Books and bylines

I actually finished the first draft--reached the end of the story--on Monday. Today, I have it all in the computer, and it is 637 manuscript pages. (Yeah, I know. I told you, I write long.) This means I need to cut at least 100 pages out of the sucker. Cutting is easier than adding--though I do have to add to weave the cuts together, sometimes.

Wish me luck.

In other news, I got my first byline in the paper today.

This isn't such a big deal, to be honest. I've written the whole entire paper back when I worked for those small town weeklies, (except for sports). And I had it in the paper once a week, when I was doing the society news column for the Clarendon Enterprise. But this was the first time I got a byline in this paper, so I was duly impressed with myself. Of course, they didn't put my byline on the article they posted online. Oh well. But that's the one I wrote.

So, I get to go home and print out the tome. Tomorrow, I can start cutting.

Of course, tomorrow, I also want to mess around with my new Sony e-reader and get it to working. (I haven't had time to even install the software that came with it yet.) And I want to go see a movie. And there was something else I wanted to do, but I can't remember what it was.

My mother's forgetfulness is already creeping up on me!