2001-03-22
Yesterday I sent the revised manuscript of the novel to my agent.
Yeah. I finished this draft two or three weeks back. I gave it to a couple of writer friends who'd read the earlier draft. They each had some suggestions that seemed sound, so I made some minor changes and emailed my agent to see if she wanted to see it. (I assumed she would, but you never know.) She responded positively, with quite a few exclamation points, so off it went.
As soon as the package was winging its way to New York, one of my friends let me know of another concern she had. She's got a point, actually. The problem she's pointed out has been there all along, but I think that now with the rest of the book stronger, this one particular weakness is more noticeable. Kinda like when you buy new furniture and the previously-fine rug suddenly looks shabby.
I'm not flagellating myself for (maybe) jumping the gun. I feel really good about this revision; the book is much, much stronger than it was. I'll see what my agent thinks and maybe revisit this one issue. (It's a motivational thing: there's a rift between two characters and the event that sets it off might not be quite enough to justify such a rift.)
I'm pretty excited. This kind of snuck up on me. I mean, I've been plugging away at this revision for six and a half months but now it almost feels as though someone else did all that work.
I think that after the roller coaster experience when the book went out last summer I'll be less excitable this time around. I already feel kind of detached. But I don't know, if someone wants to buy this thing I suppose I'll be pretty excited all right.
In other news--oh, not much. I really don't know what's been going on. I feel kind of amnesiac. Just ordinary life: countless meals prepared and eaten and cleaned up after.
I hit a pothole and bent the rim of my tire. My hubcap also flew off. I pulled over and walked back to retrieve it and saw three other hubcaps in addition to mine on the grass by the side of the road. I felt better knowing I wasn't the only victim of that pothole.
B and I discovered Freaks and Geeks, this excellent TV drama that I guess got cancelled due to lack of ratings. I missed it entirely the first time around--the title had led me to think it was some kind of Dungeons and Dragons thing--but a cable station shows two episodes every Tuesday night and we're hooked.
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