Just had a really fascinating conversation with muse Margaret. She loved the introduction of the book. And for the most part, she loved the prologue and the beginning of chapter one. But there were things in the prologue that really bothered her - not many, but they were there. And that's why her reading these first pages was so important, because this is new territory for me and I am feeling my way about how frank to be and how far to go - and she just felt that some of the really personal stuff wasn't what I'd said the book was going to be - I'm so clear about the impetus for writing it, and then she felt that four different times I veered away from it and she just felt it took away the momentum and made her uncomfortable. And I think she's right - she really has this magical ability to cut to the heart of the matter and the heart of THIS matter is what story are you telling and how are you telling it. So, I'm going to make a few cuts, probably amounting to about three or four pages, maybe not even that much. And then the only other things she asked for was a descriptive sentence about my ex-wife, which is easy to add, and then some descriptive prose about a particular place. So, I'm going to do that, she'll reread it, but I instinctively knew she's right in what was making her uneasy - that's not what this is about.
