One more time... with feeling.

I can now go back to my story about the snakes. My little book "Click" has been cut, reprocessed and punched up. I remember it started off as 135,000 words. It's now at 81,000. The cuts make sense to me and the story is tighter, though still pretty damned weird and hopefully, funny and a little touching.

In any case, this 5th full revision and repair is finished. I could use a drink. It's been a couple of years since I've had a good glass of bourbon. Buddhists are supposed to lay off the sauce and I'm inclined to follow, but if I land an interested party, it sounds like a fair reward.

So, we'll start sending it out again. This time around, I'll mix it up between publishers who accept unagented material and agents. We'll see if either bite. Last Fall's process was humbling, but maybe I'll catch a break in the spring. Part of the book deals with a corrupt bank, which makes it accidentally topical.

Meanwhile, tomorrow we get back to work with "The Snake handlers of Lee County," which is about half-rewrite. A lot of it is fine, but a bunch of it isn't. I'm also thinking of sending out portions of the book out for consideration as short stories. Some of these can stand alone.

Hopefully, I'll have a completed and readable book by the end of Spring.