Today’s the annual Porchfest here in Arlington. All around town, musicians have set up on porches and in driveways, playing music for passers-by to enjoy. Here are a couple I came across in my neighborhood while walking Captain Jack and McDuff. Sometimes we get some visual art, as well! This is one of the things I love about my town.
![Drum roll, please! The End Times have arrived! The End Times! The End of waiting for me to finish The Reefs of Time. Yes, I have reached the end! The Reefs of Time is substantially DONE. That’s right—I’ve finished the major rewrite of the 268,000 word manuscript! Most of those words, I now believe, are the right words, and in the right order. That works out to about 1326 manuscript pages in Courier New, with two spaces after many periods, and one space after others, because habits die hard. Ten years in the works, this novel has been through the fermenter, the extractor, the refractors, the distillers, the boilers, the oven, and aged in camphor-wood in the cellar. Here’s what the manuscript looks like, with its tired but happy progenitor. [CUE “cheers” and more “cheers,” and maybe a few “huzzahs”!] “But wait!” you say. “Is that some kind of weasel wording, ‘substantially done’? What are you trying to pull here?” Trust me, I’m not trying to pull anything. Over the next week or so, I’ll be cleaning up some edits I’ve made notes to myself about, and responding to final suggestions from my stalwart (if annoyingly discerning) writing group. And then off it goes to the editor. The editor will edit, and I’ll do a polish pass over the whole thing as I respond to his editorial suggestions. And after that? Why, you get to read it! At last, at long last!](https://i2.wp.com/www.starrigger.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JC-Reefs-final-ms-5-19-18-elbow-smile_sm.jpg?fit=520%2C390&ssl=1)
4 Responses
David Bosboom
I’ve no time to look at cutesy photos of your town, Jeff.
I’ve got a book to read and I’m only on page 971 (on my iPhone!) …
Sorry gotta go. I just saw my first TzangTzang.
😉
David
Jeffrey A. Carver
Dude! Get your nose back in that book! There’ll be a test.
Old Bald Guy
That looks like fun. Arlington where? I live about twenty miles from Arlington, Texas but it is just too blasted hot for a porchfest.
jeffreyacarver
Ah. This is Arlington, Massachusetts, where the temperature this week is in the pleasant 70s. Give us a little time, though, and it will be too blasted hot here, too. 🙂