The ripple effect

I've been doing revisions on Christo and Natalie's book.

They are odd sorts of revisions because they are basically all in the first three and a half chapters. I've only had one other book like that -- Out of Bounds -- with my cellist and my pro beach volleyball player. That, too, needed all its mucking about in the first seventy pages or so.

And like the changes in that book, these make perfect sense and will make it a stronger book ultimately.

But they are creating a ripple effect that goes on and on.

Change one thing here, I have to change something else there. Otherwise it doesn't make sense. And if I change that, then I have to change that remark in chapter six or seven. Or maybe both. And then, if I do that, well, I will want to go back to chapter one and tinker a bit again with what was going on there.

It's worthwhile. But it's also frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever feel like a whole again.

It would be less frustrating, I suppose, if I hadn't spent a week figuring out how to accomplish it, then a week nursing Gunnar through his final illness during which I forgot much of what I thought about, then a week trying to get my head around the hole he left in our lives.

Some of the revisions are done. There's a new prologue and a new first chapter. The rest -- the changes in chapters two and three -- I'm going to try to get done tonight and tomorrow. But that might be pushing it.

I like what's happening. It's a better book. I just wish it was happening at a different time of year under different circumstances.

Ah well. If I disappear for a few days, you'll know why. It will be me and Christo and Natalie holed up working hard trying to get things wrapped up and sent off. Think good thoughts.

Also, don't forget to go to Fresh Fiction on Monday and say hi.