Good productive…

Good productive two-plus-hour conversation with Bob. I'm not entirely sure I agree with him on every point, but I do on most of them, so that's good. The bulk of his comments have to do with making the characters' relationships to each other and to their family clearer, with ratcheting up the tension in small ways, with chopping off the beginnings and ends of scenes that are too neatly tied up, with revising the text so it's far more descriptive and evocative. All sounds good, and I think it's all stuff I know how to do, which is reassuring.

We're going to try to move up the schedule on the book, since it's gone so quickly, and since I'm not planning on making any major structural changes to it. My new goal is to get the second draft to Bob and to Marjorie by March 15th. I'm still going to take a week or two break before I start the revision, I think. With any luck, I'll be able to actually hand the book in by early June, rather than waiting until August. And then I can spend June/July working hard on the nonfiction book, so that Bob can try to sell it in August. That's the tentative plan, at any rate.

Plan for the afternoon; finish reading Mary Karr's The Liar's Club, which is good. Not at all the kind of nonfiction book I'd write, I think -- it's insanely detailed. But helpful as an example of a type, as well as being a compelling and enjoyable read. Then exercise, water plants, finish cleaning front room. Oh, exciting. I have to admit, I've been away long enough that I'm actually still enjoying small domestic tasks like cleaning the grease off the front of the microwave. This won't last, but I'll enjoy it while I can.

I've repotted the daffodils and hyacinth. The hyacinth smells amazing.

Minor note: I've finally gotten around to registering www.maryannemohanraj.com and redirecting it to the current site. I think this is going to be a lot easier to tell people in casual conversation; saying mamohanraj.com always seemed to confuse people. We'll see. If I were really paranoid, I'd also register the version maryannmohanraj.com, since so many people forget the 'e' on my name, but I'm going to let that wait for now.