Catherine’s Birthday Present

The most terrifying words in the English language: SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.

Harry Potter, Book One, Day Four

That’s that, then. He starts Book Two tomorrow morning.

What, no Pott?

No Potter update today since the wife went out with the camera. Anyway, Hallam’s going gangbusters on the book and is loving every word of it. Book Two waits in the wings.

Meanwhile, I am zipping through my book, tweaking and polishing, readying my baby for the trip overseas to visit my agent Bruce in London. The biggest change is structural – the novel was originally divided up into seven preposterously long chapters, and I am now working to break these up into more manageable chunks. I’ve been rather surprised by how much I have disliked doing this. Even though the words are the same and in the same order, it doesn’t feel like the same book any more. If this persists, I will have to glue everything back together just as it was. Thank heavens for word processors.

In other news, I have started blogging on an almost daily basis for the newly revamped Big Surf Waterpark website – which includes our new water(b)log. Check it out.

Harry Potter, Book One, Day Two

Harry Potter, Book One, Day One

All right, then.

The French poet Paul Valery once said, “Poems are never finished, merely abandoned.” The same, I would venture to suggest, could be said of novels. On the rare occasions when I am foolish enough to pick up one of my earlier books, I find myself cringing, constantly editing, revising, and wishing for a chance to do over. But you can’t, of course. At some point you have to bid the thing goodbye, hope for the best, and move on.

But, even if you never finish a book, you do at least get to the end of the story. And that is what, after five years of writing “Paradise”, I did today.

There’s still a huge amount to do, of course: several months of rewrites and revisions just to get it to a point where I can send it to my agent. And of course, on the hopeful assumption that we find a happy home for the book, my new editor will want further changes made. So there’s still a long way to go. But today is a banner day, all the same. I’m off to see Terence Blanchard play his trumpet in a couple of hours to celebrate.