I was exceedingly chipper yesterday, which isn’t in and of itself especially surprising. But it was an ebullience of surprising fortitude, and I finally figured out that it probably wasn’t just due to having THE QUEEN’S BASTARD hit the shelves. I suspect it also has a great deal to do with having told my editor last week that the fourth Walker Papers would be turned in sometime in early-to-mid July rather on June 1, as it’s supposed to be, and having her say, “Okay!”
I think my good humour is significantly increased by that “okay” sinking in. I think this is probably what A Load Off My Shoulders feels like. I still have a thousand things to do, and the snowball effect is not actually lessened, but I feel a bit more like I’m perhaps frantically skidding along the top of the avalanche instead of being rolled and dumped and thrown through it.
I’m up to about page 350 on TPC revisions. So far, so good: a couple scenes to add and two or three so far to revise, and I *cut one*, yay me! But thus far I’m reading along and a part of my brain is going, “Damn, if I weren’t writing this book, I’d want to know what happens!” (Though as Kate said yesterday, “You *are* writing this book and you want to know what happens!”) It’s going to get stickier from here on out, though; I’ve got new scenes to write and several to revise, and the next day or so of reading is going to involve a lot of margin notes and questions to self and ideas on how to revise and add material. I’m *hoping* I won’t need to do a second read-through before starting to actually rewrite, but we’ll see. Either way, I’m feeling optimistic about it.
Okay. Shower, breakfast, and then off to the mines.
miles to Minas Tirith: 324.1