World of Mirrors

I suppose that once World of Mirrors is off to a publisher, I'll stop tweaking, but right now I can't seem to stop. Heard a presentation of writing dialogue Sunday and I raced home to purge some "I thoughts" right out of the book. Word count keeps dropping. I like that. From 120,000 to 112,000 to 99,000 and now to 96,000. Most of them were useless words. How does so much bad stuff stay in a manuscript that has been gone over and over again for years? Dunno. Chris Roerden's book about self-editing, Don't Murder Your Mystery, is also an invaluable assistant.

I am also still tweaking the chapter by chapter outline. I find it easier to edit with paper than on-screen. Why is that?

We had snow this morning and I suspect the parsley has finally frozen, but I'll take a look tomorrow. Damn, just when I wanted to make the parsley, crouton and gruyere omelette. Sounds good? Lately I have spent too much time in the kitchen and not with butt planted on chair. This will probably get worse as the month wears on.

A strange sight yesterday. A hawk (small) carrying off a bluejay. Saw it with my own eyes right on our street. Our neighbors tell me there are wild turkeys about, too, but I have never seen any. Maybe if we put out some corn along with the suet and the bird seed. The birds of winter are polite and don't squabble like the birds of summer. I like that. One seed at a time, and don't monopolize the feeder. We have a house finch who has decided to stick around.

Winter is icummen in.

Grapeshot, shivering.