What Is A "Finished" Manuscript

Arrrrgggghhh! At last an agent asks for the manuscript of Promiscuous Mode! That was two weeks ago and I finally cobbled it together into chapters from 74 scenes. This is like, work, and of a mind-numbing variety. So finally we have 574 pages, including recipes, and Significant Other thinks maybe one last proof-read is in order. Omigod! Typos! Many pages of typos. And even worse, kludgey sentences, the kind you wonder how could I have actually gone to bed and slept after writing a sentence that miserable and convolulted? So, now the manuscript is still unmailed and there are about 60 jillion of those little plastic marker tabs in various color. Plus editorial stuff. Will the reader know where "the Cape and the Islands" are? At this point, who the hell cares? The things is, no one who lives around here would ever think, "Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket." That's a pretty big cumbersome thought. "Cape and the Islands," hey, that's cool, rolls right off the tongue. So, caveat lecteur, as they say somewhere very literate.

In the meantime, we are on our second batch of houseguests. One very small, very active guest, and the cats are freaked out. Thisbe cowers in the furnace room under the stairs and only comes out for a scratch in the litter box and a quick quaff of water and some cat food. Annie, long suffering, endures petting and combing and lots of special "forts" for her to hide in. She is so exhausted she appears to have forgotten about escaping into the yard for a few hours of grass nibbling and chipmunk chasing.

Grapeshot is wondering if she will ever find the time and the energy to deal with the typos and the kludgey sentence and the Cape and the Islands business. Probably not. Time to crawl into the cat's new fort for a nap. Ciao.

Grapeshot