Back to the beach

Life is hard, but I will suffer its indignities in the pursuit of my art.

Yesterday afternoon I bussed it down to Cardboro Bay to sit on the beach at Gyro Park to begin the third (and hopefully final) edit of Blackwater. I arrived around 4:30 pm, the sun still high in its arc across the painfully blue sky. A gentle onshore breeze kept things just cool enough for comfort. I read for a couple of hours, before hoofing it home.

I started this habit when editing Carry Tiger to Mountain last August. Every afternoon for a week or so I sat on the beach for a few hours, reading the manuscript straight through. Reading it in paper form is really the only way to get a feel for the writing in it’s entirely. It has to feel like a book to read like one, I argue.

Now with Blackwater I’ll try to continue that tradition. I’m going to head up to Hollyhock for a few days over the weekend to sit and read, edit, to think about, and sketch out the sequel to Blackwater.

Life is good.