. …