November 21st, 2017

This is my forearm. I'm thinking about getting a tattoo here. More on that later...
It's been a difficult morning. I got up early and starting revisions on the second book. Read a paragraph three times and wondered why in the world I ever thought I could do this. It was horrible. And I wasn't sure how to fix it. This whole writing business is infuriating, demoralizing, aggravating...thought-provoking, stirring, intoxicating. Addictive. 
My editor no longer reprimands me how often I mention tea in my book. I cut back on that considerably. By cutting back, I mean my characters...not me...see upper right corner. 
She does have other issues (sigh):
 Below are some quick numbers of overused verbs, in all their variants (like look/looked/looking). I know this issue is on your radar for polishing passes—I want to keep it there. look = 199 stare = 28 glance = 28 glimpse = 2 gaze = 29 frown = 13 smile = 33 laugh = 14 expression = 36 on his/her face = 16 nod = 48 shook his/her head = 28 eyes = 191 eyed = 11 eye = 10
  That wasn't all she wrote, but that's all I'm brave enough to show you...
Back to the tattoo. She closed a rather long letter with the following line:

This was great fun to read, Susan. 
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I needed that...Wouldn't that look good as a tattoo? Just so I could have a reminder...