mary e. pearson

And not moving around too much. Lots of humidity in the air today. Every now and then a swirl of thin clouds passes over.



These clouds come from the south so it is probably the edge of a monsoon from Mexico. We seem to get more of these than we used to. The plants love it. Our acacia tree is blooming like crazy. We've only had this tree in for a few years and this is the first year it seems to be really happy.



The individual blooms are breathtaking. I'm happy that the tree is happy.



So yes, I have been using a good part of this very humid day to revise. The thoughts of Robert Cormier on revising, particularly amuse me right now:

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile."

Oh thank God I am not a brain surgeon. The patient would have died. Or been severely maimed. As it is, I am loving the pushing, the shoving, the deleting (oh yes, lots of that), and the rethinking. I could do this forever.

I am tackling the easy stuff first.  

Of course.  

But it is coming along pretty good.  I've been away from this story for so long, it is good to see it with fresh eyes.  

Once I get the easy stuff done I will print it out, so I can revise from a hard copy.  Probably in a different font, so I can pretend it is the first time again.  I'm so gullible.  One of the characters in my story is too.  Not the main character, but one of the secondary characters.  I like her a lot.  Hm.

(Oh-- and I have a new user pic.  Had to get in the "mood" for this story as I revise.)

I received my revision letter on my latest, and it was very good news. My editor "got it" and this is kind of an unusal story so I had more than a little trepidation wondering what she would think.

And I have to say, I agree with all of her suggestions (well, maybe one I am not sure about) but I am eagerly digging in. We will have lots of phone calls and emails back and forth during the revision process--fast and furious--and I love that.

And then when we are done--gulp--it will be time to start a new book . . .

A BLANK PAGE. (cue in Psycho music)

I have a few ideas simmering, but nothing that I have settled on. I may just have to drag this revision out for a while.