Reformat and Reinstall

The great work continues, with more progress on the book each week. Each chapter-edit is followed by little aftershocks of work as the changes are reviewed and approved– and preceded by making sure the line-level edits are done. A recent inventory uncovered 39 pages of new material sprinkled throughout the book’s 500+ pages. Perhaps there will be no more new material. Perhaps.

The chapter on Gothic architecture that was giving us so much grief is now a thing of beauty. Turn the ignition and it hums. It feels good. This week? Editing new material in Modernism, rewriting a few pages of Edwardian, and reviewing eight new pages in Art Deco.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I’m going to be taking this blog in some new directions. My initial intention was to create a public space to talk about my progress toward a deadline. But was that interesting? I wasn’t so sure. I tried to look for ways to bridge that diary to broader topics on the craft, short essays that would be of broader interest. But this way of thinking, thinking of it as a sort of column that I had to maintain in addition to a quick post on the state of the book, started to feel a little oppressive at a time when I’m juggling three writing projects and a part-time job plus participating in a soul choir and having a social life.

So I’m starting now from a blank slate. I have a few ideas for where I’d like to go in the blog, but I’d also like to stay open to improvisation, to keep sharing, and hopefully keep working on communicating across that gap between a writer’s solitary work and the online community that we share. Talk to you real soon.