I’ve been swamped lately–with work and baby and house and life stuff. In between all of it, I have a novel I’ve written, somehow. A really lovely little novel, if I don’t say so myself. Lovely and rough around the edges. My agent, bless her heart, has big plans for said novel and is working with me to help make it as presentable as possible before she takes it to publishers in the near future. For now, I have the job of polishing and fixing and tweaking–some relatively big changes, some really tiny ones. The novel needs a little work. Surgery? Not really. But maybe out-patient surgery.
Quick incision. A few stitches. Minimal scars.
Even so, I’m convinced that revising a book is harder than writing a book, because of the complexity. If you change one thing on page 29, you better carry it through on page 129–and that’s a lot to keep track of. But, I love these characters and this story (even after 392 reads–or at least that’s what it feels like!), so here’s what I’m going to do to get it in the shape it needs to be in (writers, feel free to take inspiration from this list–or just laugh at me!):
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Every so often an idea comes along that hits me in a gazzam sort of way. Here’s the deal, on my Mac computer screen right now, I have all these little sticky notes describing baby and child “moments”–little anecdotes and milestones I hope will find their way to a scrapbook when I get some time. So when I saw a post over on the beautiful blog 
Dear Salesman,
I’m 31, but I’d secretly like to be retired. I love my job as a writer, and my gig as a mama, but I can’t help but look ahead to the quieter days and think–ahhh, that sounds nice. Who doesn’t? Here’s why I think being 65, 70, or 84 wouldn’t be too bad. P.S. Mumus are not on the list.
I loved, loved, loved the “Good Job Mom” list in the recent issue of Parenting–because it made me laugh (and sorta feel like I get a gold-star for the day even if I accomplish nothing). Here were my favorite lines … mamas, you deserve a medal if you:
I found this gorgeous strawberry-basil drink over at 
One of my dearest friends in the world, Wendi, happens to be a fabulous photographer (I know, how lucky am I?!). Check out her business, 
Today I took my boys to the library. It’s what you do when your kids are fussy and you have no more tricks up your sleeve. You strap them into their car seats, and you drive–to a drive-thru Starbucks, maybe, where you take a few deep breaths, and then, if they’re lucky (and if you’re adequately caffeinated), you end up somewhere fun: like the park or the library, which is where we wound up today. But I had no idea I’d end up finding a long-lost treasure …
