After the rains.

Distant church bells, woods alive with bird song and not a cloud in the sky.

Meanwhile, armed with stiff coffee and keyboard with a fresh smear of butter, it is time to roll up the sleeves and crack on.

The copied out diaries ran to a forested wilderness of 330k words. (9 months)

Tightened first draft ran to a still shaggy and overgrown 160k words (3 months)

Now the second draft topiary begins, aiming to secateur down to no more than 90k words. I am doing a massive intense 3 week sprint- one week in the alps when everyone else will be skiing leaving me clear, long, guilt free hours admiring the snow from out of the reach of avalanches, then another week home alone. Realistically it will be a miracle if I can do it in three weeks.

The final, meticulous Bonsai attention level of detail is still far off.

But I’m on track to finish this year. (If I don’t lose too much time querying and sub stacking)

Have a great day everyone!