Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Next Step in the Process

That manuscript I've been editing?

It's on its way to New York right now. I cut almost 15,000 words between Draft 1 and Draft 3. It's a lot tighter, with more punch in the plot.

Hopefully, my agents will love it as much as they loved the preview they saw several months ago. I'll share their feedback when I have it.

Now that baseball is over and the manuscript is on its way to the big city, the Saint and I are about to make a quick trip to Cooperstown. Oldest Son, Middle Child and Daughter are spending Grandchildren's Week with... (follow me, here...) their Grandparents.

On our agenda, quality time with: Lt. Ed Novak, his wife and children; the Great Jim Atwell and his wife, Anne; my Grandmother the rock star; my parental types and various members of my extended family; and other friends and family who are dear to us (you don't generally read about them on this blog).

The Saint is off studying Falstaff right now. She's in a concrete building with no air conditioning and no screens in the windows. She has to choose between heat with bugs or heat without bugs. If it were up to me (it isn't), I'd choose to cut class.

It's 94 degrees at 6 in the evening, and we're inside increasing the size of our carbon footprint. Apologies to my environmentalist friends, but when the mercury shatters 90, we start using freon. If it's any consolation, the computer is running on battery power, I'm using a wireless connection right now, and all the electric stuff except the fans and the air conditioner is in the upright and locked... er... "off" position.

But about that manuscript. Have I mentioned that I mailed it today?

I thought so.

Adam

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Monday, June 18, 2007

Blazing Through the Third Draft

I ended up cutting more than 10,000 words between my first draft and my second. I'm now roaring through draft 3. If I stay on my current pace (Middle Child's baseball season is over, so to my regret, I'm no longer coaching two games per week), I'll finish sometime next week.

That draft goes in the mail to New York.

In other news, Oldest Son and my tenured Saint finished school today. Daughter cuts back to one day per week of day care. Middle Child finishes school on Friday.

The Saint is taking not one, but two (and possibly three) courses this Summer. Though she's done teaching, she'll still be a student until at least the middle of July.

Wish her luck.

Adam

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Summer Approaches

I'm 85% finished with draft 2 of this novel. I'll likely finish it this weekend. Draft 3 will go even faster than draft 2. My agent should have the manuscript on her desk sometime early next month. That means that if she likes it, draft four should be ready at the end of August.

In other news, Middle Child's baseball team proves to be a wonderful experience for him and for me. The other two coaches have already asked me to coach with them next year. Saying yes was a no-brainer. We have yet to win a game this season, but nearly everyone will return next Spring. The same thing happened with last year's last place team, which is running away with the league this year.

My tenured Saint finishes school in a little over a week. Oldest Son finishes when the Saint does. Middle Child finishes at the end of that week. Daughter will stop day care for the Summer.

Somewhere along the line, the Saint called the guy who painted our house last Summer. Turns out, his brother in law does bathrooms, so we'll be leaving town for a week or so while he renovates ours. I think that's a perfect excuse to leave town for a few days.

And thinking of travel is more than enough motivation to get back to the manuscript.

Adam

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