Well, dear readers, I am exhausted but am happy to say that one hour ago I wrote what I hope was the final sentence of my new book. As I’ve done on the last two books, I just went on a marathon writing session and wrote twenty-three pages. I started the day with the penultimate chapter and wrote fourteen pages by the time I had to leave for a work session with The Singer. The only break I took was a lunch meeting with the adorable Melody Hollis. We’re going to be putting an act together for Melody, who is twelve. The idea of this tickles me so much and I think we’re just going to have a blast doing it. She’s already got a list of thirty-something songs to choose from and she has pretty amazing taste, I must say. After lunch, I came right home and continued writing right up until The Singer at four-forty. The only way I could have ever written this many pages is because I’d sketched out these two chapters in advance. Even so, I changed the break point between the chapters, as I thought my original break point interrupted the flow and would have made for an extremely long last chapter. But, I may ultimately put it back the way it wuz after I read it with fresh eyes this morning. In fact, I just looked at it now and put it back the way it wuz because it seems to feel better that way. Either way you have it, one chapter is longer than the other and it’s fine for that to be the final chapter. As always, I felt both extreme elation and a little deflation as I typed the last line. But whether I’m completely done or not is dependent on whether Muse Margaret likes the final eighty pages of the book. She’ll be getting them later in the afternoon. So, that was basically my day. I got up and was futzing and fixing by nine and writing new pages by nine-thirty or so. And I just never stopped, save for showering and occasionally just walking around the home environment thinking about a way to phrase this or that, or how to add detail to something. In these books, the last chapters are always, out of necessity, dialogue heavy, but I do like to keep the descriptive prose going, too, so I’m always looking for little things to describe and give atmosphere. In any case, I’m sure I’ll be smoothing some things out this morning, and doing a little futzing and fixing and a few additions and perhaps subtractions. But I think I hit all the points I needed to hit, and I’m just hoping that the ending is both interesting and satisfying and also fun to read.
I had some very good news in the morning – the Kritzerland release I thought was going to take three or four weeks to get approved, was approved in a manner of days, which was incredible. So, I’m hoping we now have that studio’s needs down pat and that the whole process will go this smoothly from now on. They’ll be getting a new title for approval within the next couple of weeks. In any case, the approved title is our next release and it’s a biggie – a world premiere release, never available before in any format – and, to boot, a double bill, two scores on one CD from the Golden Age by one of my favorite composers. It’s incredible value for money and while we’re doing 1500 on this issue, I still think it will sell out very quickly.
I also got several CDRs of upcoming releases – I now have to listen to these and do edit road maps. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am so tired I can’t even see straight and I really need my beauty sleep.
I cannot ever stress enough what an astonishing feeling it is to finish a book. It’s like Finishing The Hat – look I made a book where there never was a book. You start out with nothing but blank pages and suddenly, however many weeks or months later, you have a book. It’s the most thrilling feeling and nothing I’ve ever done compares to it. It’s not something I ever get complacent about.
Today, I shall futz and fix the twenty-three pages I wrote yesterday. After that, I have a lunch meeting at Nate ‘n’ Al’s, after which I’ll return and reread the pages one last time before Xeroxing them and bringing them to Muse Margaret at four. I may start writing some liner notes and I may start writing the contextual commentary for the Sherman Brothers show, and I must figure out the show order for sure. Other than that, I hope to relax and watch a motion picture or three.
Tomorrow, I will continue doing whatever I’ve started, and then we have a rehearsal at four. Saturday I’m lunching with Mr. Jason Graae, and Sunday I’m lunching with our back up singers from the last Gardenia show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and fix, have a lunch meeting, print out pages, Xerox pages and deliver them to Muse Margaret, and then write some commentary and some liner notes and figure out a show order. Today’s topic of discussion: What one job or creative project has been the most fulfilling thing you’ve ever done? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know that I made a book where there never was a book.